“Hi Jeffrey. How can I help?”
“This was left in the courtroom you were just in. Is it your clients?” he passes a tiny grey wallet across the table to me. I unzip it and look at the ID.
Rhiannon Carpenter
DOB: 03/13 (28 y/o)
And included is a pretty photo of her smiling at the camera.
I smile widely. “Yeah, it’s hers. I’ll make sure she gets it tonight,” I lie as I zip the wallet closed, dismissing him.
A few seconds later, my client arrives to prepare for our next case, but my mind is elsewhere.
On how exactly I’m going to get this to the girl who fucked up my mind, heart, and now my career winning streak.
Chapter 13 – Rhiannon
“And then I just... left.”
Leo finishes the last bite of his salad before gently resting his fork on the edge of the plate. His blue eyes are wide, and the corner of his lips are tilted upward as if he’s trying to fight back a smile.
We decided to continue our meet up by grabbing lunch around the corner from the courthouse at a cute, outdoor cafe in the heart of Manhattan. Despite it being cooler in the city today, it’s exactly what I needed and the people watching is fun too.
I know I should get home and prepare for my evening therapy appointments, but Leo and I haven’t had a chance to catch up in months and given the man just did me a huge favor, I couldn’t pass up on an opportunity to gossip with my friend.
“So, you just… left? Without leaving your phone number or any way for him to contact you? For asecondtime, Rhiannon?” Leo says like I’m exhausting.
I shrug and take a sip of my water. “We were always clear that it was nothing more than a hook up. Leo, you know better than anyone how chaotic my life is. Between all my jobs and raising Eden, I don’t have time for anything more. I’m not looking for casual, and who wants to date a twenty-eight-year-old who still lives in her childhood home with her siblings and works four jobs? I don’t even have time to see my best friend, akayou. Plus, not every hook-up has to be something more. Sometimes it’s just about getting off.”
He snorts. “The way you were looking at him today tells me it was something more whether you admit it or not.”
“Look, I liked the spontaneity of those two nights together. New York City is massive. What were the chances we’d cross paths for athirdtime? Very, very low.”
He huffs out a breath as if everyone should want to be a golden-retriever boyfriend who loves being in a relationship and wants to dive in the deep end right away like him.
“Plus, I’m practically a mom right now.”
“Firstly, you’re notraisingEdenanymore. She’s eighteen years old and an adult now despite you still looking at her like she’s ten and helpless. And secondly, I think the universe is trying to send you a sign. It keeps throwing you two together in the most unlikely circumstances. Maybe you should listen to it and ask the guy out on a real date?”
I laugh. “I don’t think so. I rocked his world. I gave him my best. I don’t have any new tricks to show him.”
My mind flashes back to Hartford, to the way he looked at me like I’d just upended his entire reality when I was on top of him, riding him. The way he’d laughed so easily later that night, how we’d spent hours talking about nothing and everything. Trading ridiculous lies and half-truths, each of us seeing who could come up with the most outlandish story next.
Seeing him today only confirms what I suspected from the start. That version of Cain doesn’t exist outside a bedroom no matter how badly I wish it did.
The real Cain is buttoned up and serious, a man who probably schedules his fun two weeks in advance, if at all. I’m not interested in investing in someone whose whole existence revolves around work. The late nights, long days, Iget itbecause I’m doing it too and I hate it. This isn’t enjoyable for me.
But Cain seems like the type of person to thrive off all that. To need the schedule and structure. To embrace it. Meanwhile, I’m searching for an out.
I can’t help but wonder what brought him to Bryant Park that first night. If he never lets anyone see that side of him, the one who teased and smiled like the weight of the world wasn’t crushing him while I dry humped on top of him, why did he let me see it that night? At least now I feel like I understand the real him a bit more.
“Okay, but to be fair,” Leo says, smirking, “he dusted off the cobwebs Iknowwere down there, too.”
“He did,” I admit, grinning. “He was… incredible, actually.”
And he was. The best sex that I’ve ever had which is sad because I haven’t had much. Cain was someone who genuinely seemed toenjoymaking me come. Which, let’s be honest, is a rare and beautiful quality in men from the city who usually care more about themselves than anyone else.
“As a sex therapist,” I say, half-laughing, “I have no notes for him.”
