Luke, sounding genuinely mortified, mumbled something, grabbed his clothes, and fled into the bathroom to get dressed.As soon as he was gone, Sabrina clapped her hands over her heated cheeks, faced herself in the mirror, and hissed, "Get yourself together, girl!"
Her reflection didn't look like someone who wanted to get herself together. Her reflection looked like someone who thought it would be a good idea to blow off breakfast and paddleboating in favor of following Luke into the bathroom and proposing that they stop having a fake relationship and get down to the business of having a real one. A delicious, warm, sexy, laughing, joyfulrealone.
"You've known him two days," she whispered to her reflection. "Don't be an idiot."
The ridiculous thing was, it didn't feel idiotic at all. Which had to be an unusually intense rush of hormones, because Sabrina did not normally think throwing caution to the wind was the way to go. She was a planner, for heaven's sake. That's how she'd gotten as far as she had in her career already. Intense planning, dedicated focus on the goal, and determination. She probably just needed to go look at some nice architecture and that would get it all out of her system.
Luke came back out of the bathroom in a white t-shirt and jeans shorts, and she concluded architecture was not what it would take to get him out of her system. No way, no how.
However, this was afakerelationship and he was afakeboyfriend and she'd made him uncomfortable, which she really truly didn't want to do, and regretted, so she said, "I'm sorry. That was really rude of me. I'll do better going forward. I'm very aware you're doing me a huge favor here and I don't want to make it harder for you than it already is."
"I'm not exactly suffering here, Sabrina," he said a bit dryly, then ducked his head and offered her a crooked smile. "And really, the compliment is nice. I just blush mortifyingly easily.The funny thing is I handle it just fine on social media. It's only real life where I go up like a Christmas tree."
"Oh, do you have a fitness account or something? Oh, yeah, you said you did. I'll have to check it out. Oh, man. I should probably know that, shouldn't I? If we've been dating six weeks?"
"I'm keeping it private because I'm a huge success and don't want to make it weird," Luke offered, and Sabrina laughed.
"Yeah, okay, fair enough. And also because I won't shut up about my own job, probably."
"I love hearing about your job," he said with believable intensity. Believable enough that Sabrina blushed, too, though not to her hip bones.
"Well, thanks. If we haven't fake-broken-up by then, you can come to the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the train station." Which wouldn't be for months yet. If they hadn't fake-broken-up by then, even Sabrina would have forgotten they weren't a real item.
"I'd love that," Luke said, still completely believably. "It's going to be interesting having Virtue on the train line. I think it's good, though. You ready to go to breakfast? I'm starving."
Sabrina, remembering he ate a sandwich that would feed her for a week as his lunch a couple days ago, actually winced on his behalf. "I bet you are. Yeah, let me get my shoes. I'm glad you're pro-railroad. I know there are people in Virtue who are really, reallynot. What's that about? Just the whole anti-progress thing?"
A pained look came over Luke's face as she put her sandals on. Thick-soled sandals that gave her a good four inches in height, which made her still…super tiny, compared to Luke. But she felt cute, which counted for a lot, and his pained expression faded into a smile. "You're incredibly cute, you know that, right?"
Despite havingjustthought that, Sabrina's face went hot. "Oh. Thank you. Some days I think I do all right. Today's one of them, so thanks."
"Oh, excellent." Luke sounded genuinely delighted. "You can be made to blush almost as badly as I do. This will all work out, then. Seriously, though: extremely cute. What's the problem with the bridesmaid's dress? I can't imagine anything not flattering you."
Sabrina barked a laugh and grabbed her purse on their way out the door. "I need clothes that define my waist, which this does," she said with a gesture at the buttoned-in waistline of her sundress. "The bridesmaid dresses are straight cut, which is flattering on a lot of people but not so much when you're five two and busty. I would have been so sad in the 1920s."
Luke blinked, clearly baffled, and she laughed again, more brightly this time as they waited for, and got in, the elevator. "The iconic style of the time was tube-shaped dresses with dropped waists. A fantastic look on slim women with small busts, but less flattering for the curvy. If you put a waistline around my hips, which is where they were at the time, I just look saggy.Greatarchitecture, though," she said rather wistfully. "Same kinds of lines, long and slim, column-based. The whole Art Deco thing was coming into its own in that era. I love those buildings. They're what got me into design in the first place."
"This conversation has gone places I didn't even know existed," Luke said, sounding delighted again. "So does that mean the train station will be Art-Deco-inspired?"
"Oh, no, that wouldn't be at all suitable for the town or its history or its location. Virtue's an old town, so I'm reaching back to some of the oldest stations in New York, including Virtue's original station, as inspiration. Did you know the oldest train line in New York running regular service dates back to the early 1830s?
"I did not know that," Luke said obligingly.
"Yep! And Virtue's original station opened in the late 1880s and closed in the early sixties, so I've got almost seven decades to play with for inspiration. But we've decided on a look heavily influenced by the early station, so the inspiration is red brick, 1890s vibe, with roof detailing that—" Sabrina cut herself off as the elevator doors opened. "That probably isn't interesting to anybody who isn't me," she ended, embarrassed.
"You're entirely wrong about that, but you can tell me about the sexy roof detailing tonight after the rehearsal dinner." Luke held the elevator door to make sure she had time to get out, then, following her, said, "Or maybe during it, depending on how boring it is. Do we have to make small talk with the parents?"
"Probably. I've never met Craig's, so if they're awful I'll tellallof you about the roof detailing," Sabrina said impishly. "That should keep them stupefied for hours."
"I think you don't have enough faith in yourself," Luke said as they went into the hotel restaurant. It was done in aquas and corals, which Sabrina thought of more as 'kitschy seaside motel' than 'high-end Vegas hotel' colors, but the ambiance was nice, and the food smelled good.
They were the first of the wedding party who'd made it down to the restaurant, which Sabrina chalked up to Luke's bizarre enthusiasm for mornings, but Keana and Cole came in almost before they'd sat down. Keana rarely looked anything other than completely put together, and this morning was no exception. Cole, on the other hand, looked a bit grim, and Luke, sympathetically, said, "Did those seven Long Island ice teas finally catch up to you?"
Cole gave Luke a baleful look as Keana's expression lit up with the satisfaction of a woman proved right. "You said you'd hadtwo!"
Luke whispered, "Oops," and grimaced apologetically at Cole, who mumbled, "I did have two. At the last bar. Which is what I said. It's his fault," he added with another glare for Luke. "He was buying."
"Oh, it'shisfault that you, a grown-ass man, couldn't say "I'll have a ginger ale" to the bartender?"
