“Roman Reese seemed casual?” Paige scoffed.
“Well, sort of. I mean, he’s got that brooding thing going on, but there was something…different.”
Which was the only reason I had stuck around as long as I did. I’d been terrified of being found out, but Roman had a commanding stillness that sucked me in and made me want to be near him.
Maybe that’s how all women felt around him.
While replaying that kiss, every moment and sensation, it was hard to imagine what he had been thinking. I was definitely not as smooth and practiced as he was. What had probably been just another night in the life of Governor Reese had left me reeling.
“And how could you not know who Governor Reese is?” Paige asked.
“I’ve heard of Governor Reese, but he introduced himself as Roman. And I blame our lack of cable for not recognizing him.”
After Paige and I had maneuvered our way out of the gala and into a cab, she’d spent the ride home telling me the basics about Governor Reese. He was thirty-three, an ambitious young man with a wealthy family and an Ivy League background. Exactly the kind of man I had learned never to tangle with.
Hazel clapped her hands. “Love it! Tell me everything!”
I plopped down on the couch next to her while Paige went into the kitchen and made coffee. Our three-bedroom apartment was cozy and relatively quiet. Paige had been my best friend since childhood. When I’d moved in with her and Hazel, I’d hit it off with Hazel instantly. We’d grown close quickly, and were now a trifecta of awesome friendship.
“Paige, I’m so sorry,” I called. Our living room and kitchen were partially divided by a pastel yellow four-foot wall. “I didn’t want to put your job in jeopardy.”
She was the assistant to the New York communications chief of staff, and not only was she good at her job, she worked hard for it.
Paige started the coffeemaker and looked at me. “Well, that will depend on how good a kisser you are, huh?”
I scoffed.
Hazel’s eyes went wide. “Oooh, so it was good?”
“By the time I got to her, the woman was blushing from head to toe,” Paige said, smiling.
I rested my forehead in my palm.
“I think this is a good thing,” Hazel said, rubbing my back. “You haven’t dated since you broke up with Warren. When was that? Like a year ago?”
“Two. And he dumped me,” I muttered. “Plus, making out with the governor hardly counts as dating.”
After the initial shock had worn off, reality that I wasn’t ready for had filtered into my brain. There was a reason I hadn’t dated since Warren, several reasons in fact, ranging from heartbreaking to soul crushing. A ping of regret and terror slithered down my spine, and I pushed that familiar ache away.
“Well, you could see Roman again, if you meet him like he asked,” Paige said.
“Wait, he asked you out?” Hazel piped up.
“Sort of.” I wrapped a strand of hair around my finger. The same one he had been touching when he’d kissed me.
My hair was longer now than it had ever been, falling to just above the small of my back. My mother had told me once that when I kept it long, I looked more like my sister. Aside from the occasional trim, I hadn’t cut it since Lauren passed away seven years ago. And in that time, neither my hairstyle nor my accomplishments seemed to matter to my parents. Nothing changed the fact that I wasn’t Lauren.
“So…” Hazel pushed. “Are you going to go out with him?”
“I don’t know. It seems…wrong.”
“Wrong?” Paige came into the living room, juggling three mugs of steaming liquid. “The whole reason you went to the gala in the first place was to get funding to build this rehab center. To catch the ear of someone who has influence over the budget.” She set the mugs on the coffee table and shrugged. “Of course, you caught the mouth of s
omeone instead of the ear, but it was close.”
“Ha ha,” I mumbled.
Paige was right. I had caught something. Maybe bad judgmentitis, or I’m-so-hard-up-I’ll-kiss-a-stranger-ism. There was something hypnotic about him, though. I had become used to being ignored and blending in. But from the moment I looked into his eyes, I couldn’t look away. Amidst strangers, classy women, and wealthy politicians, he saw me. And it felt good.