Stella led me to my office, and when I followed her inside, she closed the door. It felt oddly like being in the principal’s office, and I was in trouble for something. I fully expected her to go sit in my chair, but she didn’t. She just sat down in the old desk chair I kept around for her.
“Alright. Spill it.” She looked at me expectantly.
“Well, you know about Nick.”
She nodded. “The cute bartender you’re moony-eyed over that’s half your age? Yes, at this point, I definitely know about Nick.”
I scowled at her as she laughed at me.
“I’mnotmoony-eyed. And he isn’t half my age. He’s older than that.” Not by much, but it counted.
“I’m teasing you, Preston. Lighten up.”
It was hard to stay mad at her. So I took a deep breath and told her everything from start to finish. When I’d run out of words, she looked at me with wide, thoughtful eyes.
“And the flirty stuff stopped that night after you left Alejandro’s.”
I nodded. “Yeah, pretty much. After I told him about the trip, Nick was stoked to go to New York. Now I’m not so sure. He’s ridiculously talented and his portfolio of designs is a mix of cutting edge and old world traditional. He’s the perfect choice for the expansion.”
“What do you want more, Preston? His affection or his design skills?”
I looked at her with the simple answer. “Both. I want both.”
Stella sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Is he the jealous type?”
“No, that’s me. He’s a workaholic. Also like me.”
She laughed. “Yes, I know.” Stella studied me with narrowed eyes. “Could he be upset about something? Did you do something to make him think you weren’t interested anymore?”
“No,” I muttered petulantly. “I got up when the tight end’s husband came in with the running back and his husband. They’re all friends. I winked at him before I walked back to talk to Alejandro.”
Stella looked up at me. “What does he say when you talk to him?”
I ran my hands through my hair. “That he’s busy and school is demanding right now. I guess he could be tired, but things just seem…off. We were so in-sync before.”
“I guess you better hope he doesn’t say ‘bye-bye-bye’.”
“I hate you,” I mumbled before we both broke down laughing.
“Preston, maybe he’s telling you the truth. He said he needs to be all business while you work together. Maybe he’s putting up the walls to protect himself from being hurt. People do that, you know.”
“But things are different. I’d never hurt him. There’s nothing I can think of…”
I looked at Stella, suddenly aware of the only possibility. “Do you think he knows about that night?”
“Anything is possible, I suppose.”
“That has to be it, Stella. There is nothing else, and I haven’t told him about Victoria. We aren’t there yet.”
I pushed up from my chair and paced the two feet of floor space I had. “I’ve got to go talk to him. I hope it’s my imagination, but it doesn’t make sense otherwise.”
She nodded. “Yeah, you do. But don’t be the bull in a china shop like you want to be. He obviously likes you, Preston. That hasn’t changed. And if he’s into you, try to remember how you react when you think someone has betrayed your trust.”
Yeah, I was a fucking bear. It took a mountain of ass kissing to get me to change my mind, and most of the time, that wasn’t enough.
But Nick was different. He was a lot nicer than me, even though he was suspicious as fuck.
I looked around my desk and rifled through the invoices that needed to be paid scattered across my desk. Jerking open my desk drawer, I rifled around in there too. “Have you seen myAltoids? And where is my cologne?”
