Chapter 14 #2
Suspicion trickled through me, but I smiled up at the woman and offered her my card. She frowned at it in return, her head shaking as she glanced at Simon. “Mr. Astor has already covered the bill.”
“Of course you have.” I chuckled as I glanced at him. “I freaking knew it when you didn’t go for your wallet, but it’s still not a date.”
Our server thanked us and left, and Simon pumped his eyebrows at me after lifting his card out of the folder. “You’re damn right it’s not. If it was, I never would’ve made the rule about our clothes staying on.”
My cheeks heated, but I laughed. “Jeez, what kind of guy are you if the clothes have to come off if it’s a date?”
He winked playfully. “The kind that knows how to plan a date.”
Laughing again, I stood up and followed him out to his car, a black, hybrid SUV with tinted windows. I smirked at him once we were both inside it. “When did you become a rock star?”
“Damn it. I didn’t ask for the windows to be tinted.” He scowled, but I could see him trying to hide a smile. “It came out this way, but it’s actually pretty nice to know that I’ve got complete privacy in here.”
“Why?” I asked teasingly. “Do you do a lot of crying in your car?”
“Crying’s not the only thing one might need privacy for.” He smirked right back at me and I groaned, but still couldn’t hold back a chuckle. He pretended to be offended. “I mean singing along to the radio, of course. I don’t know what you’re thinking.”
We laughed the whole ride back to my place, but we always had laughed a lot when we were together. Even when he’d been in the thick of it with his grief, I’d managed to find ways to make him smile.
That was one of the things I’d missed most about him, and it was nice to know it hadn’t changed. On the other hand, it made our situation even more dangerous for me, but I was determined not to overthink things.
I hadn’t forgiven him and I still wasn’t sure I ever would, but I was so tired of hating him outright, and now that I knew what a difficult position he’d been in back then, it was easier to just let myself relax and enjoy being with one of my oldest friends.
That didn’t mean that what he’d done hadn’t been deplorable, but I was giving myself a break from all that.
I’d been carrying around the weight of our breakup for almost a freaking decade and it felt so good that it was gone that I just wanted it to stay that way.
For the first time in just as long, I was actually feeling carefree.
Unguarded. Spending time with a guy without constantly wondering how he would end up hurting me—even if it was the same guy who’d caused me to think that way in the first place.
When we arrived at my townhouse, Simon smiled and glanced at me. “You live pretty close to your parents, huh? Or have they moved?”
“They haven’t,” I said simply and left it at that, not wanting to tell him that I’d stayed in the area because of him. I’d always hoped I’d see him again and I’d figured that if he ever came looking for me, this was where he’d begin. “Say hi to August.”
As soon as I opened my door, my ball of golden curls barreled toward us, her tail wagging as she nuzzled my leg. I chuckled and scratched her head. Then she moved away from me to give Simon a curious sniff.
He surprised me by dropping to his haunches without any hesitation, his hands in her fur as he grinned. “Hey, girl. I’m Simon. You’re just as beautiful as your mommy, aren’t you?”
I flushed but decided not to call him out on calling me beautiful to my dog.
Instead, I hung up my purse on a coat hook behind my door and dropped my keys in a silver bowl on the side table in my foyer.
I kicked off my heels next, padding barefoot to my kitchen and grabbing two beers from my fridge.
Simon followed me with August sticking close to his side, and I frowned at my dog. “What’s this, girl? Why are you with him?”
He shrugged and sent me a devilish smile. “Because she loves me. That’s why.”
I shook my head and bit back a giggle, handing over his beer before I sat down on my couch and tucked my legs underneath me. “Okay, time to spill the beans on Fit Gal. What do you know?”
He sat down next to me, toeing off his own shoes and getting comfortable without skipping so much as a beat. Turning on the cushion to face me, he hooked one of his legs up and put his foot under his opposite knee, gaze never leaving mine.
“We’ve managed to find out two pieces of information that might be useful to you,” he said. “One is that they’re wanting to launch Fit Guy within the next year, so having ideas ready for that pitch will put us both above the other two companies trying to win the contract.”
“Within a year? Wow. I didn’t know they were that close.”
“They are,” he promised. “The other thing is that Fit Gal’s secret ingredient is bat poop.”
“What?” I laughed. “There’s no way.”
“I’m one hundred percent serious. Go look at the ingredients list. They’ve got the technical name for it right there on the bottle.”
I grimaced. “I’m not sure how I feel about how much of that stuff I’ve drunk right now.”
He chuckled. “It’s still the same product, but that’s the one part they haven’t advertised at all.”
“I don’t blame them.” I exhaled through my nostrils and nodded, taking a sip of my beer before bringing my eyes back to his. “Okay, so now that we both know this, are we enemies or are we in an alliance?”
“We can be a little bit of both,” he said after thinking it over for a beat. “At least until we’re the last two companies standing. Obviously, after that, it’s going to have to be every man for himself.”
“I can get behind that,” I said easily. “Mostly because I can’t wait to see your face when I get the account.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “I’ll send you a ‘Get Well Soon’ basket after you’ve had to watch me win.”
Both of us laughed, and an unmistakable sense of rightness washed over me. It felt like I was finally back with the very best friend I’d ever had. I kept having to remind myself of what he’d done, but it was hard to stay tough when he brought out the soft side of me.
Simon and I just clicked in a way I’d never felt with anyone else.
Even now. Even after everything. I still felt like our souls were two halves of the same whole.
Logically, I knew I should fight that feeling, but I honestly didn’t know how to do that when letting myself feel it was as natural as breathing.
All I could really do right now was hope that he felt the same and that, together, we’d figure out a way not to hurt each other all over again.