20. True
As far as first dates went, this one was already at a five out of ten before we were ever seated at our table. I might have been out of practice when it came to dating, but I knew him showing up an hour late in a baggy suit with Crocs on his feet because his “dog ate his good shoes” was not a promising start.
Him being late was negative three points. And his outfit choice was negative two.
I was being generous , even by my standards, but I refused to believe I’d spent all day getting fine just for this night to be ruined before it could ever begin.
“Can I get you two something to drink while you look over your menus?” The waitress asked in a silky sweet voice.
My date, Keenan Longbriar, cheesed up at her and spoke over me before I could request a glass of wine.
“We’ll just take two ice waters,” he said, snatching the drink menu from my fingertips. “With lemon on the side,” he added before she could scurry away.
My jaw was still hanging open from the way he’d snatched that damn menu, I hadn’t even had time to register that he’d just ordered water for the table like he was doing me a favor.
Instead of showing my ass, I hid my face in the entree menu and tried to center myself.
And just like that, we were down to zero out of ten points. I couldn’t stop the downturn of my lips or the way my brow furrowed every time he smiled across the table at me.
Averting my gaze, I studied the white table cloth and mumbled to myself. “Noah and Greyson would never do me like this.”
“You said something?” an eager voice called, opposite me.
I peeked around the menu and gave a tight shake of my head before shielding my face again.
This man was already on the fast-track to getting blocked when I left this restaurant, but then he accelerated my decision by uttering his next words.
“You know what? Why don’t we just share two or three appetizers?”
“I—”
“We can save some money…and some room for dessert later.” He waggled his brows at me and I didn’t bother stopping the scowl that bloomed on my face.
The only dessert I wanted from this man was my wasted time back on a silver platter. And since I couldn’t get that?—
“Excuse me, I need to use the men’s room. Don’t order without me.” I felt like his words were a warning and I dropped the menu the second he disappeared.
A few seconds later, my clutch vibrated in my lap, breaking the staring contest I was having with the silverware laid out in front of me.
I pulled out my phone, my frown still in place when I saw the notification on my screen. It wasn’t from the group chat, it was just from “Grey .”
Instant relief flooded me at the familiarity of his name. I wanted to be home with him and Noah, watching a movie and talking to them about whatever mindless thing we wanted. Why I thought of their place as home was a problem for future me to solve. I just wanted something familiar before this date could go further off the rails.
Would it be wrong to ask him to come get me? My car was at my grandma’s house because I was not giving Keenan my address on the first link.
Long-pressing on the text, I waited for the message to appear and my head snapped around the second it did.
Grey:
Tell your date Halloween is tomorrow.
Me:
Greyson, what the hell? Are you here?
I peered around the restaurant, searching for him, but the lighting was too dim for me to see much beyond five feet in front of me.
Grey:
What you think, Red?
Me:
Did you follow me here?
Grey:
How could I follow you if I didn’t even know you canceled on us for a date?
Me:
I don’t believe you
Grey:
You don’t have to, but I know you better tell your date his Beetlejuice impression is on point
With my head bowed, I hoped wherever he was hiding, he couldn’t see the way my shoulders shook at his dumb ass joke.
Me:
That was mean
Grey:
I never told you I was nice
Me:
Where are you?
Grey:
Why? You wanna see me?
Me:
Grey…
Grey:
The bar
I was out of my seat, bag clutched in my hand as soon as I read his message. The L-shaped bar spanned the length of the restaurant before curving toward the corridor leading to the restrooms. Greyson was conveniently perched on a stool near the end of the first bend, meaning he’d seen my date walk by and that’s why he knew exactly when to text me.
“What are you doing here? Noah said you don’t like eating out,” I whisper-yelled, coming to a stop beside him.
“I don’t. But Noah had a bad day, I wanted to pick up his favorite food.” He looked me over, his nearly-black eyes caressing every inch of my body. “Then I got distracted.”
Greyson in a tweed suit had become the norm for my eyes to feast on, but Greyson in a tweed suit with his eyes hooded and his attention fixed on me in a crowded restaurant was just too much.
He ran his thumb over his bottom lip and I imagined the touch on my skin. Goosebumps broke out over my arms and my nipples pebbled right in front of his hungry gaze.
“Why are you here with him?” I think delusion was setting in at this point because I could have sworn I heard a tinge of hurt in his words.
“Because I wanna go out,” I said around a hard swallow. “I stay in the house all day, I wanna see people.”
We were both grown enough to fill in the gaps and make the necessary inferences. At least I thought we were.
