“I already called the Uber. I appreciate it, but I’m good.”
“I know, but that’s probably going to be fifty, sixty bucks, so—”
“I’m a doctor in Albuquerque, Zack. I’m good.”
I tried not to flaunt my job or salary. But sometimes, if people weren’t getting the hint…
“I know. But a bike ride is also more fun.”
He didn’t sound like he had ulterior motives. He just sounded…
Genuine.
That, from someone in this house, I did not expect. Combined with his handsome looks, and maybe in a different time, before last night, I would have felt real attraction and real curiosity for him.
Unfortunately, I’d make the mistake of banging a friend’s ex in a stranger’s room and waking up to learn he’d been arrested. I wasn’t exactly in the headspace to feel attracted to anyone.
“Sorry, but I just need to get away from here,” I said. “I don’t want anything to do with the Bernard Boys.”
“It’s fine, I get it.”
He sounded like he meant it.
“We aren’t for everyone. But if you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
He smiled compassionately, nodded his head, and walked back inside. I supposed if there was anyone who I wouldn’t have felt shame about hooking up with, it was that guy. Zack. Professor Smartass.
But unfortunately, Brock had more or less left an indelible scar.
I would never, ever, ever hook up with a Bernard Boy ever again. So long as they existed, that was never going to happen. I’d find my guy—the introverted, quiet type, the kind that was sweet, smart, and sincere.
Zack might have been that guy in a different time. But that time, for now, did not exist.
