“What if…would it be weird if you stayed over, but we didn’t, you know...”
“Gotcha – I’ll keep my shorts on,” I said quickly. “Tara, I would absolutely love that.”
“Really? I mean, my bed isn’t very comfortable.”
“You are comfortable,” I said, leaning down to kiss her temple. “I would absolutely love to sleep all curled up around you.”
Tara’s megawatt smile nearly knocked me cold. Then she leaned in to kiss me softly as her fingers slipped along the newly shaved back of my head. I kept forgetting that my hair had just been cut, and it still felt strange.
“Is it nearly time for bed?” I asked with a grin, looking around the room for a clock.
Tara pointed to a tiny alarm clock on a shelf, then glanced at my wrist. “Oh, I guess you don’t wear that big fancy watch every day. I bet they’re heavy.”
I wasn’t sure if she was kidding. “Not my style,” I said, “But Jessie insisted.”
She smiled, as her fingers dragged across the base of my skull, making me shiver with desire. “We could get under the covers and watch a game show. We can play along with the contestants, and I might even let you win.”
“Sneaky little thing,” I murmured, kissing under her ear as she sighed.
“Hey, it’s the least I can do,” she laughed. “Here you are in a lousy neighborhood with me, cooking for me. I’m sure this isn’t your usual date.”
“There are no usual dates,” I said. “Until now, I’d never found anyone that does this.” Taking her hand, I pressed it to my heart.
Tara rolled her eyes, but her sweet grin told me that she loved it. “You’re such a charmer. A man like you should be surrounded by girls.”
“Nope, just one.” Cocking my head, I looked at her as seriously as I could without cracking up. “Wait. How is one girl going to surround me? We’ll have to get to the bottom of this.”
“Maybe one girl is a nice break,” she laughed. “I’m sure most of the time you’re surrounded by women. Assistants, receptionists, housekeeper, who knows who else.”
Once again, I honestly couldn’t tell if she was kidding. “I gave the maid the day off just last week simply so that I could polish my own silver and be in touch with the common man,” I chuckled.
Her little giggle made it seem like she was taking me seriously.
As Tara pulled some pajamas from a drawer and went to the washroom to change, I tried to replay every fragment of conversation and bit of contact we’d had since we’d met.
Moving, without shaking. I meant as a crane operator. Did she mean as a businessman?
When we met, I was dressed up as a billionaire. She didn’t know the watch and shoes were rented.
Dammit – then I joked that my driver had arrived at the coffee shop. My boss, Vincent, often picked us up on the way to jobs, since he loved any excuse to show off his insane car collection. We all called him our driver, and treated him like the help just to be jerks.
And helping Jessie – she must have meant financially.
Crap. Tara thought I was rich.
She didn’t realize that Jessie had worked her ass off every summer for years so that she’d have plenty of money for school. I helped by driving her around, and occasionally taking her out for dinner. I pitched in sometimes, but didn’t pay for all of her supplies.
I couldn’t believe this. I had pulled myself up from a pretty lousy life, and I was certainly doing well now, but I was nowhere near a millionaire.
My head was spinning. I certainly hadn’t done anything to encourage this train of thought because I had no idea she was thinking that way. But if I told her now, and suddenly, Tara might get angry and think that I tricked her.
Worse - what if the only reason she had agreed to
coffee and dinner was because she thought I was wealthy? It didn’t seem like her, but then again I hardly knew her.
I was going to have to make her fall in love with me immediately, so that she would be more likely to forgive me when she found out the truth. Hopefully we’d laugh about the misunderstanding, and it would be a funny little story we’d tell years down the road to our grandkids.
As she walked out of the washroom wearing a purple flannel sleep set that skimmed over her perfect curves, another fact hit me like a sledgehammer.