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“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.”