Why don't you Stay ... Forever - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,30
desk, clicks something on her computer, and switches off her hands-free phone with rapidity. I lead her to my office.
Stacks of humming computers and a shelf of cords and computer parts adorn the room. My desk is clean and neat, only my desktop computer on it. My brothers always seem to have papers everywhere, but I don’t have a scrap in sight. Drives my mom crazy whenever she wants to leave me a note.
Erin has been in here before—she’s told me the room went with me, whatever that meant. Today, she’s too impatient to look around.
“Ben, I’m so sorry.” Erin clasps her fingers loosely in front of her. “Reuben has no right to bother you, no right to bother anyone.”
“Hey.” I take her hands—I have to pry them apart. “Reuben’s not your fault. He’s an asshole all by himself.”
That wins a little smile. “What did he say?”
I mull over the weird conversation I’d had with Reuben. We’d slowly circled the parking lot as we talked, shaded by mesquites and thick oleanders that separate our business from the one next door.
“He wanted to reassure me he hasn’t come back for you,” I tell her. “That he knows he screwed up with you. He’s happy you’ve found someone new, and will bow out gracefully.”
Erin scowls. “He has a big ego.”
“Yeah, that’s obvious.” I squeeze her hands. “Like it’s up to him who you go out with. But he seemed sincere.” I frown, still pondering. “It was strange. I kept trying to get mad at him, but then Reuben would deflect that and be contrite. He apologized a lot. Like he was losing sleep over his behavior and wouldn’t be absolved until he came and talked to me.”
“Hmm.” Erin swings our entwined hands, and I find myself wanting to move closer. “Maybe he has reformed for real. I doubt it, but you never know. He might have had an epiphany.” She pins me with her gaze. “Does not mean I’m interested in him.”
She sounds worried I won’t believe her. I can’t help bending to her and giving her a kiss.
The kiss could have changed into something more serious, but Erin eases back. “Is that really all he wanted?”
I have to shake my head. “He wants to dance with you in the show. A pas de whatever-it’s-called. Wanted to assure me it was purely professional. He says you’re one of the best dancers he’s ever met, and you can help him grow. His words. He wanted my blessing.”
Erin stares at me in perplexity and growing anger. “He asked you? Why the hell didn’t he ask me? The idiot. Or discuss it with Clarice? And Dean? If we add a pas de deux to this show, we’ll have to cut or trim one of mine with Dean, who will not be happy.”
I squeeze her hands again, pulling her back to the here and now. “I told Reuben he should be talking to you instead of me. But he said he was afraid to approach you directly, knowing you’d say no. I think he wants me to persuade you.”
“The total jerk.” She’s fuming now, cheeks flushed.
“He’s not wrong about you being a good dancer.” I picture how she glides across the stage in perfect elegance.
Erin isn’t soothed. “He’s changed his tune. Reuben used to criticize me all the time, like I wasn’t good enough to dance with him. I wonder what the hell happened to him in Milwaukee.”
“He got cold?” I glance out my slit of a window at the blazing May sunshine. “I hear they have winter there.”
“Ha ha,” Erin says, straight-faced. “You think I should agree?”
“What?” I pull my brain back from fantasies of Erin dancing like a goddess, except naked in her bedroom, just for me. “No, I’m just telling you what he said—it was a bizarre conversation.” I stand closer, moving my hands to cup her elbows. “It’s your life, your career, your choice. I’d never tell you to do what I want, or talk you into going against your gut.”
Erin’s eyes go rounder. “Wow. That’s the nicest thing any guy has ever said to me.”
“Really?” The corners of my mouth twitch. “That’s kind of sad.”
“Reuben is right though, that any interaction I have with him now is purely professional. I am truly over him. I don’t want you to worry about …”
I touch Erin’s face, and her words trail off. The fact that she’s reassuring me she won’t dump me for a good-looking, well-built guy the ladies in the audience drool