Baby Daddies - Tara Brown Page 0,15
to come.”
“Oh nice. I haven’t seen her in person since—the office.”
“Right.” He wrinkles his nose. “Is that okay?”
“Oh, it’s fine.” I wave him off. “Sukii and I were friends before I started there. We’ll be friends forever. I haven’t seen her because I’ve been too busy moving again.” A weak laugh escapes my lips.
“Okay. Awesome. It’s gonna be a blast. It’s low key, especially for Sami. But this is the pauper side of their business. Chill and a small budget.” He kisses again and lets me go, stepping back so I can climb in. He closes the door and gets back in on his side. “I’m so glad you’re going to come. Bev will be stoked.”
“Me too. But I don’t want to be suckered into playing in a band, at all.”
“I don’t know, I think it was too hot to skip that. Anyway, where to, madam?”
“Madam?” I wrinkle my nose. “Is that an ageist thing since I brought up our age difference?”
“No?” He says it like he’s questioning his answer and offers that smug grin.
“Ass,” I mutter and pull my phone out, sending him the address.
He taps at his phone and the car starts talking, “Hello, Lawrence. The trip to 257 East 238th Street will take approximately twenty-two minutes.”
“Damn, that is far.” He puts the car in gear and revs the engine, pulling away and following the advice of the nav which seems smarter than I’ve seen before. “So you eat sushi all the way down here?”
“It’s a great spot. But also, it’s the halfway point for me and Claire to meet. She lives in Brooklyn.”
“Cool. Who’s Claire?”
“She’s one of my best friends. We met my first year in the city at a yoga class, about six years ago. We have a group of girls we hang with. None of us are from here. We came to the city around the same time. And Claire and I are the last of the single girls.”
“Interesting.” He nods.
“What is?”
“That you were having lunch with her on a sunny Sunday instead of texting me to see what’s up after you basically avoided me all week.” He glances over at me as he speeds up onto the expressway, driving how I imagined he would. “Which means you needed to talk to your girlfriend, something you’ve been avoiding doing with me since you quit your job. Are you having second thoughts? Do we need to pretend we’re not dating so you can go back to Stan?”
“What?” I ask, wondering how he’s so smart but also tensing every time he swerves in and out of another lane.
“If you went back, which we both know Stan would take you back in a heartbeat, we couldn’t date publicly.” He sounds worried.
“No.” I risk letting go of my seat and reach over to put a hand on his meaty thigh. “No second thoughts about quitting. I mean, the homelessness I’ll be facing is concerning but beyond that, I think I made the right decision. And not just because we couldn’t date.” I don’t tell him what my brother said to me when we were in LA.
“Okay, then tell me what’s going on.” He eyes me again as he swerves to the right and speeds past someone else.
His erratic driving makes the words shoot from my mouth before I’m ready to say them, “I got a job offer.” The words taste bad, wrong but it’s time to woman up.
“All right. A decent job offer? You sound funny about it.” He is way smarter than he looks.
“Working for a tech and ecosystems company, running their marketing and ad tech division.”
“Tech and ecosystems? Is this a West Coast situation?” He doesn’t sound excited.
My voice wavers when I say, “Vancouver.”
“BC?” he shouts and swerves, cutting someone off and driving faster for an exit, though it’s not the right one and we end up near Yankee Stadium. He pulls over on a side street and gets out.
I’m vibrating and my breath hitches in my throat, mostly from the way he was driving. He opens the door on my side of the car and I undo my seatbelt and climb out, but he doesn’t back up. He’s so close my chest rubs against him and I crane my neck to look up into his stare.
Expecting his reaction to be fierce after the abrupt departure from the expressway and the car, I’m surprised when he gently cups my face and lifts, staring at me with more emotion than I imagined he could muster. “Don’t go. Don’t