“Oh, we don’t have to.”
I wanted to insist, but Maurice wasn’t looking at me. Did that mean he wasn’t interested? Another horrible pang slammed my chest. “Okay. I can take you to your car.”
We went in the front door again, and Felipe beamed while taking our photo with a pink Polaroid. As soon as the camera spat out the developing picture, he handed it to us. “You won! With only two minutes to spare.” He pointed at his watch. “Good job! The other two members of your group left. They must’ve had someplace to be, huh? They wouldn’t let me take a picture because they thought you were going to take too long. No one likes to be a loser. Do you want to schedule a time to come back and see if you can get on the leaderboard?”
“Uh, no, thanks,” I mumbled.
Maurice didn’t say a word.
We didn’t talk on the ride back to the office, either. I wanted to ask him if we could just go to dinner—I could make a good case that we’d already had plans—but with the way he was staring out the window, I was having trouble forcing myself to speak. I turned the Maserati in to the parking lot at Émeraude Technologies and slid into the spot right next to Maurice’s blue Infinity.
“Thank you for everything.”
He shrugged and smiled. “It was just a game. See you Monday.” I couldn’t tear my eyes off him as he got out.
Frustration ate at me, so I followed him out of the car, and he stared at me with wide eyes as I stomped around to him before he could get in his vehicle. I sucked in a deep breath, then pressed a kiss to his warm cheek, and it was as nice as I’d thought it would be.
“It meant a lot to me.”
His eyes widened farther, and embarrassment tore through me. Hell, what was I doing? Did I go too far? The excitement that had burst to life in my stomach turned to dread while I hustled back to my car and got in again. As I pulled the car out and drove away, Maurice stood watching me and didn’t so much as budge.
What the hell just happened and how did I manage to revert to the dorkiest guy in high school that everyone loved to pick on? Things had been strange but good, and now they were bad and awkward, and I’d done this.
Daddy was right, and I shouldn’t have tried to be Maurice’s friend or anything else. We worked together. I hadn’t asked him to come in for the weekend, and now I wouldn’t. Monday would be awful. I berated myself the whole way home. That’s what I got for trying to get one over on someone else.
I should’ve known better.
4
MAURICE
The road was too dark. “Shit!”I flipped on the headlights. I really wasn’t paying enough attention to driving and forced my focus back onto the road and off the craziness of this evening. How long had I been a danger to myself and others? Oh well, no harm, no foul, but I needed to get my head on straight or I would cause an accident.
The silence in the cab was too much and seemed to pulse, and underneath the hum a constant litany of regret pounded. I shouldn’t have gotten involved in some scheme to embarrass Edgar. I shouldn’t have encouraged Wick to act badly. As much as I loved Lacey, I should’ve maybe considered she had some sort of plan up her sparkly sleeve all along, since this wasn’t the first time I’d been on the receiving end of her well-meaning “love.” Yes, I would say most of this was my fault for not guessing at what she was up to. It felt good to make myself feel bad. I was wallowing but couldn’t stop. Making myself feel worse was almost pleasant.
Maybe I was more messed up than I realized from my past relationship issues.
Still berating myself in my mind, I was halfway home when I reached for my pocket to grab my phone because I wanted to listen to a playlist instead of the radio—only to come up empty-handed. I patted down my other pocket and checked the console to see if I’d dumped my phone in there without thinking about it. No, it wasn’t anywhere.
“Damn it, I forgot it at Escape Adventure.” Groaning, I hung my head as much as I could while keeping my eyes on the road, because that likely meant Wick had also forgotten his phone. Chances were slim he’d remembered because I kept track of his belongings on a good day, let alone when he was shaken up from the dark. It had been nice to be there for him.
I bit the inside of my cheek. Yeah, I needed to completely forget about how good it felt to take his hand in mine. I wouldn’t get to do that again.
No, I needed to focus on the current problem. I could let him go back and get his own phone, but the part of me who was his assistant and organized most of his life wouldn’t allow me to entertain the idea of picking up mine and leaving his. Anger slid through me and simmered as I turned the car around. I hated that I felt like I shouldn’t do what I wanted to do—take care of Wick.
Escape Adventure was in full swing as I entered the lot for the second time tonight, and I had to park in the last row, farthest away from the building. Once I was in the small lobby, I had to skirt around the filled-to-capacity room and sort of shove myself in front of the counter to get Felipe’s attention, knocking down several gold coins from the display in the process. I groaned and rubbed a hand over my face as I bent to pick up the plastic, and the moment I stood again to slide the coins toward him, he was all regretful frowns.
“I’m sorry, sir!” He grasped the cuff of my suit jacket, then seemed to realize what he’d done and held up his hands. “I noticed after you’d left that you hadn’t taken your stuff.” He presented the cardboard box of phones—there were about ten in there now—and allowed me to fish out mine. For a half a heartbeat, yet again I considered letting Wick get his own phone because I could barely stand the thought of looking him in the eye after the way everything had ended this evening. My conscience got the best of me. I picked up his iPhone, which had a case with a pirate ship flying the Jolly Roger, then gave Felipe a nod. I could be professional and withstand some embarrassment. This was the penance I paid for trying to mess with someone else’s life in the first place.
“Thanks, no worries.”
Felipe had already turned his attention to a customer who had a question before I wriggled between people and beelined for the exit. It had hurt to leave Wick. I’d had some idea of how the evening would play out, and if everything had gone to plan, I wouldn’t have spent so much of it alone. It would’ve been nice to go out with him again and talk with him. I wasn’t special when it came to him flirting, but it made me feel a little uncomfortable and a lot good when it was happening.
And just what the hell had Lacey thought she was doing?
Gritting my teeth, I left Escape Adventure. As I stormed toward my car, I pulled up Lacey’s number on the screen of my phone. I was mad at her. No, scratch that—I waslivid.
I liked Wick. He was a sexy man I never got tired of staring at, and he had a great sense of humor. Yes, I enjoyed him a lot and had for a while, and she’d listened to me talk and rant about him on more than one occasion, so she must’ve worked out my feelings without me outright using those words. It was shitty to have him close, then bealone. The same bleak feeling had taken me hostage Wednesday night after we parted ways. And tonight was even worse because he wasn’t doing well for most of our fake date, and I hadn’t wanted to send him off on his own so soon.
