Sam looked through her office window and dreaded going out to lunch today. Even to see Amanda. She really just wanted to go back to the island. Everything was different there. Including Brody.
The open, happy, carefree man from the island was gone. He returned to being wary, guarded Brody the moment their jet landed back in Boston. He was still affectionate with her, that hadn’t changed, but there was something in his sapphire eyes. A worry. A tension that hadn’t followed him to his tropical retreat. She missed that Brody, and she had no idea how to coax that side out of him. At least not at work.
The alarm sounded on her computer, reminding her to go meet Amanda. With another glance out the window, she grabbed her lined, turquoise raincoat, slung her scarf around her neck and grabbed her Coach bag. She paused at Brody’s door, knocking gently until he called for her to enter.
“I’m going to meet a friend for lunch at the deli on the corner. Do you want me to bring you a sandwich back?”
Brody nodded, his eyes darting to his monitor several times as she spoke. He was distracted by his work. Another thing she hadn’t missed about Boston. He’d barely scrolled through his emails in Puerto Rico.
“That would be great.” He scribbled an order on a yellow sticky note and handed it to her. “Thank you.”
“I’ll be back in about an hour.”
Brody gave a quick wave and returned to his computers. With a sigh, Sam shut the door behind her and headed through the various security hoops she needed to get outside. On their island, they hadn’t even closed the doors, much less needed fingerprint scans to open them.
She got a text from Amanda as she crossed the street. She had a table in the back of the deli with her food. Sam ordered quickly and joined her, setting her phone on the table beside them.
“You have a tan,” Amanda remarked. “I hate you.”
Sam smiled sheepishly. She did get a nice tan. And no tan lines at that. It had been indulgent and naughty to sunbathe nude on the beach, but she took the chance while she had it. “Sorry.”
“What brought on this impromptu vacation? You didn’t mention it the last time we had lunch.”
“I didn’t know I was going then. My boss wanted to surprise me with a long weekend away. It was spur-of-the-moment.”
Amanda’s eyes widened. “Wow. This romance is progressing quite nicely.”
Sam nodded and opted to take a bite of her sandwich to avoid elaborating. Amanda had no idea of the truth of her statement. But Sam couldn’t even tell her best friend that she had feelings for Brody. It was all too fast, and she had to leave so many details of their relationship out of the conversation. Declaring her love for her nameless supervisor would send up a red flag, and she didn’t want Amanda to be more concerned than excited for her budding romance.
“Well, while you were cavorting on the beach, I had my own development in the man department.”
Sam immediately felt guilty. She should’ve noticed how much her friend was beaming, but she’d been distracted by her own thoughts. Amanda was wearing one of her nicest outfits, her hair and makeup done with more attention to detail than usual. “What? Do tell.”
“His name is Matt. I met him at a bar downtown on Thursday night. They had a band in that I wanted to go see. And since you were out of town, I had to go it alone. Matt was there alone to see the band, too. We started chatting and he bought me a drink. It blossomed from there. We went out Friday night and Saturday night. Then we had breakfast Sunday morning,” she added with a sly grin.
“Very nice. Sounds like you two have really hit it off. Tell me more about him.”
“He’s an investment banker, but he’s not stuffy. Thirty-four. He’s divorced, but no kids. He’s got a really nice place in town. And there’s a dragon tattoo on his shoulder that was so damn sexy I almost climaxed the first time I saw it.”
Sam and Amanda giggled over her exploits as they ate their lunch. She was glad that her friend had found someone. It had been a long time since Amanda had dated a guy with much promise.
“What are you doing Friday?” Amanda asked.
“I have no idea. Why?”
“Maybe we could all go out. Like a double date. It would be fun. I want to introduce you to Matt, and I’m dying to meet your guy. You haven’t even told me his name. What’s up with that?”
Sam let Amanda talk, but the moment the first words fell from her lips, she knew the answer. She tried not to feel disappointed about it, but double dating was out of the question. So was going out to a nice dinner at the hot new restaurant in town. Or seeing a movie on opening weekend. Or going to her friend Kelly’s annual New Year’s Eve party. Sam never had a date for that party, and when it finally looked like she might not be single for New Year’s, she knew her date would decline the invitation.