Meirna takes it at a snail’s pace. “Do you have any others?”
“I’m not that important.”
“You just said you had a billion-dollar company. That’s important.”
“And that’s why I have three assistants who I pay very generously to manage dumbasses. I take care of the rest.”
“Sleep with any of them?”
“Viola scares me,” I answer honestly. “She’s fifty-two with three kids and a husband who would throw me outof my sixty-three-story building if I breathed wrong her way. I’m not an Italian, so Isabella thinks I’m basic and beneath her.”
“How old is she?”
“Twenty-nine.” Her age does nothing to help prove that I don’t sleep with her. “Look at her text messages to me and see if we’re sleeping together. They speak for themselves.”
Because last week, Isabella called me a Baby Boomer, and that shit actually hurt.
“And the third one?”
I lift my shoulders. “Darryl. I think that speaks enough on its own.”
“Not really,” Meirna hedges. “We live in a modern world.”
“I don’t like men, Daydream. So, you can count him out.”
“Shame,” she mutters. “I would’ve thought of you as more worldly and open.”
Even if I were attracted to men, Darryl wouldn’t be my type. If I hear one more fun fact about cheese or the ancient world of some treasure, I’m going to punch him in the throat.
“Sorry to disappoint,” I relay. “I’m a sucker for curly brown hair and freckles, though. Know anyone?”
“Not particularly. But I’ll keep my eyes open.”
She wouldn’t need to.
Because all I want, see and breathe is her.
“If you ever find her,” I put forth, running the pad of my thumb along the top of her hand gently. “Let her know my mother might die of a heart attack because I’ve never brought a girl home. And, my sister has been wanting a sister for years.”
“That’s cruel.”
“That’s reality. Because no one was you, and I was never going to fill my mother and sister’s heads with someone that would never last.”
Meirna glances over at me as we continue down the cobbled sidewalk. “That sounds…you’d never know.”
“I know,” I say confidently. “I knew from the first moment Imet you, I was never going to look at another female again and want to own her. Even for a night. You were forever. It’s just that fate had other plans and I haven’t figured those out yet.”
“Maybe it was for the best.” Reaching over, I pluck the white roses out of her hands and receive a surprised, “Hey!”
“Sorry, Daydream. I only buy flowers for women who want to give me a shot.”
“Ihavegiven you a shot,” she retorts, extending her free arm to attempt to free her flowers. “I haven’tshotyou yet.”
“Is that on the table?” I hedge inquisitively. “I didn’t think you were the violent type.”
“Only when provoked. I feel as though that side of me has been taking front seat with the ideas running through my head recently.”
“Interesting. May I make a request then?”
