“Back there? That crazy shrew moment?”
Shrugging, I played it off. “What? I wanted to let you know I’d be waiting out here.” When I glanced over, I noticed a folded napkin in his hands, and I could just make out some numbers on it. I swore I felt like there was a volcano about to blow inside me. “Since your new friend clearly couldn’t let you go so soon.”
“My new friend?” He pulled the cab door open when it stopped in front of us. “Are you talking about Penelope?”
Penelope. Who named their kid Penelope? Who lived their life being called that every day instead of getting a name change?
Oh, god. My inner bitch was really having a field day.
If you don’t have anything nice to say, just don’t say anything at all. I could hear my mom’s words echo in my mind. She’d raised me up better than this. Better than some insecure-acting girl who thought mean things about total strangers.
“Do you know her or something?” he asked.
I slid across the backseat of the cab, burrowing against the far door. “No. But it looked like you were getting pretty comfortable with her.”
As Soren entered the cab, he appraised me with a look that suggested I was an injured wild animal. “Oh-kay. There’s something I’m missing here. And I’m a guy, so I’m going to need you to spell it out for me. Slowly. In small words.”
I knew better than to open my mouth without counting to ten first. At least I was learning how to tame my inner “shrew.”
“You’re not missing anything,” I said slowly. “I was just making an observation. Looked like you two were good friends.”
The skin between Soren’s eyes creased as he finished giving the address to the driver. “Let’s see. I know her name, that she loves using the word like every other breath, that she’s a born-again vegan—whatever that is—and thinks people who wear fur should be burned at the stake. Oh, and she once dated some guy whose name I can’t remember anymore, but she said it like it was one of those names I should know.”
I made a sound with my mouth. One of those really mature ones a teenager gave their parents when they were being lectured. “You know something else about her too.” My eyes dropped to the napkin still clutched in his hand.
“Oh, yeah. Her number.” He unfolded it and held it out for me.
My arms stayed folded around myself. She’d planted her lips on the napkin too.
“She said we should get together some time and ‘hang out.’” He did the air quote thing, his brows moving in time with his fingers.
She’d just met the guy and was already throwing around her number and suggestions for “hanging out.” What kind of guy did she think Soren was? He wasn’t that type . . . was he? My stomach churned, the champagne bubbling inside not helping the situation. I could feel the two glasses I’d had on an empty stomach bleeding into my system, fogging my head and relaxing my body. “You know what that means, right? Hanging out?”
“She wants to use my body for vulgar purposes?” When my mouth dropped open, he chuckled. “Hayden, relax. I’m a big boy. I know the game. It wasn’t like I was born in Hastings, Nebraska, or anything.”
“You don’t have to make fun of me. I’m just trying to look after you. That kind of girl is only looking for one thing from a guy like you.”
“Gee, okay, Dad. Thanks for the words of wisdom.” Soren lifted his voice an octave, batting his eyes at me. “Why don’t you just have a chastity belt welded to my special lady parts so no person of ill repute can deflower me?”
I couldn’t believe he was behaving so childishly. He looked after me—why couldn’t I do the same without being treated like I was way off base?
“Can we just not speak to each other for the rest of the ride? I’m getting a headache.” My fingers rubbed my temples, the mix of alcohol, jealousy, and tight corseting making me feel like my head was being attacked by a herd of elephants.
“Wait. What is this?” Soren’s voice changed, growing serious. He leaned closer, studying my face. “Why do you care who I make ‘friends’ with or who wants to stuff their phone numbers into my hands?” He paused, still studying me.
I sealed my eyes closed and angled myself toward the door. I didn’t like where he was going with this line of questioning. “Silence, please. Migraine en route.”
“You have my word that I will seal my lips for the rest of the night as soon as you answer my question.”
I heard him shift closer. His cologne hit me again, this time combined with the light hint of champagne on his breath and the faint scent of sweat clinging to him. I found myself experiencing that magnetic pull feeling again.
He wasn’t going to let this go. Soren was as obstinate as I was.
“I don’t care who you make friends with or who passes you their phone number with their lips stamped all over it.”
He leaned forward. I twisted farther toward the door. “You’re acting like you care.”
“You’re pretending that I care. But I don’t.”
I heard him shift back into his side of the cab. “Wow. Ouch. Okay, good to know. Thanks for clearing that up.” He sniffed, scooting a little farther away. “I’ll keep my mouth shut now.”
An amoeba? Was there anything lower on the life scale than that? If there was, that’s what I was. That’s what I felt like.
My whole life, I’d been the mature, responsible one, and now that I was on my own in the big city and falling for some great guy, I’d morphed into a child. Great timing.
He kept his word the rest of the ride back to the apartment. Not a word. The tension became so thick inside the cab, the driver actually rolled down his window a crack.
When the driver pulled up in front of the apartment, Soren already had the money ready before I’d checked the fare. After crawling out, he waited beside the door. He didn’t give me his hand to take as he had on the ride to the party, but he waited for me to climb out, and he closed the door behind me once he’d pulled out the hem of my dress.
He followed me as I unlocked the front door. After we made it through the door, he stayed one step behind me on our climb to the sixth floor. The silence stretched on—nothing but the sound of his shoes echoing on each step, the sound of my own barely making a noise.
“Would you hold onto the handrail? Please? That’s what it’s there for.”
I looked back and saw his jaw move as he eyed the handrail beside me, still lingering a step behind. His arms were kind of open, like he was ready to . . . catch me if I fell.