“Fine, I won’t be mad.”
“Good. And since I know you’re not mad, I have patrons and have to get back to work.”
Since she’d grabbed a sandwich at the diner, Tori was free to get right to work. But first, bra off and yoga pants on. Then, as she waited for her computer to wake up, her cell phone rang. Her mother’s number showed on the screen and Tori silenced it. She waited, but she didn’t get a new voice mail notification, which meant her mom would try again.
Then, just as her email client coughed up her new messages, she heard the text chime. For a second, she was terrified her mom finally got a smart phone and learned to text, but it was Max.
Are you home?
Yes. Home from work and just sat down to work.
You know what they say about all work and no play.
She laughed. Are you trying to lure me out to play?
I wish. I’m working, too. Making steak & mushroom kebobs again tonight. Should I make enough for you?
Sighing, she considered her workload. She should eat at her desk, but those kebobs were so good. A couple of hours wouldn’t hurt. Yes, but I can’t stay for a movie.
A long time passed before his return message. Can you stay for a quarter of a movie?
Tori frowned at her phone. Why would I stay for a quarter of a movie?
The average movie is 2 hours so a quarter is 30 minutes. If you can stay 30 minutes, we can have sex instead because nobody wants to watch a quarter of a movie.
Who could resist that logic? I’ll be there by six. Get some work done.
She took her own advice and focused on clearing the to-do list she’d written out that morning. There was a lot of tweaking—one author didn’t like his title font, another wanted a more futuristic spaceship, which made Tori laugh, and one was thinking about redoing the covers of her entire series to boost sales. It was nitpicky, headache-inducing stuff, so after a while, she sat back in her chair to take a break.
The books next to her computer caught her eye and she grabbed the one on top. It promised a step-by-step plan for healing families split by divorce. By tilting her head, she saw from the spines Hailey had also sent books on being an adult child of divorce and coping with toxic relationships. They didn’t sound nearly as fun as the novels sitting on the other end of the desk.
But Hailey had gone to a lot of work to choose these particular books, so she opened the one in her hand and scanned the table of contents. Then she flipped to the first chapter and started to read.
*
Are you naked? Max hit the send button and waited patiently for Tori’s response.
Why would I be naked?
A man can hope. It sounded more interesting than are you busy?
Of course she was busy. It had been almost two weeks since Tori’s schedule at the diner had changed and they’d fallen into a routine of a lot of work, a lot of texting and the occasional exercising of their friendship’s benefits.
I’m a little busy, but not crazy busy.
This Sunday’s the bye week, so I was thinking we could go to dinner. Not at the diner.
What’s a bye week?
He frowned at his phone screen. The Patriots don’t play. They have a week off.
Why?
I can explain it to you, but that would probably tip over into actual telephone-call length.
Her reply came almost immediately. Dinner sounds good. Speaking of, tomorrow night we’re having a goodbye party for Gavin at the diner. You should come.
A party? He wasn’t sure about a party at the diner. He liked Gavin well enough, especially his cooking, but he didn’t know him that well.
I’ll let you walk me home after.
I’ll be there, he responded so quickly he was surprised he didn’t sprain his thumb. What time?
Eight. The dinner rush will be over and it limits the festivities to an hour.
I’ll see you at eight, then.
Can’t wait. xox
He’d figured out the xox was her way of ending a text conversation. Though he had no way of knowing if she ended all of her conversations that way, he liked to think those kisses and hugs were just for him. And he couldn’t wait to see her, either.
Colin had called him earlier in the week to check up on him and see how the plan had worked. After Max explained the plan had gone south almost immediately, but that they were still friends with benefits, his brother had urged him to be patient and not push too hard, too soon. It wasn’t easy, but he was managing not to tell her how he felt. Barely.
When eight o’clock rolled around the following night, he was confident enough he’d be walking her home, so he went ahead and parked in the back of the bank’s lot and walked to the diner.