Ashley filled his cup with ice from the machine on the fridge. “I know this seems intrusive, but once you have the profile filled out, the algorithms can start matching you up with someone compatible. You’ll find that single mom with no baggage you’ve been looking for.” She looked up at him, and he saw it again. The pain there.
“Everyone has baggage, Ash. It’s part of living.”
She nodded, but she didn’t look like she believed him.
Lina cleared her throat. “I need to get something from my car. I’ll be right back. Chase, come fill in your height and weight and all that.” She slid into her flip-flops and closed the door behind her.
Ashley handed him the glass of ice water and turned away, closing the cupboards and rearranging things on the kitchen counter.
He had to make this right, even if it meant stepping into a minefield to figure out where he’d gone wrong. “Ashley, I know I’ve said something to upset you. Please tell me what it is so I can apologize.”
Her eyes went wide. “I’m not upset. I’m totally fine with this. We’re friends, and I want to help. I know Lina can be a lot. If you want to do this whole online dating thing on your own, I’ll understand, and she will too.”
“No, I want your help.” He was so pathetic. It didn’t matter that he had no chance with Ashley. He couldn’t bring himself to leave early. They only had a few more days of being coworkers, and he couldn’t be reasonable just yet.
Lina walked back in and studied them before going back to the computer. “You didn’t get anything done on this, Chase. Water break is over.”
Ashley rolled her eyes and went to sit back on the couch. Chase eyed the armchair, but Ashley was watching him, and his feet propelled him toward her and the opportunity to cuddle without actually cuddling. As soon as he sat down, Ashley pulled her legs up and rested them against him.
***
Ashley waved goodbye as Chase pulled out of the parking lot and turned to face Lina. “So, what do you think?”
Lina wrinkled her nose. “It’s hard to say. He’s definitely physically attracted to you. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down every time you shifted next to him on the couch. But he looked uncomfortable as well.”
Ashley collapsed into their stupid old couch. “You’re the one who insisted I sit close to him.”
“Well, of course. It gave me great data. Something is holding him back, but I’m not sure what it is. Can I please just ask him?”
“No!” Ashley moved to the computer, looking over the profile they still had up on the screen. It was a great picture of him, capturing his shy smile. He looked approachable and kind. Not to mention, extremely attractive. Women were going to fall all over themselves to match up with him. And then where did that leave her? Alone. Where she belonged. “What’s holding him back is that he only wants to be friends with me. Chase is too good a person to act on physical attraction alone. You saw the way he studied those profiles we pulled up. He never even clicked to see the extra pictures of the women. He just wanted to see what they said in their profiles.”
“Maybe that’s because he doesn’t really want to date them. I think he has this idea in his head that he has to find a mom for those kids, but what he really wants is you.”
“I’m not exactly mom material, am I?” Ashley looked around at their girly apartment.
“That’s up to you, Ash. He’s a package deal, and he knows it. Smart man.”
Ashley’s phone buzzed, and she lunged for it, hoping pathetically it was Chase saying thank you or goodnight or something.
I miss you.
She didn’t recognize the number, but she knew exactly who it was from. Ashley opened an internet window on her phone and Googled ‘how to text someone if you’ve been blocked.’ It was laughably easy to spoof the caller ID, making it look like you were calling from a different number. But now wasn’t a good time to change her number. She was waiting to hear back from Lina’s boss, and several other places that had promised to call and set up an interview time with her. And if she did change it, she’d have to tell everyone why, including Chase.
Stinking Reid. She toyed with calling her brother-in-law Shaun and asking him to go pay Reid a little visit, but she was supposed to be standing up for herself, not making other people deal with him for her.
Leave me alone,she almost sent back, before realizing she’d just be texting some random person who didn’t know their number had been borrowed for the caller ID. But that was the kicker, wasn’t it? Reid didn’t even want a response. He just wanted to get under her skin.
