Walk of Shame (Love Unexpectedly 4)

“Forgive me for what?” I ask as I hold up a forkful of tiramisu to her mouth.

She cleans the fork. “For not telling me,” she says around the dessert.

“Telling you…?”

Marley rolls her eyes. “That you like the lawyer. Heck, you didn’t even tell me that you knew him. Gimme another bite, and I’ll forgive you for that too.”

I give her another bite since watching Hailey and Andrew flirting made me lose my appetite anyway.

“You’re not playing dumb, so that’s good,” she says, turning and mimicking my posture, leaning back against the counter and facing out into the room where a few remaining friends linger, finishing their last drink.

I shrug. “Okay, so I do know him, but like him…I’m not really sure about that. It’s more like…”

“Delicious sexual tension.”

I snort. “I’m not sure the man has hormones. He’s sort of an ice king.”

“How’d you guys meet?”

“Move-in day,” I say, setting the plate aside and grabbing my water bottle. “The building double-booked the loading dock, and neither of us handled it particularly well.”

“Aha! So the attraction was instant,” she says, snapping her fingers.

“What part of what I just said translated to attraction?”

“None of it,” Marley admits. “But I saw you guys talking when he first came in. It was a toss-up whether you were going to arm-wrestle or just start making out.”

I sneak another glance at him, but all of his attention is on Hailey and her big blue eyes and the adorable gap between her front two teeth.

The kicker? I really like Hailey. She’s super sweet, but not sugary sweet. And she’s smart. Funny. Pretty. Damn it.

I’m telling myself that the only reason I’m annoyed is because she’s too good for him. He’d try to diminish all her light, dull her sunshine.

“You’re staring,” Marley whispers.

“He hates me,” I mutter, deciding to have more tiramisu after all.

“Nope. He just doesn’t know what to do with you.”

I turn toward her, making a continue gesture with my hand.

She smirks. “Oh, man. You’ve got a crush! You really haven’t seen him watching you all night?”

“Are we talking about the same person? Stuffy guy in a fussy suit? I’ve seen him pay attention to every girl but me.”

“Not me, though,” Marley says, holding up a finger. “I want friend points for that. I haven’t made a single move now that I know how things stand with you two.”

“Things don’t stand anywhere. Things are lying down, dead all over the ground,” I say, gesturing dramatically.

“Ask him out,” she says.

“Um, no.”

“Why not?” Marley demands.

“Because we haven’t had a single conversation that’s lasted longer than five minutes and was even halfway friendly.”

“Hmm. Plus, he did pretend not to know you when we saw him with Liv,” Marley muses. “This may be trickier than I thought.”