Neutral territory, at least, and something I could actually answer.
“She came into my place on Rue de Compte with some friends. Your Alex must have been one of them.” I thought back over the women Charlotte had been sitting with before she made her way to the bar. Specifically, the dark-haired woman who looked like she was trying to talk her into something. “I was working behind the bar.”
“What were you doing bartending? Don’t you have enough to do with the merger?” He looked concerned, but I was pretty sure this time it was for my business prospects and not my personal life.
“It helps me stay in touch with what’s going on. I can try out new recipes and get real-time data on how people react to them before I add them to the cocktail menu.” That part was all true, although I had bartenders who were as good or better mixologists than me. The more important reason but less commercially acceptable was that time behind the bar relaxed me. Which help me think creatively, which helped me make the kind of decisions that let me build the restaurant empire I’d been working to create.
“Fair enough,” said Erik, looking like he didn’t really understand but was willing to accept—for now, at least—what I said. “But you’re going to have to walk me through the rest. You and Charlotte are dating. Like dating dating?”
I cut my eyes at him for no other reason than it bought me some time.
“You know what I mean. It was more than just a hookup, right?”
I did know what he meant, and for me, it had been much more than just a hookup. I’d thought it had been for Charlotte too. Now I had no choice but to rethink everything.
“Yes.” I left the rest of it unsaid. Fuck if I wanted to lay my heart that bare in front of Erik.
“I don’t understand. If Charlotte is dating the hottest young restaurateur in the state, why is Alex all over me to fix her up? If anything, I’d think she’d be pushing to help close the deal. You weren’t a dick to Charlotte, were you?”
“No.” The denial was automatic, followed by the realization that I might actually have been. Although she didn’t know that, so it didn’t change Erik’s original question. “Except...”
“What the fuck did you do?” He pinned me with a look that threatened pain if I’d hurt his fiancée’s friend. I wasn’t clear if it was just because of Alex or if he were close to Charlotte too. The women looked tight. As much like sisters as friends. Both possibilities seemed plausible.
“Charlotte thinks I’m a bartender. She doesn’t know about the hottest young restauranteur thing.” I echoed his words back, feeling like a pompous ass the whole time.
“Why not? It would seem to be a draw. And an important thing to share with someone you’re really interested in.”
Why hadn’t I told Charlotte about my business? I turned the question around in my head, hoping for a better answer than I was a manipulative chickenshit bastard. In the beginning, it hadn’t exactly come up. We were just going to fuck. She’d been the one to insist on first names only. And then there was her hesitancy with telling men what she did...not perfectly relevant, but I was grasping. Somewhere along the way, I’d gotten the impression—right or wrong—that she was more comfortable with me as a bartender and not someone with my own career. Which, now that I was really looking at it, was all kinds of fucked up.
“She seemed to like that I was a bartender. I got the idea it made things easier for her.” God, saying it out loud didn’t make it sound any less lame.
“But it’s not true.” Erik was looking at me like I’d lost my mind. I wasn’t about to dispute it. “She didn’t Google you? She’s a lawyer. We’re kind of crazy thorough.”
“We never shared last names.”
The look of disgust Erik gave me matched the feeling I had in my gut.
No matter how phenomenal the sex was or how much we enjoyed each other’s company—I didn’t doubt that part at least was real—Charlotte would push for more information before she trusted me with something like her heart. The thought just reinforced the fact that regardless of what I’d been feeling, she didn’t think what we had was serious. Or the negotiated shelf life meant she figured it wasn’t worth it to try to dig into my past.
“We were just supposed to be a short-term thing. Her idea, not mine.” I hurried to add the last bit. I didn’t need to reinforce the part where I was the asshole.
“But you want more?”
I hated the way Erik watched me. Like he already knew the answer to his question. I hated my answer more.
“Yes. I did. I do.” I didn’t see a viable way to get from where we were to something more with Charlotte, but that didn’t stop me from wanting it.
“Okay. I’m going to help you.”
“Why?” I had other questions, but that one was the most obvious.
“It gets me points with Alex, and you get what you want. Or at least a chance at it. It’s a double win for me.”
“When did Alex ask you to find a date for Charlotte?” Asking the question made my teeth grind, but there was a third option I hadn’t considered. One I liked better than all the others.
“At least a couple weeks ago. Why?”
“Just wondered.” It’s possible Charlotte’s feelings for me had nothing to do with Erik’s quest to find her a date. He’d started before we got serious. Maybe she never told her friend to call him off. It was a long shot, but I liked long shots. They usually came with the greatest reward.
