Chapter 5 #3
They were all eager and interested, obviously thinking he was a secret boyfriend I’d been hiding. I’d kept the details on my assault scarce, so they had no idea of his involvement.
“What are you doing here?” I finally managed to ask as he commandeered a chair from another table and pulled it up beside me.
“Just stopping by for a drink on my way home. I live just a couple of blocks away.”
I’d forgotten that he lived so close to my old apartment. I’d not once been over to his place. Not in all the months that I’d known him.
“I don’t mean to interrupt the girls’ night. I can drink over there if you’d rather.” He nodded with a grin to the bar.
Every woman at the table except me immediately and earnestly assured him he wasn’t interrupting and he definitely had to stay.
He chuckled and readjusted his chair a bit, saying he wouldn’t stay long.
He was bombarded with questions. He told them he was with the FBI and discreetly made it clear he’d met me because of what happened. But he neatly avoided giving them any details about the specific situation in which we’d met and what our connection was now.
He was funny and charming—in a way I wasn’t used to seeing him—and it was obvious that all my friends adored him after fifteen minutes. I didn’t know this side of Gideon. He was like a stranger to me.
And I wasn’t sure what I thought of him.
I did stop looking back over my shoulder for lurking men, and I eventually realized it was because of how Gideon had positioned his chair. He was partly behind me himself, and so he was blocking any looming threats in my mind.
He stayed for about an hour. By that time, the place was so loud that we couldn’t even hear ourselves talk, so Julie suggested we go over to her place, which was less than a block away. She added that she had a bottle of champagne in her refrigerator that she could break out.
Everyone agreed this was an excellent plan, and I let out a sigh of relief as we walked out.
I’d done it. Had a minor breakdown but one I’d been able to work through. I’d even had a decent time.
It was partly because of Gideon.
I smiled up at him as I walked beside him to his car, which wasn’t too far away since he’d somehow managed to snare a great parking place. My friends were walking ahead of us, and they stopped some distance away—to give us space to say good-bye, I assumed.
It wasn’t like I needed space to say good-bye to Gideon for the evening, but it was a nice thought on my friends’ part.
“You really didn’t have to stop by,” I told him, stopping next to his SUV.
He gave a half shrug and a half smile. “Like I said, I was on my way home. Believe it or not, grabbing a drink on the way home isn’t really that unusual.”
I thought about that and wondered if Gideon stopped at bars after work a lot. Maybe he did. Maybe he liked to hang out and talk to girls. Maybe he picked them up sometimes.
I didn’t like that thought, but I told myself it was irrational. Just because Gideon was an important part of my life right now didn’t meant that I was the only part of his. He wasn’t even thirty yet. Virile and attractive and probably very interested in sex.
It was likely he was getting that somewhere.
It was fine. Sex wasn’t a bad thing—even though I couldn’t think about it myself anymore. As long as I could keep Gideon in my life, he could have sex with whomever he wanted.
Just, preferably, I wouldn’t know about it.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, reaching up to brush away a strand of hair that had blown across my mouth that I’d been too distracted to push away myself.
“Nothing. I’m glad you stopped by though.”
He smiled down at me, and his eyes took on that warm look I was seeing there more and more. The one I liked and that scared me at the same time. “I’m glad too. You’ll be all right at Julie’s?”
“Yeah. I’ll be fine. Although now I’m going to have to face an endless interrogation about you and my relationship with you. You know that, right?”
He laughed softly and brushed back that strand of hair again although I wasn’t aware of it falling back into my face. “Just tell them it’s none of their business.”
“You try to tell that to six women who’ve been drinking champagne and margaritas.” My tone was teasing, and I couldn’t seem to stop smiling at him. Probably the effect of the alcohol, after I’d gone a few months without drinking it. “Anyway, goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” he murmured as he leaned down toward me.
For one crazy moment, I thought he was going to kiss me, and an intense panic reared up in an instant, chilling me, stealing my breath.
But he didn’t. Of course he didn’t. That wasn’t who we were or who we could ever be. Instead, he just gently brushed his lips against my cheekbone and then pulled me into a hug.
We didn’t normally hug at the end of the night, but I returned it immediately, loving how familiar and safe he felt, loving how tightly his arms wrapped around me.
When we pulled away, I felt flustered. I didn’t know what to say, so I just looked down at my pretty shoes on the sidewalk.
“You okay?” he asked, his voice one I recognized. I knew, even without looking, that he was scrutinizing my face.
The familiarity actually made me feel more comfortable. This was a Gideon I knew, one I was used to. “Yeah,” I said, looking up with a smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m trying out a new recipe.”
Tomorrow was Friday. He always came over on Friday evenings.
“I can’t wait,” he said, a smile in his voice.
“Okay. My friends are waiting.” I walked toward them, turning back once to give Gideon a wave farewell. He grinned again as he pulled his SUV out of the space and then made an illegal U-turn so he was heading in what must be the direction of his apartment.
I was indeed interrogated about our relationship, and telling my friends it was none of their business definitely didn’t work.
Eventually they stopped the teasing when it was clear that the questions were starting to upset me.
For a normal girl, in a normal situation, an evening like tonight might signal a budding romantic relationship.
But that wasn’t me. And I just didn’t see how it ever could be.