17. Romeo
JULY
“We’re gonna be neighbors!”
I looked up to see Goldyn damn near galloping through my door with a grin on her face. If she was fazed by the blank look I gave her, she hid it and kept skipping until she reached the service counter.
She paused and waited for me to acknowledge her, the sunny smile on her lips never wavering. Why was she like this? And why did it feel like my soul was thawing by proximity to her warmth?
“What?” I deadpanned.
“I just met with my realtor. We have to get one more signature and I’ll be the owner of the shop on the corner.”
Goldyn watched me with an expectant tilt of her head, eyes brimming with excitement.
“Aren’t you gonna congratulate me?”
I blinked at her. “Does it mean anything when you have to ask for it?”
“Of course it does.” Her long lashes fluttered against her cheeks. “I can excuse you for not having manners.”
“Congratulations, Goldyn.”
She leaned against the counter, her arms folded in front of her as she looked up at me with her mouth twisted wryly.
“You know, one day, you’re gonna miss me and I’m not gonna be anywhere to be found.”
“I doubt that,” I replied dryly. Even after she left in September, she’d be down the block from me for good now. A few steps away. Too damn close for comfort.
Goldyn’s next question was enough to pull me out my thoughts before I could think too long about what having her around all the time meant.
“Do you want to have lunch with me?”
“No.”
“Why not?” A small frown formed on her face.
I wasn’t used to people asking me follow-up questions. And she clearly wasn’t used to people telling her no.
She propped a hand against her cheek, drawing my attention to the tiny freckles dotting her scrunched face.
Twenty-four on her right cheek. Twenty-two on the left. And ten across the bridge of her button nose. Fifty-six total. I didn’t know why I knew that, but I did and it made me question everything about myself. This woman I wasn’t supposed to be paying attention to took up too much space in my head.
“Lottie’s gone. I need to stay here and?—”
“I’m back!” My cashier’s sing-songy announcement broke my sentence in half and brightened the smile on Goldyn’s face.
Her eyes traced Lottie’s path around the counter. “Perfect timing. Romeo was trying to get out of lunch with me. And now you’re here.”
Questions burned in Lottie’s eyes, but she only smiled. “You’re going out for lunch?”
Ten times out of ten, I ate in the back, hunched over my notebook trying to brainstorm new ideas. Even on the days Sincere brought me lunch, we ate together in the back until he got bored and dipped.
“Yes, we’re going to celebrate good news. We’ll be back in an hour,” Goldyn shared, the gold flecks in her eyes sparkling extra bright.
An unwelcome pull in my chest made me frown. She was going to send me into cardiac arrest with a smile on her face.
“I never take an hour for lunch,” I explained.
“Why not?”
I swallowed hard, forcing myself to sit with her question. “I just don’t. An hour is too long away from work.”
“An hour is too much time away from your desk? That’s only sixty minutes, Rome.”
“I’m aware of how time works, Goldy. I got twenty minutes, tops.” I gave her a pointed stare and waited for her rebuttal. I couldn’t believe I was bargaining with this woman. How had she flipped my rejection into a negotiation?
“Make it thirty.” She said, her voice firm as she fixed me with the most determined stare.
My jaw flexed and I averted my eyes. Not because I didn’t want to look at Goldyn, but because Lottie’s gaze was burning a hole in the side of my face and I didn’t know what to tell her. “Fine.”
A triumphant smile dominated her pretty features. “I know the perfect spot. Come on.”
She didn’t wait for me before she turned around and headed for the door of the shop.
Making sure I had my phone and keys, I headed out after her.
“Enjoy your lunch date, boss ,” Lottie called, her voice a little too chipper.
“It’s not a date,” I pointed out, pushing the door open before Goldyn could lift her hand to touch it.
She bounced out onto the sidewalk and her floral scent hit my nose, sparking twin flames of desire and frustration within me.
“Hmph. Don’t hurry back.” I didn’t look at her, but I could hear Lottie’s smug expression and I knew a matching smile sat on her face as she watched me follow behind the woman I was supposed to ignore.
Outside, Goldyn walked right past my car. And she didn’t stop until she got to that death trap she called a vehicle. She tossed me a look over her shoulder from the driver’s side until I closed the space between us, hating myself a little more every time I gave in. I did not want to have lunch with this woman. But my feet had a mind of their own, carrying me to her while my heart knocked out a rhythm that made me too aware of my proximity to her.
