waited for him, if you catch my drift. And he’d just found the love of his life when I met you. I was a little depressed about it.”
I smile like it's all hilarious, but he doesn't smile back. “So I was going to swoop in and show you a good time?”
“Well, you offered. I didn't know whether I was going to accept.”
I probably was, though. I’d felt reckless, and I wanted my life to have a little more danger in it. Besides—Rickie is hot and smart and funny—which really does make him my type.
He finally picks up his chopsticks and pokes at his ramen soup. “I suppose that sounds like something I’d do. But that guy in those texts sounds a little creepy.”
“Eh. I thought you were awfully forward. But never creepy. You asked me in a way that was half joking. But I liked how different your outlook was from mine. As if the world was just here for your amusement. Like—let’s just go where the night takes us.”
“Interesting.” He takes a slow sip of his beer, and seems to think about it.
“Honestly, I liked the way you didn't care so damn much about every little thing. I was jealous of your attitude, and I wanted to borrow it for a night.”
He’s quiet for a couple of minutes. And I hope we can move on. “Listen,” he says eventually. “I want to tell you something, although it's probably just wishful thinking. I'm pretty sure that Saturday night of the party is the same one I ended up in the hospital.”
My iced tea stops halfway to my mouth. “Really?”
He nods.
“I guess you’re really sorry that you stood me up, then.”
He smiles sheepishly. “Hindsight. Am I right?”
“Or—” The realization dawns. “Maybe you got hurt, and didn't even mean to leave me standing by the gate in the rain for forty-five minutes.”
He tips his head from side to side, considering. “See, I love that idea. But it's a stretch. How I could accidentally get wasted if I was planning to come and get you? And fall off a high fence, all before eight o'clock?”
He makes a few good points. And I love this idea a little too much as well. If he’d already been hurt, then I’m not the nerdy virgin he’d abandoned when someone better came along.
“But either way, Daphne, I'm sorry. I apologize. You must think I'm such an asshole.”
“Well, I know you a little better now and I find you to be a very entertaining asshole.”
Finally he smiles. “I’m still sorry.”
“I know you are. And I accept your apology.”
He glances down at his overturned phone. “Those messages though, so smug.”
Uh oh. A contrite Rickie is even more dangerous to my libido than a crass Rickie. It makes him more real. I can’t let myself like him this much. “Can we just drop it now? Besides, you're still smug.”
“About some things,” he says. “But I've been taken down a few pegs lately.”
“You too, huh? Welcome to my quarter-life crisis.”
He picks up his beer and takes a swig. “The offer to take your virginity still stands, but I assume that ship has sailed.”
I reach across the table and poke him with my chopsticks.
“Yeah, I thought so.”
For the hundredth time, I wish he weren’t so ridiculously attractive. The simmering heat I feel when he smiles at me is very distracting.
He settles in to eat, and I relax. After a minute, he stretches one hand a few inches across the table, just far enough for his fingertips to brush mine. It's the lightest brush, and then it's over. “Look, I’m very drawn to you,” he says quietly. “My gut tells me that I must have been drawn to you then, too. Right from the beginning.”
“Well, there's proof of that.” I try to sound nonchalant. “You offered me sex.”
He flinches. “I just wish I had that time machine, you know? I’d like to think I handled you with care.”
Suddenly, my insides are all gooey. And my heart is sparking dangerously, like the flux capacitor on Marty McFly’s DeLorean.
The moment is broken when my phone pings with a couple of texts. But I don’t want to look away. No man has ever watched me the way Rickie does. Like he’s waiting for a sign.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I don't know how to explain how we were with each other. And I can’t say for sure what you were thinking.” I still don't know what this man is thinking and he’s sitting right in front of