of analyzing show ratings because my analysis is better than the outside firm Empire Media hires for input. I’m putting together a presentation on my findings for the shareholders.”
“You must be good if you’re being given that kind of opportunity.”
“I’m quite brilliant actually. If all goes well, when there’s an opening, it will hopefully be mine.”
“Well, look at you.”
He holds his glass up to me in congratulations. We clink and take sips.
For an impromptu dinner, it’s turning out to be a really great evening. I haven’t been on a decent date in a while. Not that this is a date. I should probably tell the old woman at the table next to us, who keeps looking over at us with heart eyes. Her nod tells me she approves of my dinner companion. I grin and bite my lip as I try not to laugh. Hunter looks at me and then to the woman who has stolen my attention, seemingly in wonder to what I’m giggling about.
“So, tell me, do you miss it?” I ask, trying to bring the conversation back to our table. “Playing ball, I mean.”
“In some ways. I’m mostly thankful for what the sport taught me and the success it’s brought me in my career today. I know strategy and how to be a team player. I don’t give up easily, and since I’ve been inside the head of an athlete, I know how to tell their stories on-screen.”
“That’s really beautiful,” I muse with a grin. “There’s no I in team.”
He nods and smiles at my aphorism. “Something like that.”
“Well, I, for one, am not the team sports type. I know; surprise, surprise. Book nerd all the way.”
Leaning off his chair, he appraises my body. “You’re actually quite fit.”
I burst out laughing at his use of the word fit. When he raises his hands in question, I explain, “Fit is actually British slang for sexy. You’d use it when you’re describing someone you’re attracted to.”
With a chagrin, he responds, “Yeah, you’re fit.”
And now, I’m blushing.
As the dinner course is served, I tell Hunter about my college days. I moved to Manhattan from my small town in Ohio two years ago wanting to work for a major television network. I started as a page at Empire Media and slowly worked my way up to assistant.
“I know about Katie the assistant. What about the girl who leaves the office?” he asks. “No ex-boyfriends hidden in your closet?”
I move my food around my plate. “I had one long-term boyfriend in high school, but we broke up before senior year. I dated a guy in college for a while, but he wanted me to stay in our hometown while I had my heart set on moving here.”
He looks down at his plate and lowers his brows. “If you’d stayed, do you think you’d still be together?”
I take a bite and cover my mouth, nodding before I can honestly say, “I’d probably be married with two kids right now. That’s not uncommon for someone in their mid-twenties back home.”
“And here I am, a thirty something year old bachelor with no kids in sight.”
I can’t tell by his tone if he means that as a good thing or a bad thing.
“I’d also be wildly unhappy. He was a nice guy. Really funny and sweet, but he didn’t make my heart race. You know?”
He runs his hand along his jaw. “Does Branson make your heart race?”
I have to stop and think about that. Yes. My heart beats with nervous energy whenever Branson is around.
Then again, my heart also races when I’m with Hunter, but that’s so very different. When he kisses me, it’s like my heart is pounding so strongly that it’s going to burst through my skin. That’s not love though. It’s attraction. Blistering need from intoxicating kisses. I can see why so many people confuse lust for love.
He must take my silence as something else. “Hold your head up, kid. Maybe Branson will fall in love with you, and you’ll be married with two kids by the time you’re thirty.”
His words are said seriously, which makes sense because me wanting Branson is literally why we’re sitting here, eating dinner. Except there’s something about that being a reality that isn’t sitting well with me right now.
I know I’ve lusted over the man for a long time, but hearing it coming from Hunter’s mouth has me thinking, wondering if that’s really what I want.
My focus drops to my plate, and I play with the remainder