I nodded. “Sounds about right.”
“You’re like a little shark when it comes to business.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead, chuckling against my skin. “I’ll make sure you have a good time. So good you’ll be doing a reenactment of my bedroom…and the pool. Who knows, maybe it’ll be like both combined.”
“Draft the contract, Brooks, but remember, I’m holding you to these terms.”
“Wonderful doing business with you, Cummings.”
When the GPS told me I was two blocks away from Georgia’s apartment on Friday night, I pulled over and put the car in park. My phone had just buzzed in the cupholder with a message, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to answer it once I picked her up. Ignoring the blinding red light on my mail icon, I swung my thumb directly over it before landing on the TapNext app.
TAPRoseNEXT (7:04PM): HE’S GOING TO BE HERE ANY MINUTE, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. CALM ME DOWN BEFORE HE TAKES ONE LOOK AT ME AND RUNS IN THE OTHER DIRECTION.
A smile overwhelmed me as my chuckles bounced around the echoey interior of an otherwise empty car. She was so fucking cute, I could hardly stand it.
BAD_Ruck (7:06PM): Calm down, sweetheart. Let’s start slowly by eliminating the shouty capitals.
TAPRoseNEXT (7:07PM): FUCKING FUCK FUCKERS. Okay. FUCK. Okay, I think I’m good now. Move on to step 2 (the coddling).
I bit my lip and shook my head, smiling like a crazy person.
BAD_Ruck (7:08PM): Good job. Also, creative swearing.
TAPRoseNEXT (7:08PM): The calm is wearing off, Ruck.
BAD_Ruck (7:09PM): Okay, okay. Coddling. Got it. This guy is still talking to you after spending all that time with you last weekend and invited you on a weekend away, right? He sounds smart enough to appreciate a little nervous energy. Everything is going to be fine.
Okay, guys. I know. I can feel you judging me. But let’s talk this over.
I knew not telling her that I knew she was Rose, and that I was Ruck, was bad form.
I did, really.
It’d been a few days since I found out, and I should have told her immediately.
But God, as twisted as it was, I was having too much fun. Georgia was different with me online, no pretense or fear of saying something to her boss that he couldn’t unhear, the safety net of anonymity weaving the protective web that it did for a lot of people.
As easy as it was to be someone else online, it was equally easy to be yourself, no expectations or trepidation blinding the true artwork underneath. Knowing Georgia in both places, without her knowing that I knew, was one of the most remarkable experiences of my life. She was the same yet different—honest and open and unafraid of recrimination. She wasn’t afraid to send me messages about freaking the fuck out. She was just her, and I liked getting to be on the receiving end of twice the interaction. She was still scared to wear out her welcome with Kline Brooks. I couldn’t fucking welcome her enough. This gave us the best of both worlds.
I even found myself sending her more goddamn messages as Ruck, just to be able to enjoy what she might say. I pushed the envelope, trying to get her even more comfortable with me, even knowing that, in her mind, she was splitting her affection between two men.
It was fucked, but I knew if she could forgive me, her actions wouldn’t be an issue in the slightest. Love, lust, and attraction were base instincts. They were simple and finite and somehow still infinitely complicated. She liked Ruck because he was another dimension of me.
So as much as it didn’t make sense rationally, it made heart-sense. Call me a hopeless romantic, or maybe a fool, but to me, that was all that mattered.
Stowing my phone in the console, I put the car back into drive and pulled away from the curb. Cute brick-front brownstone buildings with iron-railed stairs lined the sides of each street, mature trees casting their shadows every fifty feet. Dusk threatened as the sun made its descent, already hiding behind buildings despite its place just above the horizon.
And my heart? Well, it just about beat right out of my chest.
Georgia sat on the stoop of her building with her arms crossed on her knees and her suitcase at her feet as I pulled up.
Her hair was wild and unkempt, curling just enough that I knew she’d probably showered and left it to dry on its own. Clothed in jeans and a simple sweatshirt with just barely a trace of makeup on her face, she was still the most beautiful thing I’d seen in just about forever.
Eager to put her racing mind at ease, I pushed the gearshift into park, turned the key to off, and jumped out to round the car before she even made it to her feet.
Adorable and wondering at my hurry, her teeth dug into the skin of her lip and her head tilted just slightly to the side.