“Indeed, I do!” I said, setting off toward his cubicle.
I wasn’t sure what I would say. I couldn’t just come out and ask if Chris just wanted the nookie. If I started up with the relationship talk, I could scare him off entirely. Yes, he was willing to let me touch him, a lot as it turned out, but I still wasn’t sure how comfortable he was and didn’t want to force him into anything.
“Hey,” I said, coming up to the door-like opening.
Chris didn’t even look up. I thought he was ignoring me at first, but then I saw why. He was in the middle of working on something and was still wearing headphones. Taking a risk, I went over and took out one of his earbuds. He jerked hard and turned as though he might jump on me. Though not in a good way.
“Hi,” I said, backing up a bit.
“Hi,” he said bluntly, not showing much emotion, “are you here to see Aden?”
“No, um, I’m here to see you.”
It was a lot harder than I thought it might be. It was a good idea on the way there, but I found myself quickly losing my nerve.
“Really?” he asked, without a bit of sarcasm.
His expression hadn’t softened at all, but he started to gently stroke my arm with his fingertips. I could actually feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, a tremor of joy running through me. I didn’t know how, but Chris always seemed to know exactly how to touch me. Apparently, he felt the same if the growing bulge in his pants was anything to go by.
“Yes,” I whispered, my voice coming out almost like a gasp.
“Is there something you wanted to talk about?”
“Yes, if you have time.”
I was just about to beg him to bend me over the desk and fuck me hard, damn the others when Aden showed up at the door.
“Did you get one of these?” he asked me.
I looked up and saw that he was holding the same kind of invitation I had gotten. My heart sank a bit.
“Yeah.”
“Are you going to go?”
“I think so.”
“Aunt Diane talked you into it?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Oh.”
“What?”
“Well, according to my mom, Aunt Diane invited Ellis.”
“What!?” At the mention of my ex-husband’s name, I sat down hard into one of Chris’ chairs. My mother had never accepted my divorce, and she was continually trying to get us remarried.
Aden rolled his eyes. “It is meant to be a surprise for you.”
“Damn right it is!” I snapped, feeling anger tighten in my chest.
“Not what I think she meant,” Aden said.
I wanted to cancel right then and there. It took me years to get away from that asshole, and I had no intention of being thrown back together with him. I would likely kick him in the crotch if I ever saw him again.
“On the other hand,” Aden continued, “Dixie is coming.”
“She’s back from Europe?” I gasped.
“Yeah, apparently it wasn’t a scam, she really is a master painter now.”
“No, shit.”
“Not a spec.”
That was a wrench in the works. I love my eccentric Grandma Dixie, the only other person in my circus of a family that I liked other than Aden. However, she was hardly ever around, always going off on some adventure or another. There were times that I wished I had half of her gumption.
Aden sighed and leaned against the doorframe. “You could hire an escort or something, have them pretend to be your fiancé, and protect you from your evil ex while you’re there,” he suggested.
I laughed. “Yeah, I suppose, but that sounds crazy.”
“I’ll do it,” Chris said, making us both turn and look at him.
“You will?”
“Sure.”
I did my best to contain my excitement. I wasn’t sure how much Aden knew about what was going on with us, and I didn’t want to spring it on him. On the upside, I wouldn’t have to pretend to be attracted to my fake date.
“Great,” I said, doing my best to keep casual.
Aden smiled and left us to go back to his office. I keep my eyes on Chris and the determination on his face.
“We should go out and get our meet-cute story straight before the reunion,” he said, and I could see the planning going on in his head.
I thought about telling him that we had three weeks to get things in order but decided just to enjoy whatever time I could have with him.
Maybe if we pretended to be together, I could get a better sense of if that was what Chris wanted.
Chapter Six
Chris
I decided on Koran. It was a bit of a risk. Chinese probably would have been safer, but I knew a really great Korean place near the hospital and while my grasp of all dialects of Chinese was loose at best, I had a pretty strong command of Korean. I liked to know what it was that I was eating.