She shrugged. “I thought I was...Twice.”
“Hmmm,” I put down another “draw four” and made the color green again.
“You’re cheating, Ethan!”
“Because I’m winning?”
She frowned and drew cards.
I took my time thinking of a good question. “If you could have anything in the world right now what would it be?”
She didn’t answer right away. She stared off into space and looked as if she were about to cry. “I would want a friend…I haven’t had one of those in years.”
Damn…
We played in silence for a few minutes—drawing cards, avoiding eye contact, putting down every color except green and yellow.
I finally put down a yellow nine and waited for her next question.
She tapped her lip. “If I had told you to stop pursuing me a couple days ago, would you have really stopped?”
“Probably not,” I kissed her cheek. “Uno.”
“You got lucky! I never lose at Uno,” she sighed. “Let’s see…Has anyone ever told you that you’re a good kisser? Like, a really good kisser?”
“Wouldn’t that be something you would have to tell me?”
“I would if our first kiss was memorable.”
I put my card down. “It wasn’t memorable?”
“Nope. Not at all,” she started to get up but I pulled her back down to the floor.
I held her face in my hands and looked deep into her eyes—waiting for her to give me a look of hesitation, an expression of doubt, but I got the complete opposite.
“So you haven’t thought about our first kiss at all over the past couple days?”
“Maybe you have, but I forgot about it as soon as it was over,” she sighed.
Liar.
I pressed my lips against hers, and gently slipped my tongue into her mouth, never giving her the chance to control the tempo. I ran my fingers through her silky black hair, noticing that she was softly murmuring and her breaths were becoming shorter and shorter.
I felt her arms draping around my neck and pulled her into my lap. I reached for the white zipper on the front of her pajamas—pulling it down far enough to where I could see her red lace bra, and felt one of her hands fiddling with the button on my pants.
“Is this still considered slow?” she panted. “This is technically our third date, right?”
I can’t do this. Not now… I promised I wouldn’t hurt her…
I shook my head and zipped her pajamas back up. “I don’t think we should rush things.”
“You’re right,” she caught her breath. “Well, um…I really enjoyed dinner and Uno with you tonight.”
I stood up. “Me too. Do you need help cleaning up?”
“No, I think I’ll be okay. Thank you.”
I grabbed my jacket and kissed her on the cheek. “Good night Selena.”
“Good night Ethan.”
I stood at the elevator, contemplating whether I should turn back around and knock on her door, whether I should try to stay the night. But before I could make up my mind, the doors glided open.
I took my time driving home, looking away from Sweet Seasons and Autumn Wonder as I passed them.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t put two and two together earlier. I should’ve asked if she was related to her Sweet Seasons lookalike. I should’ve known that was her mom who served me every afternoon, and I should’ve had my intern research her background further.
I tossed my keys on the floor and collapsed onto my bed. I didn’t want to think about anything, but images of Selena continued to loop through my brain.
She and I weren’t even serious. We were just starting to get to know each other, and although I wanted to tell her about my real occupation, something told me not to—not yet anyway.
I didn’t know if I was the only guy she was currently “dating,” and I was still undercover. I still had things to do for my board in Boston.
I reached for my iPod and hoped music would be all I needed to go to sleep. I scrolled down to Coldplay and heard my phone ring.
“Hello?” I answered without looking at the screen.
“You busy?”
Selena?
“I’m not,” I ripped the ear-buds from my ears. “What’s up? Is something wrong?”
“No, I just couldn’t sleep. I tried listening to my iPod but it’s not helping.”
Where is my checklist? There has to be something on there about crazy coincidences…
“Well, I hope you weren’t singing along with it. I’m sure that wouldn’t help you or your neighbors tonight.”
“Oh shut up! I’m not that bad!” she laughed. “Who is your favorite artist?”
Chapter 19
Selena
I dropped my black chip into the board and jumped up. “You don’t have to bother putting your chip in now! I have you beat two ways! I beat you! I beat you! I finally beat you!”