It was true actually. I didn’t date. My life was way, way too complicated already that there was hardly any space for it. Certainly no time. And anyone who got involved with me would need to know about my family and all the craziness they brought, not to mention the tiresome responsibilities that came with them. My last boyfriend hadn’t been able to handle all the very regular drama.
“I don’t.” I said firmly. “And certainly not my boss.”
“Well . . .” The word came out slowly and deliberately. “I look forward to trying to change your mind then.” Again, he seemed so unperturbed by everything, as if he existed in an alternate universe that obeyed a different set of physical laws. He spoke with an absolute confidence that was both sexy and slightly scary.
“Not going to happen.”
“Wait and see.”
I was almost about to exit when a sudden thought stopped me in my tracks.
Out of all the women he could choose? All the women that are a million times hotter and far, far cooler than me?
“Why me?” I turned and glared at him. “Why me?”
“I told you already. I’m totally in love.”
I burst out laughing. “Does that line really work on women?” I felt all fired up now and stepped back inside. “Oh babe, you’re the best,” I said, imitating him now in my best arrogant man voice. “Yeah, you’re so sexy it’s killing me, babe. You’re so beautiful. I need you. I want you. I love you.How many other women have you pulled those lines on?”
Ben suddenly swooped forward, looking more serious than I had ever,everseen him. “None!” He was emphatic and it stopped my heart.
“Sorry?”
“I never say things I don’t mean.”
I looked at him, trying desperately to size him up. He sounded and looked completely serious—But how could he be?I had absolutely no idea what to make of him—at all.
10. Mr. I’m Too Sexy For My Shirt . . .
Two pairs of wide eyes looked up at me over coffee cups.
“Okay,” one of the blinking eyes said. “Let’s rewind a little more. Yesterday at the office, when you walked out, he said he was in love with you, too.”
“He’s not being serious, guys!” I said. “This is obviously some line that he thinks works on women.”
Bruce nodded. “And rewinding some more to the night that you met—”
JJ smacked his hand down on the table. “Stop rewinding; I’m still on the part where you walk in and he’s half-naked up a ladder. Can we go back to that part, please?”
I rolled my eyes. “JJ, you’re such a cliché.”
“I don’t care . . . so he was up a ladder. With a hammer and a drill . . .?”
I nodded at JJ—I’d already been over this in great detail.
“Was he holding the drill? Or did he have a big tool belt strapped to his sweaty body?”
Bruce and I burst out laughing.
“I’m just trying to get an accurate picture, if you don’t mind.”
Bruce slapped his partner of twenty years on the arm. “In your dreams he had a tool belt!” he said.
“Well, a guy can dream then.”
“Can we get back to the important facts here?” I said while topping up my coffee—this was our morning ritual—“A pervy sex God, who also happens to be my boss and former one-night-stand, happens to be living next-door to me.How the hell did that even happen by the way?And not only that, but he’s really strange and weird and playing some kind of mind trick on me by asking me out and telling me he loves me and I don’t like it.”
“And he does home renovations in his underwear,” JJ added, “an important fact to consider when weighing up such things.”
