She waved a hand at me as she headed toward the door to Chris’ office. “Hold his calls.”
I had to laugh.
Once she disappeared into Chris’ office, I decided to take a few minutes to freshen up and use the ladies room before Landen returned to take me to lunch. Then I would finish what work I could.
I studied Landenacross the table as we finished up our meal. He’d taken me to a Chinese restaurant that the girls and I often frequented back when we were all working in the building.
The flirtatious edge that I expected from Landen was gone. He was interested in what I had to say and he talked more than he usually did, but the gleam in his eye was gone. The underlying sexual tension that I usually felt in his presence seemed diminished as well.
It threw me off balance. It was as if he’d shut down that part of himself.
I didn’t like it. It made me question too many things, first and foremost being how he felt about me. Maybe he wasn’t as affected as I was. Maybe he didn’t want me with the same urgency I’d experienced yesterday on my couch.
Then a hint of it appeared when I reached into my purse for my wallet when the waitress laid the check on the table.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Uh, paying for my lunch?” I replied, my words sounding like a question rather than an answer to his.
He reached out and took the ticket, shaking his head as he did. “No, you’re not. This is a date and I’m buying.”
I tucked my wallet back into my bag and studied him as he withdrew cash from his wallet to pay for lunch plus a generous tip. I’d come here often enough to know what my meal would usually cost. Then he stood and frowned at me as I mirrored his motions.
“What?” I asked as we walked outside, very aware of his hand on the small of my back.
“When I take you out, I pay for our meal,” he stated.
“What about when I take you out?” I queried.
He shook his head. “Uh-uh. No, that’s not how this works. You said you wanted to be pursued, remember?”
I shot him a look over my shoulder. “I didn’t mean that I expect for you to pay for every single date, Landen. I only meant that I wanted someone who would call me first, who would show me with his actions that he wanted to spend time with me. I’m tired of being the aggressor in all my relationships.”
“Aggressor?” He looked surprised by my choice of words.
I sighed. “Not necessarily aggressor,” I revised. “It’s just…” I trailed off and thought about what I wanted to say. The bright rays of the afternoon sun reflected off the windshields of the cars that passed us on the street. I pulled my sunglasses out of my bag and slid them on. “If I’m interested in someone, I don’t hide it. I don’t play games. If I enjoy their company, I call them or ask them to do things with me. When I see something I think they’ll like, I’ll take note or outright buy it for them. The only problem is that the kind of interest I feel hasn’t been reciprocated.”
“You expect them to do those sorts of things for you?”
I shook my head. “Not exactly,” I said. “I don’t expect reciprocity for every action or every invitation, but I do expect some sort of action.” I stopped walking and looked up at him. I wanted him to understand my exact point. It would be too easy to misconstrue my words. “I don’t expect gifts or fancy dates,” I explained. “Actions speak louder than words or material things. Like today, you said you would see me soon. Then you showed up to take me to lunch. Your actions made it clear to me that you wanted to see me.”
As I spoke, I understood that what I said was true. He demonstrated to me that he wanted to see me. Even if he wasn’t flirting or touching me the way he had yesterday, he showed up. That alone was proof enough he wanted to spend time with me.
I reached out and laced our fingers together. “That’s what I’m looking for and what I want. Not me always making the plans and doing the asking.”
“You mean none of the men you’ve dated have done that?” Landen asked, appearing shocked.
I shrugged and started walking back toward the office building where I worked. “Maybe in the beginning, but it always seemed like they stopped making an effort after a few dates. Then it was inevitable that they would distance themselves or break it off altogether.”
“I think you were dating the wrong kind of men,” he muttered as we entered the lobby of the building.
I laughed as we strode quickly toward the elevators. “That’s probably true.”
Landen was quiet as we rode to my floor and stepped off the crowded elevator car. He still held my hand, which I liked. Instead of walking with me to the office door, he stopped by the doorway leading to the stairwell and opened it, pulling me inside with him. Then he crowded me into the corner.
Suddenly, all the sexual tension that had been absent earlier was there, crackling around us as he stared down at me.
He released my hand and placed both his palms on the walls next to my head, caging me in.
