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“No.” She looks at me and smiles. “I want to. Not be bored, go with you. I just need to go home and get changed.”
I sweep my gaze over her. “No you don’t. You look good, very Elliot.”
“Frumpy?”
“You say one thing wrong…” This I can do. And the rest? I’ll work on that shit later. And soon she’ll be gone and I can see if she wants to be friends, or…yeah. We’ll see. But first, I need to be me, the 2.0 version. Fake it until you make it, right? “I don’t think you look frumpy at all. I think you look beautiful.”
Her smile is hesitant, but it blooms and warmth spreads through me. “It’s your lucky day, because today, flattery will get you everywhere. Or a date to this thing.”
“Come my lady.” I hold my arm out to her once more. “Let’s go.”
And this time, she takes it.
Thank Christ for the redhead with me. She charms the battleaxes and is a quiet and implacable presence that infuses all around us. And she makes quiet comments that almost make me laugh, which I do back at her until it turns into a game.
But Elliot’s on her game, right at the top and she deftly controls anything that might seem like it could go south, like questions. Like the fact my mother brought some kind of beauty queen with her who would have been sitting next to me if it wasn’t for Elliot.
And through it all, my fucking mother just smiled her sly little smile.
Over a glass of wine at the fancy bar in pale creams—like the rest of the godforsaken high-end place, I sit with Elliot and rest my elbow on the bar’s top.
“To you, Perry.” I raise my glass and clink it against hers.
She places her hand against her heart, right between her lovely breasts, hinted at in the lavender button down she’s wearing. I remember how they feel and fit my hand, how they taste a little too well.
“Me?”
“You saved me about a billion times.”
She takes a sip of her wine and hides a smile behind the rim of the glass. “You did all right, unless you wanted the bait your mom brought in.”
“It was a little…on the nose.” I slide her a sly look. “But she was hot.”
“Your mom?”
“C’mon, Perry, you don’t play fair.”
How is it that like this we’re great?
The word safe wanders through my mind.
This is safe territory.
“Of course I don’t. I’m the demon who’s going to get you what you want, Sinclair.”
“And all I need to do is sell you a part of my soul?”
She wrinkles her nose. “That thing? Nope, I’ll stick to the money.” Her hand flits across mine and my blood stirs into life at her touch. “You know, Ryder, you did good. You didn’t need me today.”
“No, but I wanted you.” She’s staring at me, so I go on. “There. Here. I wanted you here with me.”
Her gaze skitters away and I can’t shake the feeling I somehow disappointed her, but I’m not sure how. She looked at me like she didn’t want me to say what I did.
Women.
I was better off when I didn’t care on such a personal level.
Liking someone sucks the big one.
