AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The most obvious answer was that Dorian wasn’t ready. He’d opened up to me about his ex, and although he didn’t say it out loud I could tell he wasn’t over her yet. He might think jumping in with me too quickly would be a mistake.
Alternatively, maybe he was feeling guilty about claiming he just wanted to be friends. Like he had pulled a bait-and-switch with me: pretend to be a friend and then bam, move in for the kill. I knew that’s not what he had done, but he might think I felt that way. Or maybe he was uncomfortable about the whole arrangement with the other guys. Ryan was my fuck-buddy, and Andy was potentially a long-term relationship. Where did Dorian fit in? He probably thought the other guys had “dibs” on me. Another irrational thought, but one that might make him hesitate.
There was another angle I wasn’t considering. What did I want? Even though I yearned to tell Dorian that I had feelings for him, I didn’t know what I wanted. I was surrounded by guys who I had big old crushes on. What did I want long-term, and what was going to happen when The Proposition was over and we all moved on to different shows? Would our little harem house keep going?
“This whole thing is too damn complicated,” I muttered, drawing a look from a punk girl walking next to me. Robbie was right when he told me to be careful. He was going to be awfully smug when I saw him next.
I was no closer to clarity when I reached Andy in the park half an hour later. He had a checkered blanket draped across the ground and a wicker picnic basket in one corner. He was laying flat, with two pillows underneath his head and his hands crossed over his chest.
“This seat taken?” I asked as I approached.
He cracked open one eye and twisted to face me, smiling. “Sorry, ma’am. It’s reserved for a beautiful backup dancer from the hit new off-broadway show The Proposition.”
I spread out my skirts and sat next to him. “I’ll keep it warm until she arrives.”
Andy did a crunch to come up into a sitting position, then opened the picnic basket. Attached to the underside of the lid were a variety of wine-opening tools and two glasses. But the contents underneath were deli sandwiches wrapped in brown paper, a Dr. Pepper, and a Diet Coke.
“What, no bottle of wine?”
Andy’s mouth parted slightly as he stared at me. “Oh. Um. I thought that since it is noon…”
I put a hand on his chest. “I was just joking. Dorian told me about his last girlfriend and how she drank too much wine at picnics.”
“Heather,” Andy said. “Yes. The end of their relationship was sad. Dorian still isn’t over her.”
I considered that as he passed out the food. A pastrami sandwich on sourdough for me, and a club sandwich for him. He also had a plastic container with six fancy deviled eggs, topped with paprika and bacon.
We ate in silence, which was a testament to how delicious the food was. I ate half my sandwich and then wolfed down three deviled eggs, which were incredible. I could’ve eaten an entire meal just of those.
“Are you okay?” Andy asked.
“Yeah, why?”
He regarded me behind his glasses. “You seem quiet this morning.”
“Yeah, totally fine. Just hungry!” I raised the other half of my sandwich.
Andy seemed to accept that. “How was temp work this morning?”
My heart skipped a beat at the question, but there was no hint of subtext in the question. He doesn’t know we kissed. He’s just making conversation.
“We were handing out fliers in Times Square again.”
“Exhilarating,” he said with a smile.
“Actually,” I said around a mouthful of sandwich, “we did have some excitement today…”
He listened with wide eyes as I told him about our run-in with the angry street performers.
“Buskers are no joke,” Andy said. “I read a New York Times article a while back about how they can be extremely protective of their territory. Apparently they routinely make up to $500 a day performing.”
I almost spit out my food. “$500 a day? That’s like…”
“Over $100,000 per year, depending on how many days they work,” Andy said. “Nuts, right?”
“I’m in the wrong business,” I muttered. “I should come up with a performance idea and do that during the day.”
“Only if you want to fight to protect the best territory,” Andy pointed out.
