dinner?” he goes on as if this is a completely normal situation.
“Well.” I shift in next to him at the bar and drum my fingers on the surface. “I found an amazing red wine.”
I tell him the name, and he nods to the bartender for two glasses.
“And the company?” Tyler presses as he turns back to me, his gaze more serious.
“It’s rapidly improving.”
I lift the wine and hold it out to him in a toast. He grins as he clinks his glass lightly with mine, and my heart kicks in my chest.
The wine tastes delicious on my tongue, comfort down my throat.
“I’m guessing the fact that you’re here instead of with him doesn’t bode well for your show.”
“It does not,” I concede. “But I will figure it out. I always do.”
“Yes, you do. And I have a gift for you.”
I’m intrigued even before he pushes a paper bag down the bar.
“Is it millions of dollars?” I quip.
“Better.”
I open it and peer inside, the scent of potatoes and oil making my stomach growl. “Oh my God. Cheese fries.”
“From the diner near that comedy club we used to like. I watched you through the glass for the last ten minutes,” he admits. “Didn’t see you pick up your fork once.”
Tyler’s not trying to touch me, to grab me, to make me do anything or be anything. He’s just here, bringing me five-dollar French fries in a five-star hotel.
God, I missed my friend.
I know my heart was broken when we parted ways, when I chose both our dreams over our future together, but I downplayed how much it hurt not to have this—the calm, dryly funny, quietly charming guy I’ve adored since before I knew what charm was.
We eat every last fry and talk about everything. Tyler and Beck’s life in LA. Elle’s new show and whether she and her agent have something going on. How I’m stuck on the last few verses of the most important song for this musical. The fact that he got Shay into the studio before coming to New York and was rewarded by something better than he could’ve imagined.
“I told your dad I wanted to swap his dumbass kid for Shay.”
I grin. “How’d that go over?”
“Not great.”
It’s kind of nice to know I’m not the only person who argues with him.
I gaze past Tyler at the sparkling people and tables.
A couple of tables still cut looks at us, one discreetly trying to take pictures.
“We’re going to be on the internet in thirty minutes, if we’re not already,” I murmur.
Tyler reaches for the wine glass. “Do you care? Because I don’t.”
I shake my head, smiling as he drinks. The way he fills out his unfussy jacket is a tailor’s wet dream. The dark, messy hair makes me itch to run my hands through it.
Ian’s words come back.
You’re saving yourself for someone.
I was.
Maybe I still am.
“For an unavailable guy, you’re acting pretty available,” I comment after we’ve finished the bottle of wine and I’ve won rock paper scissors for the last stub of a fry in the bottom of the greasy paper box.
Tyler frowns, confused. “What do you mean?”
“When I said Shay had a crush on you,” I remind him, “you said she didn’t have a shot because you’re unavailable.”
Understanding dawns. The fact that he doesn’t argue with me has my stomach sinking.
“Please tell me you’re not seeing someone. That there’s not some woman who thinks she’s yours.”
The idea is unbearable.
Tyler pulls his bottom lip between his teeth. “No,” he says at last. “I’m not seeing anyone.”
Relief washes over me, and I can breathe again. But the fear spiking through me a moment ago also reminds me how only a few days with him has me wanting things I have no business wanting with him.
Tyler swipes the bill for the drinks before I can, but the laughter’s faded from his eyes, replaced by something serious and maybe even sad. “Let me drive you home.”
“You got quiet,” Tyler observes in the town car as we cruise through the city toward my apartment.
The lights penetrate the back windows, creating strips of illumination that run over his body and mine.
“There’s not enough quiet in the world.” I lean my head on his shoulder, and Tyler huffs out a breath.
When we pull up in front of the building, I have to force my legs out of the car because I don’t want it to end.
“Walk me to my door?” I say on impulse.
He shifts out of the car after me, a dark presence