Jasper chuckles, then looks into his rearview mirror, laughing even harder. I join in, letting the airy feeling in the car consume me. “You’re something else, Greene.”
“So I’ve been told.” I take another sip of my drink and savoring it. On our drive to Soi, I can’t help but overthink our situation. “How does this work exactly?”
“How does what work?”
“Us.”
“Us?” Jasper quirks a brow while turning the wheel. My heart skips a beat—and not in a good way—as hesitancy seems to cross his features. “I’m not sure. I’m not an expert in this field.”
“Neither am I,” I admit, fiddling with my shirt.
“I’m curious; how many relationships have you been in?”
“Not many.” I begin using my fingers to count, reaching ten, then continuing to count as his jaw drops.
“Over ten relationships?” he asks when I surpass ten fingers, visibly stunned. “How old are you again?”
I throw him a mischievous smile. “I’m kidding. I’ve been on a lot of dates, but I have only been in three committed relationships. And you already know I'm 25, thank you very much.”
“Ah, three. I guess that’smildlycomforting as opposed to ten,” he smirks. “Only mildly.”
My cheeks suddenly grow warm, leading me to turn away to disguise my excitement.
“What about you? And how old are you?” I ask too eagerly.How embarrassing.
“I’m 29 years old, turning 30 in April,” he answers.Wow. I thought he was in his 30s. Well, I guess 29 isn’t far off.“As far as relationships go, I’ve been in a couple, my longest one being a year long.”
Wow. That’s definitely longer than any relationship I’ve ever had…
“Interesting, seeing as your mom claimed she had seen you in far more compromising positions with girls before today?” I tease. My parents haven’t ever caught me hooking up with guys. Even the idea of that mortifies me.
“Yeah, she has,” he says, matter-of-factly. “I’ve only been in a couple of relationships, but I’ve been with a fair amount of girls. In high school, I was out of control, leading to my mom finding me in less-than-ideal positions with girls. However, I wasn’t under such watchful eyes in college.”
I am not surprised Jasper has extensive dating experience—anyone with eyes can see why. I have had my fair share of experience, but since losing Kai, my dating life has been nonexistent, so I’m rusty. Knowing he has been with more people than I have bothers me, although I don’t understand why. I mean, it’s not like we’re together in his eyes… Are we? I can’t read Jasper. I imagine he doesn’t have many options here in the Cove, so maybe he’s just lonely and I’m convenient.
“I can see you over there, likely overthinking as usual.” He casts a quick glance my way as he pulls into Soi’s parking lot, resting his hand on my thigh. “No need to overthink this, love. Let’s start with something small. How about we go on a date?”
Love.
My heart does a little flip as I let the gravity of that word sink in.
Instead of feeling overwhelmed, I feel exasperated.
“I’d like that,” I say quietly, unbuckling my seatbelt. I look at Soi’s yellow logo and suddenly feel the urge to call in sick so I can spend more time in Jasper’s car with my coffee and jitters.
“Let’s plan on Friday night. I’ll pick you up from your place at 6:00 p.m. Does that sound good?”
“I’m in,” I say, opening the car door to leave. “Don’t miss me too much in the meantime.” As I walk inside, giddiness takes over.
I’m going on a date with Jasper Alcott.
Twenty-Six
Jasper
The last few days have been typical. Aged Emporium has received hundreds of followers over the past week thanks to Soi’s impressive marketing efforts. Consequently, the shop has had more business than usual. We are not exceeding expectations by any means, but we do have a steady flow of customers daily, which is objectively fantastic.
Truthfully, I’ve been looking forward to Friday since Wednesday morning, the last time I saw Iris. It’s strange. We went from strangers to colleagues to friends to…thismuch faster than I ever anticipated. Despite the speed at which we’re moving, it still doesn’t feel like we’re moving fast enough. Inprevious experiences with women, I found myself rushing into it so I could rush my way out of it. With Iris, though, Iwantto take my time. But Ican’t. After finding out she’s had a lot of experience dating, I am going to make this first date something special. I refuse just to be another one of those guys.
