“Yeah. He needed a home and a lot of love and I couldn’t leave him in the shelter for the rest of his adorable, demonic life.”
“How long had he been in the shelter?”
Every time I glance at Flip, he smiles at me. “Too long. He can’t really be around other animals. He was one more bite away from being put down, so he became mine.”
We walk down the hall together, my nerves on overdrive now that I’m not trying to keep my wily cat from escaping. Mystomach is behaving like I’m on a tilt-a-whirl. This is literally a dream come true. I’m overwhelmed and I have so many questions.
The elevator comes right away, but it’s far from empty. I would suggest waiting for the next one, except it’s dinnertime, so it’ll be busy like this for the next hour. Flip’s fingers press gently against the dip in my spine as we step inside the already mostly full box. This is a student apartment complex, and everyone who lives here attends Tilton.
“Holy shit,” some guy mutters.
“What?” his friend asks.
The guy tips his head in our direction.
His friend’s eyes widen when they land on Flip and shift to me.
Flip pulls me into his side, and dips down until his lips are at my ear. “We probably should have taken the stairs, eh?”
I giggle and force my knees to lock, since they’ve turned to Jell-O.
“Flip Madden.” The guy’s voice is laced with awe.
“Hey.” Flip nods his acknowledgement.
Two girls wear confused looks. Another is suddenly very interested. I turn to Flip, and his grip on my waist tightens. Protectively. Possessively, even. He’s wearing the same look he was when Quinn slung me over his shoulder at the lodge.
Thankfully we reach the lobby, and he ushers me out of the elevator, arm still around me as he guides me to the front entrance.
We make it outside without causing a scene. I zip my jacket, the heat dissipating quickly in the frigid January evening.
“Dinner rush is probably not the best time for someone like you to take the elevators,” I muse. Tilton’s hockey team is like royalty here.
Flip shrugs. “I’m used to it. Do you have a place you’d like to go for dinner?” We walk briskly to the public parking lot.
“Wherever is fine with me. We probably want to put a little distance between us and the campus, though.”
“Good call. It wouldn’t be much fun if we get mobbed.” He opens the passenger door for me.
I duck inside and wait until he’s behind the wheel before I throw out options. “What about the Pancake House, or the Watering Hole?”
“I like both of those but more when we’re going out with friends.” He stretches his arm across the back of my seat. “And tonight, I just want to spend time with you.”
I’m about to melt into the seat.
“But wherever we end up tonight, this isn’t our first date, Tally.”
“Oh. Okay. Just friends having dinner,” I mutter.
“Friends don’t almost kiss friends in closets, kitten.” He tucks a finger under my chin and urges me to look at him. “What I mean, is that when I take you on a first date, it will be one to remember, and not because of unlimited salad and bread.”
Flip doesn’t take me to East Side’s. Instead, we end up at an Italian restaurant that looks like a hole in the wall from the outside, but soft lighting and private booths make the interior intimate and cozy.
“This is still not our first date,” Flip tells me as he spreads his napkin over his lap.
“It’s a pretty nice not-first-date.”
“Well, I feel like I have some making up to do, so we can call it apology step one dinner out.” He stretches his arm across the back of my chair. “Have you ever had a limoncello spritz?”
