Chapter 18
SEEMS THAT WAY
“Have you been sitting on the couch all night?” Paris asked when she walked into the living room two hours later.
“What?”
London turned her head from where she was staring at the TV and not absorbing a thing showing.
The words were background noise, the people moving around were like a dream she was awake for.
All she could focus on was that damn kiss.
The one she’d been thinking of for days.
From a man she’d love to get to know more, if she could separate the fact that Monday through Friday he tended to annoy the shit out of her.
“I asked if you’ve left that spot on the couch all night. I know that look of yours. You stare off into space contemplating all your life’s choices.”
“Oh, I’ve been contemplating a lot of things. And no, I’ve only been on the couch for about an hour. I went to dinner with Spencer tonight.”
“I’ve got to hear this. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because he didn’t ask until after you left for the day. I wasn’t going to text you when you were working. And how did that go?”
“Nope. Not talking about work. This is too juicy. Tell me about Spencer and how it happened.”
She relayed the events of the day. “I really pushed him hard in the office. I told myself I needed to know what he was thinking. It was killing me this laid back attitude of his.”
“You beat yourself up over that shit,” Paris said.
“I do. I’m sick of doing it. We moved here for a fresh start in more than one way. Still, I never expected this to happen.”
“When you least expect it is when it does.”
“It seems that way. I think if I didn’t get to see the other side of him when we were away, I’d still be grinding my teeth when his emails popped up.”
“Then it worked out. So tell me about the date.”
“He caught me walking out of the building, so we arrived together. He’s less than a mile away, said it’s closer for him to walk to work now where he took the subway before.”
“I’d hate that,” Paris said. “It’s why we grabbed this place when we saw it.”
“We grabbed it because it met our needs, but I agree, I wouldn’t want to take public transit more than necessary, nor did I want to get a taxi every day either.”
“Back to the date,” Paris said.
“We had dinner. They were fast as always. He called me out on that. I laughed and said if it went south, we wouldn’t have to stay in each other’s company too long.”
“If you had thought it was going to go south you wouldn’t have twisted at him earlier.”
“I know. But I could have been wrong. I’m glad I wasn’t.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Normal date things. Why he was still single or how long it’s been since he’d been in a relationship. He said years. He’s been busy with work like us. Being on the road.”
“You said why he left his last job.”
“Yeah. So he wasn’t around much. He admitted he wasn’t always able to give time to someone, not that he wasn’t willing. I asked if he was willing with me.”
“Good for you. But you pull no punches either.”
“He learned that about me.” She confessed what she’d done earlier in the office. Him pulling her close and her leaving him hanging.
“Ouch. But that’s normally like you.”
“Tonight, he did it back. Made me kiss him.”
“We know you did,” Paris said, smiling and sitting down. “What did you feel?”
“Hot. Smothered.”
“That’s not good.”
“Like hot fudge over cold ice cream smothered. Then add sticky caramel on that.”
Paris rubbed her hands together. “Now we’re getting somewhere. So, did you get somewhere? Am I going to worry about walking in on something? Signs on doors? Things like that? We haven’t worried about those things in years.”
“No,” she said. “He left after the last kiss. It was a good thing. I think we both wanted more, but we need time.”
“You do or he does?”
“Both of us. There is so much on the line. I keep asking myself why I couldn’t have met him some other way. Why it had to be through work.”
“Because you’re nervous that you work together or that you’ll get on each other’s nerves?”
“Both.”
“You’ll have to work that out. I’m sure you can. Or he can.”
“Stop laughing,” she said. “I know you’re finding humor in all of this. He’s totally not my type.”
“If he weren’t you wouldn’t have gotten this far.”
She plopped her head back on the couch and let out a long, loud groan. “I know. I don’t want to mess this up.”
“Mess up you and Spencer? It’s been one date. A couple of dinners and two kisses. The first few dinners were more work related. I don’t understand.”
“No, mess up what we’ve got. West is putting a lot of faith in us. The last thing I need is him getting pissed that I’m slacking off. Or trying to hook up with his new attorney.”
“I don’t think West will feel that way,” Paris said. “He’s mellowed a lot. You know that.”
“We didn’t know him that well. We did when we were younger, but it’s not like we saw much of each other until the past few years. And we didn’t talk much either. Only Mom and Dad talk to Aunt Aileen. Everything we’ve known has been through them.”
“And we haven’t heard anything horrible. Mostly good things in the past. Go with your gut. Do what is right for you. You’re entitled to have a personal life. We both are. We’ve been lacking for years. Hell, even Mom is on our case.”
“Because we are thirty-one and she thought some of us would be married by now and have families. We aren’t her. Things are different.”
“It’s not like we are going to have that many kids.”
“Hell no,” she said, shivering. “I don’t know how she did it. We both want kids but not that.”
“No more than two for me,” Paris said.
“That’s my hope. Maybe I’ll get lucky and have multiples and get it over with in one shot. Either way, not on my radar right now. I’m lucky if I can get through this situation with Spencer.”
“That’s your problem. It’s not a situation.”
“I don’t know what it is. Which is smart that we both need to think on it more.”
“Don’t overthink it either,” Paris said. “Just go with it. You’re both busy. I’m assuming no one is supposed to know?”
“No. I told him you knew about the kiss this week. It’s hard to keep the fact that we went on a date together quiet now.”
“You could if you wanted to,” Paris said, laughing and nudging her leg with her foot. “You’ve done those things before.”
“But you always figure it out. I don’t have the energy to play those games anymore. For now, we are keeping it quiet. I don’t even know if I’ll see him again this weekend. We haven’t talked about it. He only left an hour ago.”
“And you’re not the clingy type,” Paris said. “He wouldn’t like that.”
“I wouldn’t like it if he were clingy.” London shrugged. “We left on good terms. We’ll see what the weekend brings.”
Paris tilted her head. “You want him to be as confused as you are, don’t you?”
She snorted and pressed a hand to her chest, mock offended. “Is that horrible of me?”
“It kind of is.” Paris grinned. “But also…very you.”
The question was... could Spencer handle that?