“Yeah. Mostly buying up buildings and flipping them or renting them out. Sometimes we’ll work with developers to get bigger projects off the ground, but that’s mostly Ben’s department. I work best in sales. I charm the pants off people to get what I want,” I grinned. “But truthfully, I’d like to become more hands-on with just one business. Maybe a spot like this. I’ve always wanted to have my own club.”
“Why don’t you? I mean, you have the money, right?” She immediately winced and buried her face in her hands. “I’m soooo sorry. That was so freakin’ rude. I didn’t mean to… Del just… Well, she said that Nick and all of you had done very well for yourselves.”
I wrapped my hands around both of her wrists to pull them down from her face. She seized up from the feeling of my palms, and seemed to stiffen even more when I didn’t remove them right away.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” I said, looking deep into her eyes. “It’s fine. You had it right. I do have the money. It’s more an issue of time. I don’t want to spread myself too thin. Running something like this would be very time-consuming.”
Her lips parted, and I suddenly realized she wasn’t going to be able to say anything as long as I still had my hands on her arms. I grinned and pulled them away. I had a strange urge to kiss her, but we hadn’t drank enough for either of us to be so reckless.
“Well, that was my one drink,” she said in a disappointed tone, staring down at her empty glass.
“So… What will it be, Lizzy? Do you want to behave? Or have a little fun?”
I could swear I saw her bottom lip quiver with the question. “Well, when you put it that way…”
4
Lizzy
Behave or have fun? I was the type who would always choose to behave. But with Damon’s big brown hopeful eyes burning into me, I wanted to misbehave so very badly. Everything in me was squirming and screaming out: What the hell is happening right now!? Not only were Damon and I hanging out and having drinks together, but he was flirting with me nonstop. For a moment, I thought he might actually lean in to kiss me. I couldn’t just walk away from this opportunity.
I didn’t have the guts to tell him that the big thing in my life that hadn’t turned out the way I planned was that I thought I’d be married to the love of my life by now. We’d have a kid and another one on the way. There was a small old house outside the city that I always dreamed of buying and fixing up with my husband. It may have been cheesy, but you can’t always help what your heart wants. I wanted that little old house and the white picket fence and a tire swing for the kids.
Of course, when the developers started sweeping through Cherry Falls, someone tore the old house down. I assumed my dreams of ever finding true love with a man who was ready to settle down and start a family...it all died right along with the house.
But tonight was different. Now, I wasn’t just a waitress and shopkeeper going home alone every night, spiraling dangerously close to spinsterdom. For just a little while, I wasn’t waiting around for my life to start or for something exciting to happen. I was out on the town with one of the hottest guys I had ever seen, and he just so happened to be my big crush. It made me sit up a little straighter and hold my chin high. Especially when I saw the way he looked at me as he returned to our table with a second round of drinks in hand.
“I hope you don’t mind. I took the liberty of ordering you something a little different.”
He slid a blue concoction over to me and started to drink his own cocktail. I leaned down for a sip and knew I was in trouble. It went down way too easy.
“What’s in it?” I asked, reveling in the warm buzz that was starting to spread through my body.
“Red bull, vodka, and a few other things,” he replied. “I figured you could use the energy boost since you agreed to stay out later than you planned.”
I laughed in between more sips from the straw. “It’s not my energy tonight that’s going to be a problem. It’s the morning that I’m worried about.”
“I’ll get up early too. Solidarity. Besides, I work out early every morning before work.”
My eyes drifted up and down his body beyond my control. He was tall and slender, so his muscles weren’t immediately noticeable. But now I could see the distinct swell of his upper arms poking out beneath his rolled-up shirt sleeves. My tongue slipped across my bottom lip as I imagined what the rest of his chest would look like underneath that shirt.
We kept talking about everything and nothing and before I knew it, one drink had turned into five...or maybe six. I was too enraptured by Damon’s smile and glinting eyes to keep count. Every time I watched him take a drink, I was overcome with the fantasy of feeling those lips on mine and everywhere else on my body.
He didn’t seem so immune to my charms either, for whatever that meant. In addition to all the flirting, he looked at me with desire that only intensified as the evening went on. I couldn’t believe he was acting like he was actually interested in me. I knew he was a heartbreaker, and that I was walking a dangerous line of potentially getting hurt if I kept going with this. But I’d had a crush on him for a while and the tempting possibility of even just one night with him was starting to become too much to resist. I didn’t know if it was just the alcohol that was piquing his interest in me, but I egged him on to keep drinking just in case. The tables turned from him luring me into another round to me getting more drinks from the bar without asking, ensuring that the moment he finished one there was another waiting before he had a chance to refuse.
“You have a cute laugh,” he said, watching me intently as I tried to regain my composure after something hilarious he said.
I didn’t know if he was actually that funny, if I was drunk, or maybe my attraction to him just made everything he said sound like the funniest thing I had ever heard.
“You’re such a flirt,” I blurted, wishing I knew the reason behind his behavior toward me that evening.
What had changed? There were beautiful models all around that he could just as easily be talking to. Why me? If it was because he felt sorry for me, I wanted to know. I didn’t want to let myself get all hyped up on the possibility of whatever bad decisions I might be able to make if this was all just an act.
“I’m not a flirt,” he defended. “I just can’t pass up the opportunity to compliment a woman.”
I felt myself deflate a little, but I didn’t know why. He wasn’t saying anything I didn’t already know. This wasn’t about me. I wasn’t special. Any other girl could be sitting across from him right now and he’d be laying it on just as thick. It was an attitude that seemed to plague all single men, which was precisely why I didn’t have a boyfriend. People used to say “there are plenty of fish in the sea” after a breakup. Now people said it before the relationship even had a chance to begin.
But I couldn’t chastise Damon for any of that. I didn’t want to kill the good mood we were both in.
“Oh shit,” he said suddenly. “Get up. We have to dance to this song.”
“What!?” I started digging my nails into the booth’s upholstery. “No. No, no, no. I don’t dance. You don’t want to be seen with me even attempting to dance. I’ll embarrass you.”