“We could bring Dani, too.” Lucy glanced from Andrew back to David. “Do you have to go right now? I was hoping to introduce you to my sister.”
“Well, hang on,” Gretchen said, masking a glare at Lucy by batting her lashes. “What about your friendGretchen?”
My heart pounded from holding my breath. Dani and Gretchen were both single, both beautiful and smart—and while Gretchen wasn’t looking to settle down, Lucy’d had her heart set on setting up her sister for a while.
“Oh, I’m so rude,” Lucy said, ever the hostess. She turned in our direction. “David, these are my best friends, Gretchen and Olivia.”
David held out his hand, but Gretchen shooed it away. “I’m a hugger,” she said, crossing the circle.
It only lasted a second, but I tensed as he bent so she could put her arms around his neck. “Pleasure,” he said.
“Pleasure’s all mine,” she replied.
He hugged Lucy next, which normally would’ve made me laugh considering she barely came up to his chest. “Idohave to go,” he said, “but thank you for having me.” He nodded at Andrew. “Congratulations. I’d tell you how lucky you are, but I think you already know.”
Andrew grinned. “That’s for damn sure.”
When Lucy had tucked herself back into Andrew’s side, David turned to me.
“We already met,” I said, my tone a little too defensive, as I was sure everyone could sense the connection between us.
David shrugged, opening his arms. “What can I say? I’m a hugger.”
Lucy and Gretchen giggled. I needed to look away, to focus on anything but the impossible-to-ignore man in front of me. But rejecting him would look more suspicious than giving in.
David didn’t make a move, his intent clear—Iwas to go tohim. Time slowed as I took one step toward him and then another. He slipped his arms around my waist, pressing my front to his with a strong squeeze. He lowered his mouth to my ear for a warm, silky whisper. “Maybe tonight, you’ll dream of someone new.”
I had no breath to respond, and not a second, either. He released me as time caught up with us.
“It was nice to meet you,” Gretchen said as David buttoned his coat.
“You too,” he said, but his eyes were fixed on me.
* * *
David lit a fire in me that left my skin hot long after he’d left Lucy’s. Once the party died down, I hailed a cab, but a few blocks from my apartment, I got out to walk.
I couldn’t shake the tiny knot at the pit of my stomach. Something had been planted inside of me that I was finding hard to escape. I needed to cool down and shake David’s presence. To rid my mind of dangerous thoughts and questions I should let lie.
Such as . . .why?
If composure had been a subject in school, I would’ve aced the class. I’d grown up with a mother whose emotions turned on a dime. She’d regularly threatened my dad that she’d disappear with me in the middle of the night for offenses ranging from him missing dinner to leaving on a work trip to being assigned a female secretary. After every episode, she’d apologize and beg his forgiveness. Some nights, my dad would take the bait; others, he’d let her wear herself out. Until the one time she’d gone too far.
Why had my father stayed so long? There were good times, too—stretches of a normal, white-picket-fence existence. Weekends where Mom and Dad had barbecued together, then canoodled after dessert on warm Texan nights. But her episodes sometimes had happy endings, too. Dad was the only one who got her worked up that way—and the only one who could calm her down. Once I was old enough, I understood how their all-out fights could lead to something else behind closed doors.
If my parents had taught me nothing else, I’d learned how to stay in control from them. How to take my mom’s hysterics in stride. I’d learned when love became more dangerous than anything. And when to let go.
Tonight, I’d almost let a complete stranger undo all that work.
Why?
What made him think it was okay to push against not just socially acceptable boundaries, but the walls I had in place for a reason? And why did I let him, when nobody else got to? Gretchen was the only person who tried anymore, and that was because we’d grown up together. She’d known me before it all, knew my parents and my history, because she’d lived it.
Glass shattered on the pavement, jarring me from my thoughts. I checked my watch as I passed under an open window blaring the Grateful Dead. It was well after eleven. Readjusting my purse strap, I took a crosswalk toward my apartment building.
I looked forward to crawling into bed alone. I didn’t want to keep thinking abouthim, but I wasn’t sure I could help it. The brazen way he’d demanded details about my marriage, had asked me to dinner, had suggested Idreamabout him—it was equally unsettling and intoxicating to have my limits pushed so unapologetically.
“Hey,” I heard as I tuned into footsteps behind me. “Hold up,” a man said. “You got a light?”
