I wonder what the rest of his body looks like…
“Where is your hotel, Selena?”
“I think it’s like eight blocks up… Can we please walk there now?”
“Sure,” he stood up and reached for my hands. “Take your time standing up.”
He wrapped his arm around both my shoulders, allowing me to lean on him as we walked.
He smells amazing…
We walked the first few blocks in complete silence, and every time I looked up at him he would look back down at me and smile—making me blush, making me feel like a teenager all over again.
When we were a block away, I realized I needed to apologize. “I’m sorry for anything offensive I might’ve said tonight. And I’m sorry you had to see me like this…I’m usually more composed.”
“It’s okay. I’ve seen worse.”
“Really?”
“No, but I thought it would make you feel better if I lied,” he laughed. “How much longer will you be in town?”
“Four weeks or so, maybe more. I don’t have much to go back to in New York City…You’re not some secret reporter here to expose me for something, are you?”
“No Selena,” he pulled me closer. “I’m definitely not.”
“Hmmm…Well, between you and me, I usually have to pay people to stick around me—for photo opps, you know? Or I have to trick them into it.”
He looked down at me and smirked, “How ironic.”
Is he laughing at my misery? Does he think this is ‘entertainment’? I need to stop talking…This is clearly a bad case of word vomit…
He let me go and opened the door to the hotel lobby. He led me onto the elevator and walked me up to my room.
“Thank you for walking me back,” I swiped my card at the door. “Thank you very very much.”
“You’re welcome. Are you going to be okay?”
“Could you stay the night to make sure I am?”
Please tell me I did NOT say that out loud…
He ran his hand through his hair and grinned. “Make sure you take some aspirin whenever you wake up.”
“Oh! So I’m not good enough for you?”
Oh my god…
“You’re drunk. I would never take advantage of you.”
“I only had five drinks! I’m completely coherent! Do you want me to walk in a straight line for you? I can!”
“Good night Selena,” he kissed my cheek and I almost melted into the carpet. “I’m sure you’ll feel better in the afternoon.”
“You’re really not going to stay?” I put on my best drunken seductive look and bit my lip. “Are you scared you won’t measure up or something?”
“Measure up?” he raised his eyebrow.
“Yeah. I said it. Measure. Up.”
“Selena Ross,” he sighed, “you’ve told me on two separate occasions that you would like to take things slow…Since I’m not a fan of drunken sex, or sex with a woman I’d really like to know better first, I’m more than happy to honor that. But if we ever do get the chance to have sex, I’m one hundred percent sure you’ll feel that one thing I’ve never worried about is measuring up.”
My cheeks were on fire. I couldn’t get any more words to come out of my mouth.
“You should get some sleep. Call me whenever you want to reschedule our date…If you still want to,” he kissed my forehead and walked away.
Chapter 16
Ethan
I did the right thing…I should not have stayed with her last night…I should not have stayed with her last night…
“This is the last date I’m going on without my checklist, Barry,” I answered as soon as he called my phone.
“What? Why?”
“Why?” I scoffed. “There’s a reason why people have standards for who they date. Have you ever thought about that?”
“Yeah, reasonable standards—not ‘she must read these particular books and not watch these types of movies’ standards. Every woman isn’t going to be a perfect match, Ethan. Just roll with it. By the way, could you send us two more sour cream apple pies from Sweet Seasons? The chef team thinks they’ve perfected it, but the board wants to be completely sure before we send out the official recipe to all the stores. Oh, and we need like five more cherry bourbon ones, that pie is giving us some problems.”
“You got it. I’ll ship some tomorrow morning. Call you later,” I hung up.
I was thirty minutes early for my brunch date at a winery and I was dreading meeting another weird woman, even though she “seemed” normal a couple days ago. In fact, I’d wanted to call and cancel earlier, but I decided against it.
The only woman I really wanted to date was Selena Ross, and as much as I hated not knowing if she would ever agree to see me, there was a part of me that enjoyed the uncertainty.
Sure, she seemed a bit high-strung, and she should probably never sing publicly again, but for whatever reason, I found her quite charming.
I checked my phone all day, hoping to see a text or a call from her, hoping that she would finally give me a chance.
“Good afternoon Ethan,” a pretty blonde woman tapped my shoulder.