are answered now. Thanks. I need to go back to his house and get some more paperwork, finish packing and getting the stuff moved out. I hired a company but I like to be hands on about these matters, too. There are some repairs for another building he owned that weren’t completed and I have to have them taken care of before I sell the place.”
“Speaking of your father’s place, can I come over to Benjamin’s house next week and look at those books you brought up? Since I may be out of the building soon, I’d like to get it done as soon as possible.”
“Yeah, that’s no problem at all. You’d be helping me by taking them off my hands. How about Tuesday? That’s usually my least busy day at the shop and Aiden typically doesn’t have much goin’ on either. I can just bring him with me right after school.”
“Sure. I can make it work.”
“All right. Let’s do that then. Oh, and whatever you want, I can have them piled up in the truck for you and drive them over. It’s just that many.” He took a gulp of his wine, then another until it was all gone. “I’ll give you the address and everything. Just swing on by.”
“Wonderful.”
They engaged in a bit of small talk, until their meals were finished and their bellies full.
“…So I told her that I’m going to start an Only Fans page and just sit there half naked fixing bikes. I’ll call it, ‘The Real Life Crotch Rocket.’” Lauren burst out laughing. The man was so damn silly! “I’m serious! Hell, everyone has a hustle nowadays. I had no idea there were calendars of men on motorcycles ’nd shit. People are getting paid to smear whipped cream all over themselves or dance in rabbit costumes on that website. The world has gone crazy. It’s like Craigslist on crack. I may as well get in on the action. I could’ve been making money hand over fist.”
“It seems like anything goes nowadays. I mean, I am not knocking anyone’s hustle, either, but some of this mess is just going too far.”
He nodded in agreement. She sipped her wine, slowly, drawing out the evening. Patrons came and went, and the night wore on. As they chatted, the way his eyes roamed her face and body made her heat up.
“You wanna go out on a date next week? A real one. Not like this, where I just asked you out to get information about my father. The second time around, I’d wanna get information about you.”
“Aries, I’m flattered, but I’m not really interested in dating right now. It’s not because anything is wrong with you. It’s just me.”
Crossing his arms, he hesitated before asking, “Why?”
“What do you mean, why? I’m just not.” She shrugged, hating being put on the spot like that.
“There’s always a reason why. ‘I’m just not’ isn’t a real answer.” He cracked his knuckles, as if his inquisition had just begun and he was ready to put in work. “I just wanna go on a simple little date. It’s harmless.”
“Nothing about you is harmless.” She smirked. He smirked back.
She finished her wine and before she knew it, he was paying the bill and on his feet. He helped her out of her chair and she practically turned stiff as a board when he reached for her hand, intertwined their fingers, and led her to his parked truck. She thought about pulling away, but she enjoyed it too much to follow through. His hand was warm and rough. Strong. Firm. He opened the passenger’s door and helped her inside, his warm breath bathing her ear as he leaned over and even strapped her in with the seatbelt.
He took care of everything, from start to finish, and he stared at her the whole damn time while he did. At one point, he tarried, his nose almost grazing her cheek. Moments later, he was driving, the radio playing ‘Pillow Talk,’ by Zayn. I love this song…
He drove with a cigarette dangling between his fingers, his arm hanging out the window as he bobbed his head to the music. She felt so strange, yet also pretty. She felt something that the English language hadn’t quite defined.
When he pulled up to her house, he parked, cigarette still in hand, and left the truck running. Tossing the cigarette on the ground, he snuffed it with the tip of his shoe. Music spilled out of the window as he helped her