“Nope. No thinking.”
“That’s not what it looked like.” He smiled at me, and leaned forward. “So, what were you thinking about? Me?”
I bit my lip. This conversation was doing nothing to help remove the image. “So what will it be?” I said quickly, half-slamming the big purple menu down on his table.
He opened it and looked down momentarily before looking back up at me again with a deadly smile. “I like your shirt.”
“Thanks. So what are you doing here?”
“What, a guy can’t come out for dinner on a Friday night?”
“Sure he can. I was just wondering why the guy would comeherespecifically?”
He looked up and winked at me and I think I felt my ovaries tingle—if that’s even possible. “Because I knew you were going to be here, obviously.”
“I see,” I said flatly.
“I hardly had a chance to see you at work today so I thought I’d come say hi.” He smiled at me and I felt my insides melt. This man was trouble.
“No red lipstick?” he asked, his eyes sliding down to my lips. I felt them burn.
“I didn’t think you noticed,” I said.
“Oh,” he leaned forward in his chair, coming closer to me, “I noticed. Believe me.”
And just like that, I felt myself being sucked back under his spell. Our eyes locked, and I tried to will myself to look away, but couldn’t.
“Move that sexy ass,” one of the waiters, Ryan, suddenly said as he came mincing past, giving me a butt slap. This was pretty much the standard way of communicating here.
“Hey, babe,” I said and shifted out of his way before we blew each other a few air kisses.
“Wow,” Ben said, eying my bum. “What I wouldn’t give to be a gay man right now.”
“Hey, have you forgotten that we’re friends?” I said before moving around the table so my posterior was pointing away from him. “Friends don’t talk about each other’s . . . um—”
“Sexy asses?” Ben offered.
“Exactly.”
He tilted his head to the side and his eyes narrowed. “I knew I was going to regret agreeing to be friends with you.” He opened his menu and looked at it for a few seconds before raising his eyes to mine again. “So . . . to be clear, just so I don’t overstep the mark again, what body parts of yours am I allowed to compliment . . . as a friend?”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it and he smiled back at me in response.
“Would it be okay,for example, if I said you had a nice smile?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye that told me he was up to trouble. “I mean, is that appropriate for one friend to say to another?”
“I think that would be okay.” I was trying not to blush but I could feel the heat rising.
“Good,” he said and looked back down at the menu quickly before looking up again. “So if I said you have nice eyes, would that be okay?”
“Mmmm, I think that’s bordering on the wrong side of the friend zone.”
“Okay. I think I’m starting to get the hang of it.”
“Glad I could clarify,” I said and bit the end of my pen because I wasn’t quite sure what to do with my mouth.
“Hang on . . .” he said and sat up straight. “Just so I understand this one hundred percent.” His eyes scanned me up and down. “If I had to say,for example again, that you are the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen, would thatnotbe allowed?”
At the sound of those words my body stiffened instantly and I bit the pen a little too hard. “No. That would not be appropriate at all.”
