“Which means I have something to do.”
“It’s not even five o’clock,” she fires back at me. “You can take a bath and still be at the blind date by seven.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Well, it’s time for you to do things you don’t want to do, and this is one of them,” she retorts. “Get out of your house and go meet this guy.” I groan inwardly. “And at no time do you say that you were not the girl who was supposed to go.”
“Ariella, what if the two of them already talked about the date and then I show up? I’m all like ‘Hi, it’s me.’ And then the guy thinks I’m about to boil a rabbit for him.”
“Okay, that sentence is a lot to unpack,” she says. “Go take a bath. You know, clean up whatever areas need to be cleaned up, just in case you go to all the bases with him.”
“She can’t sleep with the guy,” Jaxon interjects right away. “Under no circumstance can she sleep with him.”
“What?” I ask shocked, and he takes the phone back.
“Kylie,” he says my name, “you can’t sleep with him.”
“Then I’m not going.” I roll my lips when he groans, and I know this is killing him. “If sex is off the table, is there any reason why I should even go?”
“Kylie,” he groans again, “if your brother finds out I set you up on a blind date with this guy and then you end up sleeping with him, he’s going to kill me.”
“I’m a grown-ass woman,” I remind him. “If I want to go on a blind date, I’m going to go on a blind date, and if the two of us hit it off and end up doing the horizontal tango, that isn’t anyone’s business.”
“Can you just leave out the tango all together?” he asks. “Besides, what if, and hear me out. What if you do the whatever it is you called it and then you can’t get rid of him? Then I have to beat him up, so he’s going to be broken hearted and beat to shit.”
“This is why you don’t set people you know up on blind dates,” I state very matter-of-factly. “This is why.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I’m just saying, this is a good lesson for you to learn.” He growls. “Okay, fine,” I concede, thinking, Why the fuck not? Why shouldn’t I go out on this blind date? Am I really going to sit at home, waiting for Knox to show up again? Fuck no. “I’ve got to go. I have to exfoliate things.”
“I can’t talk to her,” Jaxon says, probably throwing the phone at Ariella. “I hope you are happy with yourself,” he scolds her. “She’s going to ruin this man, and he doesn’t even know it.”
I can’t help but silently laugh when Ariella comes back to the phone. “What did you say to him?” she asks in a whisper. “He just stormed out of here.”
“I said I was going to exfoliate things,” I tell her. “Send me the restaurant so I know what to wear.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she chants over and over again. “The reservation is under my name, Ariella, and it’s at seven thirty.”
“I hope you know I’m very hungry and very thirsty.” I don’t bother letting her answer me before I hang up the phone.
I take my glass of wine and make my way to the bathroom, where I step into the shower instead of the bath. I also don’t exfoliate anything. The last thing I’m going to do is sleep with this guy, especially since I’m the backup.
I head into my closet after I finish drying and curling my hair. I may not want to go out tonight, but I’m going to make sure I put my best foot forward. I move the hangers one after another, going between wearing a dress or wearing jeans. I opt for the dark blue jeans, thinking it’s less formal and harder for me to get off in case he melts my panties. Turning to make my way over to my tops, I think about maybe wearing a long-sleeved button-up shirt, but that is for business and not flirty enough. I instead grab a lace bodysuit top, with a built-in black bra. I put the bodysuit on before sliding the jeans on and take a look in the mirror smirking when I notice how perfectly the jeans fit before I bend and roll them up once at the hem. I then walk over to my shoe closet and head straight for the heels I was thinking about pairing with the outfit.
I slide my foot into the sandal, adjusting the band across my foot and the ties around my ankle. The heel is steel and has YSL on it. The shoes absolutely kill my feet, but they make the outfit. I rush back into the closet and grab a black blazer, slipping it on and pushing up the sleeves.
I head back to the bathroom to put the finishing touches on the soft makeup I applied. Spraying perfume on my neck and then on my wrists, I then put on my silver Rolex and two silver bracelets. I grab the diamond earrings Kirby bought me when I graduated from college and decide against putting on a necklace and leave my neck bare instead. I take a final look in the mirror, applying my lip gloss. “Well, if this doesn’t knock him on his ass,” I smirk, “I don’t know what will.” I tuck the hair behind my ear. Turning off the light in the bathroom, I snatch up my phone before heading out the door.
The nerves hit as soon as the phone buzzes and tells me that my ride is here. My stomach flips up and down and all around as I push out of the lobby, heading to the black Escalade that is waiting for me. My hand goes to the handle of the back door, pulling it open. “Here goes fucking nothing.”
twenty-one
Knox
I flip the rust-colored jacket around my shoulder and put it on as I jog down the steps and head toward the living room, the sound of the television playing and the smell of popcorn in the air. I push up the sleeves over my watch. “Hey.” I walk into the living room and see Nora sitting next to Tessa, a bowl of popcorn on her lap. Westley and Vincent are on each side of the couch, their own bowls of popcorn beside them.
“I’m headed out,” I announce, and the boys shush me. “I won’t be late,” I tell Tessa, bending and kissing Nora’s head.