“Noah has been taking you to the bookstore every day for a week. You see us every night.”
“Not like that ,” I hissed, frowning at him.
Greyson’s eyes flashed before he schooled his features and pushed his frames up his nose. I hid my smile by biting the inside of my cheek. His tells were so obvious.
“Fine, you want dates, I’ll take you on dates.”
“So romantic,” I said dryly, folding my arms over my chest.
I should have been worried about how long my date had been in the bathroom already, but I couldn’t bring myself to care about anything other than the man in front of me.
“You’re too good for him,” Greyson said with a shake of his head, those dark eyes burning into mine.
“You don’t know him.” I was pulled into the intensity of his stare, unable to form a thought past how good he smelled right now. Like leather, whiskey and cedar.
“Don’t need to know shit about him, I know you…” his words trailed and he looked toward the bartender finally getting around to his drink. I knew it was his because it was the same thing he drank at home.
Home .
That was the second time tonight I’d slipped up and had that thought. But was my home really separate from where Greyson and Noah were? It didn’t feel like it. Not anymore.
“Man, fuck him?—”
“I’m trying to!” I blurted, my frustration with this night and the embarrassment from him seeing me on this disaster of a date bubbling to the surface. If possible, my hissing whisper grew even quieter. “That’s the whole point of me going on dates, Greyson. I wanna get laid. It’s been a really, really long time.”
He must have heard the mortification in my voice because something on his face softened while he looked me over, this time not as intensely.
“Fine. Then I’ll fuck you.”
“What makes you think you’re my type?”
Greyson smirked and I screamed internally at how much more attractive he got from the slightest quirk of his lips. It wasn’t fair. “Come on, Red. You can lie to yourself, just don’t do it to me.”
I rolled my eyes and heaved a sigh. He wasn’t getting it. He was intentionally not getting it. “You can’t just answer every problem I give you by turning it around like that. I’m not gonna fuck you just for the hell of it so you can prove a point, Greyson.”
“I promise when I fuck you, it won’t be for the hell of it, True.”
Neither of us got a chance to fill the tense silence between us.
“Whiskey neat,” the bartender announced, setting the glass down with a quiet thump against the mahogany bar.
Before Greyson could reach for it, I scooped the glass in my hand and tossed half of it down my throat, savoring the burn. Oh my god, I needed that.
I didn’t realize my eyes were closed until I popped them open and found Greyson’s staring at me, a touch of wickedness in his onyx orbs.
When I set the tumbler back on the bar, he eyed it before picking it up and studying the lipstick stain I’d left on the rim. Then he raised it to his mouth and positioned his lips exactly where mine had been, finishing the rest of the amber liquid in one languid pull.
Heat simmered under my skin and my heart skipped a couple beats in my chest before coming back online just in time for Keenan to approach us.
“Who’s this?” he asked, a bushy brow raised as he shoved his phone in his pocket.
My eyes slammed shut. I could not deal with this right now.
Luckily, my neighbor looked like he was suddenly a social butterfly. He extended his hand toward my date and looked him up and down. “Greyson Wolfe.”
They made introductions while I counted down from ten. Then I opened my eyes and stared at them. It was hard not to draw comparisons when they were side by side.
There was Keenan in his striped suit and canary yellow Crocs. Then there was Greyson with his…everything.
Feeling my eyes on him, he turned and winked at me.
I shook my head. This was not happening.
“Who are you to True? You’re not her man, are you?” He threw his arm over my shoulders and never in my life had I wanted spikes to spontaneously spawn from a random part of my body like I did in that moment. “I’m willing to fight over this one.”
An unfamiliar sound bellowed out of Greyson. It was heady and warm. He was…laughing. I’d never heard this man laugh before. The most I got was a dry snort or scoff when I was in his presence.
And.
Oh.
My.
God.
Was this how I was finding out he had a dimple?
Just one. In his left cheek.
Trying to diffuse the chaos dominating my nerve-endings, I looked up at Keenan and forced a tight smile. “No. He’s just my neighbor.”
A blind man could see the relief wash over his face. “Oh. Okay.”
He split his attention between me and Greyson before he put the nail in the coffin of this terrible, no good, very bad date.
“Hey, there’s no sense in you eating alone. You should join us.”
I schooled my features in a look I hoped screamed ‘hell no,’ but Greyson purposely avoided looking in my direction as he gracefully got off his stool. He gave Keenan his undivided attention and said, “You know, I might just take you up on that offer.”
No .
Then he turned to grab my clutch from the bar top and winked at me again. “Come on, neighbor .”