“Very nice,” Sebastianagreed.
“Thank you.” Feeling Sebastian’s stare on me, I fixed my dress and pushed my hips back over my heels for child’s pose. “For the record,” I said, “I’d prefer a fun, ‘cheap’ date to a boring, expensive one anyday.”
“Yeah?”
“Earlier, when you said that stuff about having an enviable lifestyle . . . do you only see it as a way to advance your career? Or do you also use it to impresswomen?”
“Of course I do. Mostly because I didn’t have much growing up. At least in a materialsense.”
With my arms stretched to the top of the mat, I peered at him from under my bicep. He’d alluded to that last time we’d been at a park. Though my curiosity grew, it didn’t seem like the right conversation while he had his ass in theair.
“It won’t matter to the right girl,” Isaid.
“Salary doesn’t matter toyou?”
“When dating someone?” I made a slightly above average income and hadstillbeen taken advantage of. I’d never mooch the way Neal had done to me. “Nope.”
“No—yoursalary. You asked if having money and status is important to me. Is it toyou?”
The moment Vance had brought money into our meeting, my outlook had shifted. It wasn’t the number itself that tempted me, but the security of it. “I’m not trying to prove you wrong,” I said. “Do youwantto meet a girl whose interest in you correlates to what you spend onher?”
Watching the instructor at the front of the lawn, Sebastian kept his palms on the mat as he attempted to walk his feet to meet them. He gave up and skipped ahead, standing with his hands turned out at his sides. “In my experience, it’s not a goodsign.”
Instead of feeling superior that I’d made my point, I just hated that Sebastian had experienced that at all. Maybe the women he’d dated were used to a certain lifestyle and had made him feel he had to support that. “I’m sorry I assumed you were something you’re not,” I said as I touched my palms in front of myheart.
He didn’t respond right away, mirroring my hands. “I’m sorry I dismissed you before I’d even officially metyou.”
I pressed the flat of my right foot against the inside of my left knee. “I’m sorry you’re putting yourself through puplates forme.”
“I’ve gone through worse to get laid,” he said in a wobbly tree pose, and my balancefaltered.
I knew Sebastian well enough at this point to recognize the teasing in his voice, but it seemed the wall between us could be coming down. The question was what we’d find on the other side—and what we’d be to each other without a line to separateus.
18
Georgina
Followingan afternoon of playing in portable sprinklers, mastering the dog gym’s mini obstacle course, and giving Bruno more treats than he normally got in a week, I parked on a bench to clean up and feed the dogs. Bruno took his pills with a little peanut butter, too exhausted to fight withme.
Sebastian had excused himself twenty minutes earlier, and when he finally returned, I almost didn’t recognize him in a crisp, black button-down, jeans, and his hair styled off his face. Only the beginning of his five o’clock shadow gave him away as the same Sebastian I’d started the morning with. He carried a wicker picnic basket and what looked like Pendleton blankets rolled under onearm.
Sitting on the bench with Opal between my legs, I curled my toes in my boots. He looked sohandsome. “What’s going on?” Iasked.
He held up the basket. “I promised yousupper.”
Sebastian looked like the kind of date I’d expect to find at my front door. “Did you saysupper?”
“Yea, sometimes the Boston in me surfaces. First-date jitters.” He held out his hand. “Come on. This is the last night of the outdoor filmseries.”
I glanced past him to see people setting out blankets under a screen at the opposite end of the lawn. I’d been to my fair share of movies in the park, but never on a date, which was arguably the height of romance in the city. Sebastian had really pulled out all the stops to change my opinion of him. Was it just for the article, or was there more to it thanthat?
I took his hand tentatively. Were first-date jitters even a thing for someone like Sebastian? Because hearing that, now I had them too. “What do you think the feature is tonight?” I asked as we crossed the lawn with thedogs.
“Surely some kind of fairytail.”
“You mean likeThe LittleFurmaid.”
He snickered. “BrokebarkMountain.”
