“Hey, how about we just think about how beautiful it looked on you.” I tweaked her nose playfully.
“Thank you, thank you.”
I took both wands of lip gloss from her and headed to the cashier with her arm locked in mine.
“How about some hot chocolate and we’ll call it a night?” It was nearly eight, and I knew we probably should have called it a night hours ago because it was a long drive back to Wilmington.
“I’d love that.”
I paid for the gloss and we made our way to the coffeehouse on the main street. They would be open for another hour. I figured we could leave in half an hour and get home by about midnight.
We got two big mugs of steaming hot chocolate decked out with everything from whipped cream to marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles, the sight of which chilled me out. Aria smiled when the waitress brought them over to us.
“Thanks so much for hanging out with me today.” Aria beamed, her smile getting wider. “And for everything—the dress, the makeup, the everything.” She giggled.
“You are very welcome.” I raised my mug and moved to clink it with hers.
We both laughed like a pair of giggly twins.
She took a sip of her drink and gave me a quizzical stare that immediately brought my nerves to attention. It was her suspicious look. I’d seen it before and wondered if maybe she suspected there was something up between Ryan and me.
God, how would I explain that? I couldn’t very well tell her I was addicted to her father’s body and wanted more and more of him.
No, no, no.
“Brooke.”
“Yes.” I answered just a little too quickly.
“I know you are very career focused and driven to excel, but you haven’t mentioned a boyfriend or anything like that. I’m sure someone like you can have any man you choose. Don’t you want a boyfriend?”
Grrr.
The answer was simple: no. I’d been there and done that, and the bad experinece of my last relationship left me wanting to head for the hills at the first sign of love. I couldn’t tell her that though. It would be wrong.
Aria, however, was an impressionable young lady who I knew saw me as an example to her. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. I also didn’t want to project my internal issues on her or tell her something that would make her see love in any other way than it should be seen.
“I don’t mind a boyfriend,” that was a lie. “But I think I am focused on my career, like you said. It’s my mission now to get a senior features job. Whether that’s withPeopleor somewhere else is not relevant. I just want to do what makes me happy.”
Although she smiled, she got that starry-eyed look on her pretty little face.
“What about love?”
Love…
“It’s a beautiful thing.”It’s just not for me.
“It is. How do you know when you’re in love?”
Oh Jesus.What the hell was I supposed to say to that?
“You just know. It starts with a tingle and then it swells. You look forward to seeing that person every day and you can’t see your future without them.”
She pressed her hand to her heart and beamed at me. “Yes. I think that’s true. I feel like that about Brad. I felt it more after our talk, and more when he understood what I wanted.”
That was sweet.
“Wonderful.”