“I’m supposed to trust you to take me somewhere in this van?”
“Would you rather I drive your car?”
‘Why do you have to drive at all?”
“Because I’m the only one who knows where we’re going.”
Instead of verbally admitting defeat, I walked over to the passenger side, squinting against the sun. When I tried the handle, nothing happened.
“Hold on, that door only opens from the inside.” Her voice was muffled as she climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Jesus Christ.”
She stretched across the seat and popped the handle from the inside. “Okay, now try it!”
Thirty minutes and this would be over. That was just ten minutes three times. I could do that. And then I could go back to pretending this woman didn’t turn my world on its axis every time she walked in the room.
Thirty minutes came and went while we were waiting for our food. But it happened so quickly, I didn’t notice. Goldyn brought me to Lucky’s Tavern, claiming the burgers and fries would change my life. And here I was, five minutes past the cutoff I gave her, not really giving a fuck. We’d talked about everything in the past half hour and I still didn’t know how she’d gotten so much out of me. It was a gift. Or a curse.
“Are you dating anyone?” She asked, her eyes intense as the question hung in the space between us.
“Why do you care?”
“Because it matters.”
“Does it? This whole conversation won’t really matter in three months, will it?”
She bit her lip and a somber look flickered in her eyes before she cleared her throat. “Fine. We won’t talk about your love life.”
A few minutes passed before she broke the silence again.
“What was it like being raised by your grandfather?” She smiled at me for the millionth time today, and every time she did it, my defenses weakened just a little bit more. I didn’t have to ask how she knew I was raised by him because it was one of those things that Sincere brought up at the dinner table to prove Goldyn and I had more in common than we thought, and she latched onto it, taking the bait.
“It was…structured. He didn’t fuck around when it came to order. He was ex-military and raised me like I was headed to boot camp.”
Goldyn giggled and sipped her root beer. “Did you ever enlist?”
“Nah,” I replied with a shake of my head. “I went to King’s Town A&M for pre-med.”
Her eyes ballooned at that before she probed for more information. I didn’t know why, but talking to her like this, one on one, instead of with Sincere and Enzo around, felt different. It felt like I had all her attention and that was addicting.
“Did you go to med school after?”
“No. But I got in. I was burnt out after undergrad. I worked my ass off to make Dean’s List every semester. Graduated top of my class. And when it was time for med school, I just crashed.”
“I’m sorry.”
My lips turned down in a show of acceptance. “I’m not. It led me to what I’m doing now. And I love what I’m doing now. Sincere has a lot to do with that.”
Curiosity flickered in her eyes. “How so?”
“He just wouldn’t give up on me. Even when I thought I hit rock bottom and swore I didn’t have direction, he stayed in my ear about what I used to tell him freshman year. That’s when we met. We shared a dorm and we became best friends. I used to tell him about all the herbal remedies my grandma taught me before she passed and he kept telling me to explore that. Until I finally did. He’s always been my biggest fan. Even before I knew what the fuck I was doing.”
“Wow.” Awe clung to that syllable as she smiled softly at me. “I love that. I love the way you and Enzo speak about him.”
I swallowed and looked over at the bar. Would it be reckless to get a shot of bourbon at one o’clock in the afternoon? Goldyn’s undivided attention was dizzying and something told me a shot would balance things out. But before I could decide what to do, a waitress walked over with four baskets overflowing with greasy food.
“Two roadkill burgers, all the way. And two cheese fries with jalape?os on the side.”
“Thanks, Trinity.”
“You’re welcome, sugar.” She scanned the table to make sure we had ketchup and napkins then turned away with a smile.
“I can’t wait for you to try this.”
When we made it back to my shop, it was an hour and a half after we left.
Goldyn pulled up directly in front of my door and shifted in her seat to smile at me.
“Same time tomorrow?”
I cut my eyes at her.
“Okay. Okay. I won’t push it.” She looked me up and down. “Have a good rest of your day, Rome.”
I hopped down from her van with a grunt and tossed up a two-finger salute before going inside.
Thankfully, Lottie was on the phone with a customer when I walked in.
When I got back to my workstation in the back of the shop, it took too long for me to get my mind back in work mode.
All I could think about was Goldyn’s contagious energy, the way she smiled at everyone, and the inflections in her voice when she got excited.
She may have tricked me into a long lunch break, but I didn’t hate it.
And when she showed up the next day and the day after that, I didn’t hate that either.