Boyfriend.
What scared me most about him using that word was the fact that it didn’t scare me to hear him call himself my boyfriend. I liked it.
Tonight, when we were in that dark, secluded hallway and walking back to our table, I felt myself give in. I gave in to the idea that it could work. But fate had other plans whensheshowed up. I would love for her to know Chase and I were together. She had her claws in him for too long as it was. If she found out, the whole world would know.
That scared me.
As I looked at him, his boyish grin coupled with his sexy stubble, I realized I didn’t want to be scared to be with him. He dipped down and kissed me. Deeply. Our tongues tangled in our mouths as I held his face and wouldn’t let go. And he liked that.
“You look so fucking hot tonight, Mare. I know there are things you want to talk about,” he said against my cheek, pausing to look at me. “There are things I want to talk about.”
“OK,” I said.
His head tilted at my simple response.
“Does that surprise you?” he asked.
I wasn’t sure if it did or not. We were still figuring all of this out as we went along. Relationships haven’t been my strong suit most of my life. There were boys who liked me back in middle school and high school. I dated a few, but I never really had a long-term relationship. Even since being here in New York, I’ve kept mostly to myself and occasionally dated. I’m no psychiatrist, but I was sure my home life was a direct correlation to me not really knowing how to do this.
But when it came to Chase, everything seemed easier. Being around him, talking to him, wanting to make it work. I’d never had that desire in the past.
It was unfortunate it had to happen with him, one of the two guys who were truly forbidden for me to get involved with.
“I don’t think so,” I told him. “Things happened tonight that we should both want to talk about.”
“I wasn’t planning on coming up to your apartment tonight. I know how you feel about it being a work night. Yet I don’t want to leave things unresolved.” The feel of his fingers as they brushed along my cheek sent a shiver down my spine. “We can have the talk here, in the car, tomorrow sometime at work, or I can come up. It’s your call.”
My eyes wandered to Ben in the front seat. There was no way we were having this conversation in the car. Nor did I have any interest in doing it in the office either.
We both knew if he came up to my apartment, he wasn’t leaving tonight.
There was a part of me, a big part of me, that wanted that. We would talk, first, obviously.
We were crossing the Madison Avenue Bridge, which meant we should be in front of my building in a few minutes.
“Let’s talk at my place,” I told him.
That earned me a smile.
The car came to a stop in front of my building. Chase and Ben spoke for a few minutes while I waited on the steps.
“He’ll be here to get me at 6:30 tomorrow morning,” Chase said.
The walk up the stairs was a quiet one, but not awkward. Knowing we had to talk took the unease out of the situation.
“Why don’t you get comfortable, I’m gonna take a quick shower, if that’s OK?”
Sweat had been dripping down my neck from the singing and dancing; I needed to at least rinse off. Once I twisted my hair up into a knot, and the water was hot, I jumped in and out.
By the time I returned to the living room, Chase had some music playing on my speaker. It sounded familiar, but I didn’t know who it was.
“Lifehouse,” he said. “The band I sang tonight.”
I sat next to him on the couch, and suddenly neither of us had anything to say. The words of the song in the background were saying something about a clock. Chase cleared his throat, gaining my attention, but then didn’t say anything.
“Chase.” I needed to get it going.
“I know, I can’t believe she was there, Mare,” he said. “You have to believe me. I haven’t spoken to Amanda since the party at The Plaza. This was the first time I’ve seen her. And if I knew you would’ve been comfortable with it, I’d have told her about us. But…”
