She smiles, “Not today, Roberts.”
She pushes off of me, and this time I reluctantly let her go.
I watch her take a few steps towards the door and wonder what has changed since the other night on the Mississippi River and now. This might be the crack in her wall that I have been waiting for. Catching up to her, we make our way out of the building, and I silently promise that I won't let us down. Not this time around.
9
Gwen
New Orleans jazz plays through the restaurant as I look out the open windows to the bustling streets of the French Quarter. Big fans blow the air around the room, attempting to make a humid evening pleasant.
Rex talks on the phone just outside the window and I begin to wonder what the hell I was thinking when the urge to see him came over me earlier and I sought him out at the club. Typically, I’ve seen him once a day since we’ve been working on this project together. Over the last week, he’s stayed away, and I’ve struggled to understand why. Maybe that’s why the sudden urge?
His eyes catch mine. His heated stare holds me still, unable to take my eyes off his as he talks on the phone. Rendered motionless, I stare at him through the open window and grow nervous the longer he never breaks eye contact. A sly smile graces his face as he speaks to the person on the other end. My emotions get the best of me as I look away and quickly grab my wine glass.
What was I thinking asking Rex out to dinner?
This is a recipe for disaster. I knew the longer we stayed around each other, the more I would have no chance of survival. It is like the strings that attach us are too strong for either of us not to get tangled up in them again. I lift my glass to my lips and take a big gulp. Motioning at the waitress across the room to bring me another, she looks at me weirdly when we both realize the glass I’m holding is only about halfway empty. Well, hell, I need all the help I can get tonight. So, I make the motion again.
Yeah, I saw my glass lady, but I still need another.
Early, when I was closing up the office, I don’t know what came over me. Whether it was the thought of going home alone with no one to talk to, or that I’d been secretly stewing on the conversation Rex and I had the other night. The one where he almost convinced me that he might tell me the secret he’s been holding back all these years. That he might bend and confess what I only hope he felt back then and what I pray he does now.
If he does, where does that leave us?
After the walls I have built and the excuses I have made to hate him, how could I deal with the truth and the secret I know I still hold, too? Rex ends the call outside and makes his way through the front of the restaurant. Rounding the corner, he returns to our table just as the waitress brings me my second glass of wine. She asks him if he wants another, but no one is as stupid as me to order a second drink when they have more than half their first still sitting on the table. He glances at my two wine glasses, chuckles, and politely tells the lady no.
“Thirsty?” he laughs as the waitress walks away.
As he sits down at our table, I roll my eyes and take another gulp. I begin wondering how long I can keep this up. How long can we sit together and act like there isn’t a big elephant in the room? Maybe I can’t do this. Maybe I need to fake sick and excuse myself for the evening because, if I am being honest with myself, I’m not feeling that well all of a sudden.
“So, what’s good here?” Rex asks, picking up the menu and acting completely normal, which slightly pisses me off.
His eyes scroll over the menu before he looks up, grins that sexy grin of his, and turns the page. He knows exactly what he’s doing and just how much it pushes my buttons. Fine. Two can play this game. I set down my wine glass and pick up the menu in front of me.
Scrolling over the items, I soon find myself lost in picking out a selection when I hear Rex say, “I bet they don’t have anything that tastes as good as you, sweetheart.”
My eyes shoot up to see him still pretending to read his menu. He flips another page and acts as if nothing was said at all. I kick him under the table like a two-year-old, which makes him laugh and, oddly enough, breaks up the tension from a few moments earlier.
“Stop,” I chuckle. “You’re not supposed to go there.”
“But that’s my favorite place with you to go,” he says, looking up at me and winking.
I blush before looking back down at the menu. A few quiet moments pass before the waitress returns to take our order. After ordering more food than anyone would need, Rex orders another beer, and the waitress leaves the table.
A few awkward moments of silence later, I ask, “How are the figures on the club coming along?”
Having heard his conversation when I arrived at the building earlier, it has weighed on me a little since I have so much riding on this project.
He leans back in his seat, calm as can be, and says, “It’s tight, but nothing I can’t handle. You just worry your pretty little self about selling it to the customer. I’ll make sure the money is there.”
I cock my head to the side and shoot him a heated glare. Did he just belittle me? The ass. He was always good at shutting me up when he was attempting to hide something he was worried about. And even though the thought of him and Michael being unable to pull this off scares me, I let the comment slide and try to think of something else.
“Have you heard from Noah or Eva?” I ask.
He picks up his drink and takes a sip. “Yeah, Noah called me the other night after getting back from some call at the station. Said the honeymoon was a blast. Eva was working her tail off at the newspaper. They are down a reporter. That kind of stuff. Why? Haven’t you talked to her?”
My guilty conscience takes over because, no, I haven’t. She has tried to call a few times over the past week, but I always sent the calls to voicemail. I don’t know if it is the fear that she will hear the desperation in my voice when I tell her about Rex, or the fact that I will fail miserably at hiding it after all these years and have to finally come clean about my past. Our past. Still, I’ve been a shitty friend, and I know it. So, I shrug and shake my head no, which shocks Rex.
