Are you free for lunch?
It’s rush hour.
Dinner then?
Now you’re speaking my language.
English?
Among others.
Joe’s in twenty?
Works for me.
I giggled at our witty repartee, feeling my face flush, and my stomach fill with butterflies.
Replacing the phone on the passenger seat, I started up again, the gently used motor purring like a kitten, and tried to nose my way into the solid line on cars inching by.
Joe’s restaurant wasn’t that far from where I was, amazing considering how big L.A. was as a city but Noah always seemed to be able to arrange it, so we never had to go very far to be able to meet. We also had several very coincidental run-ins. It was almost as if he had planned it that way, and there was no way he could have accidentally ended up in the same area of the city as me only by serendipity. But to think such a thing would just be paranoid. We hadn’t fucked yet, or even really kissed aside from the peck on the cheek, but we saw a lot of each other, and it was clear that he thought about me.
Noah was already there when I arrived. Of course, he was. He had likely called from the restaurant, and I had the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the hordes of hell that constituted downtown L.A. rush hour to contend with before making my grand and triumphant appearance.
I reapplied my makeup and combed my hair back down, tying it back into a braid, before going in.
“Traffic?” Noah asked as I slid into the booth table.
“Why are you psychic?” I giggled.
“Oh, I’m not, just a lucky guess based on the laws of probability.” He gave me a smirk that made my stomach tingle.
“Genius.” I grinned at him.
“Not really just very clever,” he contested, faking a modest look.
“Did you miss me?” I asked, trying to resist the desire to reach across the table and take his large hand in my own.
“Hmm?” He raised a blonde eyebrow as he looked at me.
I blushed. “Since you saw me last. I fingered you might, at least going by the fact that you texted me out of the blue.”
“Ah, good point.” Noah nodded but looked away. “To be honest, yes, I did. I mean honestly, how long has it been since we spoke? It feels like it’s been forever.”
“About an hour ago.”
“I meant face to face,” Noah clarified.
“Oh, the old-fashioned definition of face-time used in the deep long ago,” I teased.
“Otherwise known as our childhood.”
We quieted down as the waiter brought us water and menus. I took a sip and smiled at Noah, feeling excited to be sitting across from him.
The hot lawyer was still in a beautifully tailored, gray suit that probably cost more than three months of my rent. The tie he wore was light blue and brought out his eyes. The man had such style. I was casual in comparison.
“How old are you?” Noah asked out of nowhere.
“Twenty-seven.”
“Huh.”
“What?”
“You look younger.”
I smiled and raised my eyebrows at him. “Compliment?”
“Cold statement of fact,” he grunted.
“Cold?” I asked, surprised.
“Neutral?”
“Hardly.”
“Fair point,” he agreed with a nod.
“Impartial?”
“Again, hardly. I think the most accurate word would be objective.”
“Close enough,” I agreed. “Do you like it?”
“The word objective? Sure, I mean it’s—”
I laughed. “No, I mean, do you like that I look younger than I am. I mean some guys are into that, or so I’ve heard.”
Noah grinned and played with his napkin. “Oh, I see what you mean. I don’t really know. I don’t tend to notice much about that. I mean I won’t say I don’t notice at all. That would just be silly, but unless someone looks under-age, it doesn’t have much influence on whether I’m attracted or not.”
“So, I could be forty-seven, and you would still be interested?” I asked as a challenge.
Noah thought for a moment. “Sure.”
“Would you, you know, fuck me?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me and a blush covering my cheeks. I wanted him so bad. We seemed to have good sexual tension, but as a virgin, I wasn’t quite sure.
“If you were forty-seven? Or now?” he asked in a breathless whisper, leaning over the table towards me.
I could feel Noah’s body heat. Part of me wanted to lean forward and meet his sexy lips, but my nerves held me to the booth. “Either,” I admitted, glancing down shyly.
“Yes.”
His answer shook me, but I still wasn’t sure. I glanced up to meet his blazing blue eyes. “To which?”
“Both.”
It was hard to keep my mouth from hanging open.
The waiter came over to take our order, but suddenly I wasn’t hungry anymore.
Chapter Eight
Emma
Midway through our meal that night, Noah got called away on legal business. I was disappointed and couldn’t wait to see him again, which happened a few days later.
It wasn’t as uncomfortable seeing the hot lawyer again as I thought it might be. I had basically asked straight out if he would fuck me, though I had done it with enough of a hypothetical that it took some of the edge off. I certainly thought about it, though. Particularly when he turned up right outside the cafe as I was getting off work in yet another example of the great power of coincidence.