I shake my head but can’t help but laugh a little. "Alright, Lin."
"I'm serious! He's going to buy out your whole history section, you wait and see."
"Okay, I need to go. I have a story to read, and the class is coming in now. I'll call you later."
"You better. And Val? Next time, get a real name, check out the car, something."
I hang up, still smiling.
The rest of the day falls into its usual rhythm, but the mystery man lingers in my thoughts.
I told Lindsay he was simply being nice, but there's no way all that chemistry was in my head. Not with the way his eyes held mine. Not with the way my pulse jumped every time he leaned a little closer.
Maybe I imagined it.
Or maybe...
He'll come back tomorrow.
The possibility makes me smile.
CHAPTER TWO
Valentina
"Welp... you lied."
"What?" Lindsay asks on the other line.
"You said the handsome mystery man was going to come back and buy out my entire history section today." I glance at the shelves, perfectly stocked and completely undisturbed. "I even started looking at replacement titles. Do you know how long that took?"
"Oh no."
"Oh yes. He didn't come, Lin. Not even a phone call on my desk phone. Not even a carrier pigeon."
She bursts out laughing. "A carrier pigeon?"
"I'm spiraling. What’s a girl to do when she can’t depend on her only rich friend to give her proper advice on rich people?”
“Well, to be fair, I’m your only friend,” she reminds me.
“That’s true.” I lean against the circulation desk. "But I am officially never listening to you again. I much preferred my life before that conversation, when I knew he was out of my league, wrote him off as a daydream, and moved on with my dignity intact."
"Okay, first of all, if he’s foolish enough not to return, it’s his loss. Second of all," she pauses for dramatic effect, "it's only two o'clock."
"Oh, good lord."
"I'm just saying! Don't dispose of those replacement titles yet. He could be busy. Important men have important things. He's probably wrapping up a hostile takeover as we speak and thinking about you the entire time."
I shake my head, but I'm already smiling despite myself. "You are delusional."
"I'm optimistic.”
"But I do have to go,” she says. “I’m walking into a deposition as we speak. Call you later?"
"Sure, good luck.”
"Stay by the door at closing. Just in case he shows up fashionably late."
