Page 42 of Temporarily in Love

I shook my head. “Not if I can help it.”

She leaped up to get her phone on the bedside table. “I have to text my mom, or she’ll think I’m dead.”

I laughed. “Okay, love.”

I watched her type away on her phone, and I wanted to freeze this moment of her in her underwear on my bed with that sweet smile on her face. I wanted to memorize this moment because even though I suggested this fling, I knew as soon as she left, I’d feel like a shell of a man again. I wanted to remind myself later how good it felt when she was in my arms.

She gave me an annoyed look. “Why are you creeping on me?”

I brushed her hair behind her ear and bent to take her mouth again, this time slow and lingering. I kissed her until we were tangled up in my sheets, until I was unhooking her bra and sliding her panties down her legs. I kissed her through all her orgasms as we had slow, gentle sex.

Sometimes having vanilla sex was nice. I didn’t always need to have her tied up and submissive to me. I just needed to be with her. Needed to feel myself pressed so deep inside her, worshiping her body like the goddess she was.

I was in deep trouble already. Seeing Lila again was like nothing had ever happened. We bounced back as if sixteen years weren’t between us. Like we were still those kids who had hopes of being together forever. I pretended that was who we still were. Pretended like it wasn’t going to hurt when she walked out of my life again.

Lila was still asleep when I woke up the next morning. I slipped out of bed and went into my tiny kitchen to make us coffee. The brewery didn’t open until noon, and I usually didn’t go in until then. So why was I up at eight in the morning? To work on the website for her.

I sat down at my table in my kitchen and opened my computer. I scanned the website for Sullivan’s Bar and groaned at how outdated it was. I designed this back in high school as part of my computer science elective. Over the years, I had offered to redesign it for Lila’s parents, but they always said it was fine. It was a hot mess and needed a total overhaul.

A part of me wondered if I should fix it at all. The longer she stayed in Drakesville, the longer I’d get to spend time with her. If I fixed this quickly, then she’d leave me sooner. But that was a total dick move.

I grabbed a cup of coffee and got to work, pushing aside my selfish thoughts. I clicked another tab to look at the brewery’s website and opened some other bar websites to get inspiration, but then I searched Lila’s name instead.

The first thing that popped up was a photo of her at a Gala with some nerdy-looking guy with glasses on her arm. Dark hair, plastic rim glasses, a skinny guy with no muscles, yeah, it was safe to say Lila had a type. He wore a suit, and she was dressed impeccably in a sparkling slinky black evening gown. She was like the brightest star in the sky next to him.

I read the caption on the photo. Chad Banks, CEO of Hedy Industries, with fiancée Lila Sullivan.

I looked up Hedy Industries and scoffed at the reason for calling it that. Seriously? Because the guy had a hard-on for Hedy Lamarr? What a douche canoe. I found Lila’s LinkedIn when I went back to my search engine. There was a headshot, and it listed her as ‘inside counsel for Hedy Industries.’ I didn’t know what exactly she did, but her parents proudly told me she was raking in the big bucks as a lawyer for some tech firm. Why would she want to throw it all away for some bar in the Philly suburbs?

I looked around my claustrophobic apartment. There wasn’t much to my place, but I had lived here for the past couple of years because it was close to the brewery. Lila was probably used to fancy cars and mansion-style houses, nothing like my tiny apartment.

I closed out those tabs and tried to get back to work. But my mind kept returning to the fact that I was so far beneath her. Owning a brewery meant you were always worried about the bottom line. Always worried a bad batch could set you back. Nolan and I had been making a name for ourselves. We were living comfortably, but not in the luxury like Lila was. What did she even want to do with me, anyway?

I tried to shake those thoughts away as I sipped my coffee and started working on a new design. I wanted to lean into the Irish stuff since that’s what Gemma suggested. Maybe they needed a new logo too.

I shot off a text to Felix.

ME: Can you do a logo concept for me?

Felix was up early because he was getting his little sister, Skye, off to school this morning. I wasn’t surprised when he texted me right back.

FELIX: For your girlfriend’s bar?

ME: Ex-girlfriend.

FELIX: Who you’re totally banging tho, right?

ME: Shut it. Can you do it or not?

FELIX: Yeah man, I got it.

I got lost in the code as I figured out what I wanted from this new website. It had to have a clean design, but we needed to get more assets to make this work. The stuff currently on the website was so old.

I jumped when I felt a hand wrap around my bare chest, but a smile painted across my face when I looked up at Lila.

“Sorry, you looked like you were in the zone,” she said. She pressed a kiss to my neck and looked at my computer screen. “How long have you been awake?”

I checked my phone and realized I had been at it for two hours. I let her sleep in until ten. “Sorry, a while. We have some problems.”