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Fuck it. “Do you want to come in?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “Very much so.”
He handed over her keys as they walked to her front door, but was otherwise quiet.
“I’m not asking you in for a nightcap,” she said as she unlocked the door. “I mean, you can have one if you want one, but that’s not what I’m offering,” she added to clarify. Maybe there were websites where guys went to look for the rules of dating that she didn’t know existed. She should be clear. Lay out expectations. Make sure he wasn’t surprised.
Marsie wasn’t good with surprises. She still hadn’t fully processed that she’d had sex in her office. At work. That was going to have to sit, unconsidered, for a couple days before she would be able to look at the what and the why.
Then she’d probably call Beck and brag. ’Cause, God, it had been awesome and freeing and so un-Marsie-like. But it had been her, and she had been free and she hadn’t felt like a completely different person. She’d felt like the person she was when she was with Jason.
He chuckled. “I had guessed that.”
He put his hand on her as she pushed the lever to open her front door. “Marsie?” She looked up. “There are no expectations. No rules. Friday night means everything. And it means nothing. If all I get is a drink and a chat, that’s okay. And I’m here for the chat more than I am for the drink.”
The door opened. “I wasn’t thinking about rules.”
“Don’t front. You’re not very good at it.”
“Hey,” she said, her indignation only half faked. “I was good at acting for poker.”
“Well, yeah, but you getting what you want out of men who don’t believe in you is as much a part of who you are as your absolute honesty with yourself.” He smiled, seemingly delighted with something she didn’t fully understand. “It’s awesome that they exist in the same person.”
“Well,” she said, both flattered and not sure what to say. “I’ll get you that nightcap, then. Whiskey? Gin and tonic? Something else.”
“Gin and tonic sounds good.”
“Great. I’ve even got limes. And the navy-strength version of that gin from Durham. It’s part of my fiendish plan to get you to stay the night.” With a quick, slightly embarrassed smile, she rushed off to the kitchen for glasses and drinks.
Mostly, she didn’t know what to do because she hadn’t planned for this to happen. She hadn’t known what would happen when he came over with breakfast and certainly hadn’t known what would happen when they went on their daylong date.
Jason wasn’t Richard, who’d operated with the same level of precision that she used to employ when organizing her relationships. And he wasn’t some guy she didn’t know and was cataloging in her mind. He was Jason. A whole different level of person. One she might never be able to fully categorize.
She dropped lime wedges into the glasses. For the first time in her life, not knowing sounded as interesting as knowing.
Jason was sitting on the couch flipping through a copy of The Economist when she came into the living room. He patted the seat next to him as he took a sip of the drink she handed him.
“So…”
She kissed him. No rules. Nothing to hold her back. Nothing to make her think Jason wasn’t part of her plan. It didn’t matter if he was part of her plan. He was here, and she didn’t want him to be anywhere else.
And she didn’t hold back with the kiss. Last night, she’d been uncertain as she pressed her lips against his neck, testing him. Now she knew. This exciting world between knowing that she was doing the right thing and not fully knowing what he would do next or how they would be together.
Because she knew they would be awesome together. In this case, the details didn’t matter so much as how she felt. She felt like she had warm, gentle sun covering her entire body, enough to make her flush red with excitement and anticipation.
His lips were strong, certain, which she hadn’t fully realized lips could be. And they were cold from the gin.
The edge of his glass hit the top of the table, then she heard him push the glass around until it landed on something softer than the nice wood of her coffee table. She pulled her head back enough to look. “You made sure the glass landed on a coaster?”
