they were all sold out. And now I’ve Winona’d it again.”
“You’ve what now?”
“Oh, I’m just a special brand of special. And it happens so often that I use it as a term for doing something exceptionally dumb. Not if I do something regular-dumb – It has to be the kind of thing you could recount on a girls’ night out and make everyone cry-laugh in disbelief.”
“You like to talk a lot,” he observes.
I nod glumly. “I’m sorry about the latte. I’ll buy you another one, and then leave.” My shoulders slump as I turn away.
I’m stopped by an insistent tapping on my shoulder. He smiles wryly. “I like girls who talk a lot, because a lot of times I don’t know what to say. Forget the coffee. We are sold out, but I could get my hands on a prototype…if you go out to dinner with me. I mean, if you’re single.”
I think of Blake and the gourmet lunches that he sends me every day…so I can eat lunch alone at my desk. The flirty texts that ensure he’s never far from my mind…and the nights I spend alone, tossing and turning and thinking of him.
The fact that he’ll schedule in time for a trip to the john, but not a relationship. I’m less important than his 3:15 whiz break.
“Oh, I’m single,” I say fervently. “So, so single. Very single.”
He gives me an odd look. “You’re sure you’re not dating Blake?”
“No, he just needed a plus one for the gala.”
“Oh, sure.” He nods, arching his eyebrows. “Makes sense. You were basically the holy water he used to repel Sloane.”
I smile. He’s not at all full of himself – he’s kind of shy and wryly self aware, and he’s actually funny. This might actually be fun. “I can neither confirm nor deny.”
“When are you free?”
I grimace, thinking about my obscenely packed schedule.
“I am crazy busy, and I’m not saying that to make excuses. Blake has me running like a hamster on a wheel. Would next Friday be okay?” That’s a week from today. It’s cutting it close, because Tamara’s birthday is Sunday, and she and her mother are flying in for the day. Thanks to Blake, though, I have no other free time.
“Sure,” he says. “You can meet me at Norfolk’s at seven p.m.”
“But just a dinner date,” I add quickly. “No funny business.”
“Really?” He smiles wryly. “And there I was going to wear my clown suit.”
I burst into laughter, and it’s genuine, not forced. He is really, truly kind of cute. Sloane was an idiot to dump him for Blake, because I’m sure Marshall was way more available than Blake was.
“I’ll see you there,” I say. “I’m looking forward to it.”
I practically skip and dance all the way back to Hudson’s. I’ve got the doll. I’ve got the doll.
I can keep my job. I can pay my bills. My parents don’t have to tell their friends about how their daughter’s latest job lasted one whole month before she Winona’d it.
My good mood lasts all day long, until I get home.
Quinton, lying in wait for me in the lobby, punctures my happiness like a pin jabbed into a balloon. He stands there, arms folded across his chest.
“I’ve been in your apartment again today. Someone reported a gas leak that I had to check out.” Yeah, I bet they did. “And funny thing, you apparently have a new roommate. A roommate with fur.”
Oh, hell.
I glare at him, trying to look intimidating. “I know about you giving Blake Hudson the key to my apartment.”
He shrugs. “Good luck trying to prove that. And even if you get me fired, it doesn’t matter. It’s not up to me, it’s the owner. This building has an official no-pets policy, and you signed a lease agreeing to that.”
I knew this day would come, but I wasn’t prepared for it. Sorrow washes over me, surprisingly strong. My voice goes all husky. “She has nowhere to go.”
He shrugs indifferently. “Tell you what. If you don’t mention the thing you just accused me of, which I definitely didn’t do, I’ll give you a week to find a new home for it.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Blake
A fundraiser at the Shady Oaks Country Club is just about the last place I want to be on a Saturday night. However, it gives me an excuse to force Winona to spend the evening with me, which is the only way I can get her to acknowledge my existence these days. She’s started icing me out at work.