She looks up at me quickly. “No reason.” She points ahead of her. “Come on, let’s pick up the pace. If I’m going to be out here at the ass crack of dawn, I might as well get my heart rate up.”
I’d like to be the one to get her heart rate up but by doing something completely different. “Sure, let’s go. Then I’ll buy you a cup of coffee.”
“Great. Two laps, yes?” She arches her brow as she peers up at me.
“Two laps. Let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty
Alison
Why the helldid I tell him we needed to “pick up the pace”? That was stupid. I haven’t exercised in weeks. Sure, I walk all over the place in this city, but never at this pace. I’m about to tell him I can’t do it when he starts to slow. Panting, I point to the park bench to my right. “I—” Pant. “Need—” Pant. “To sit.”
“Me too.” He’s breathing hard, but not like me. “I’ve got to get my shit together. I nearly died walking up twenty-two flights of steps.”
That makes me laugh, and laughing isn’t easy when you can’t breathe. “You didn’t need to take the stairs,” I say, taking a seat on the bench.
Sitting next to me, he chuckles. “Our talk didn’t go well, and I didn’t feel like standing uncomfortably in the elevator with you.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
Waving me off, he smiles, “No worries. Water under the bridge.”
“You know, when I stopped into your office later that day, you did seem a little… well, sweaty.”
He must find that funny because he throws his head back and laughs, and it’s a wonderful sound. Deep and rich. “I was a fucking mess. I ditched my to-go lunch somewhere around the tenth or eleventh floor.”
“What?” I giggle. “Why?”
“Too weak to carry it another step.”
And that gets us both going. We laugh for so long and so hard, I forgot all about the fact that he’s the guy who grabs me on the street. Reaching out, I lean forward, still laughing, and place my hand on his. When he flips his over, our fingers intertwine and the laughing stops.
We stare at one another, but no words are spoken. Not for a long time. Not until Ben does the honors. “Coffee?”
“Sure.”
When he stands, he keeps hold of my hand and pulls me up. And in a shocking twist, he doesn’t let me go. So we walk hand in hand all the way to my favorite coffee shop on the corner. The one that sells The Vat.
“How have we never seen each other before now?” I ask, sipping my delicious coffee. I found out that this is his favorite coffee shop too, and the people behind the counter know both of us by name.
“No idea.” He smiles. “But believe me, if I’d seen you before the leg incident, I would have tried to talk to you.”
The leg incident.That seems so long ago.
I don’t know why, but I blush at his words. “Yeah?”
“Oh yeah.” He nods. “Like I said, you’re gorgeous. I’d have made a play.”
I blush harder, but for some reason, I find some courage deep down. “Are you making a play now?”
“Wow.” He laughs, leaning back in his chair. Pulling off his cap, he runs his fingers through his thick dark hair. He’s got great hair. It’s wavy and probably a tad too long, but that’s okay. I like it. “If you can’t tell, I’m really losing my touch.”
I smile at him and feel something I haven’t felt in a long, long time: excitement. I’m excited about coffee. I’m ecstatic it’s Friday. Well, I’ve always been a fan of Fridays. I’m delighted to be up at five in the morning—something that would have never delighted me before. And I’m beyond stoked to be sitting across from sexy Ben Schilling. So much so that I feel a little courageous, so I do something out of character, something spontaneous. Leaning forward, I reach out and take hold of the collar of Ben’s tee. I can see the shock on his face, but that quickly goes away. He moves closer to me until our faces are an inch apart. “What are you doing, Alison?”
“Making my own play.”
“Oh yeah?”
