“Done,” Sara gave a final tap on her phone and smirked. “What do you think I’ve been doing the past two minutes?” she asked, flashing me her glowing screen. On it was my new, thoroughly filled out dating profile, all ready to go with a full bio and picture. I raised my eyebrows and nodded.
“I would yell at you for being creepy but that was impressively time-efficient.”
“How a workaholic rolls. Not that I have to tell you,” Sara said, sliding her phone across the table. “Anyway, check him out. He’s cute and fit and he has literally none of the same interests as you. He hates dogs.”
“What?”
“And chocolate.”
“Stop.”
“I know. Fuckin’ weirdo, right?” Sara said excitedly. “But he has nice arms so you’ll have great sex and be over him in a jiff. It’s gonna be great.”
I burst out laughing, in disbelief of the fact that I was actually considering this. But I was, and I didn’t mind it. I’d always been a late bloomer. I graduated college at twenty-four, got my first apartment at twenty-five and only started discovering my own hobbies and interests at twenty-six. Of course it would take till twenty-seven to figure out sex and dating. It was just how I rolled.
“Alright, fuck it. Let’s do it,” I said, grabbing Sara’s phone and messaging the cute dog hater. But just as I finished, my eyes were drawn to the well-groomed, dark blonde man in the expensive suit behind Sara. He’d been sitting with his back facing us this whole time, but now he was standing up and peering at me with a ghost of a grin on his lips. I rolled my eyes as he tossed back his espresso, suspecting that he had eavesdropped and was laughing at our conversation.
But my stomach quickly turned as I watched him exit the shop and cross the street, walking leisurely toward my building and up the stairs before getting quickly buzzed in. I felt the blood drain from my face as I stared out the window and muttered, “Shit.”
Sara frowned, glancing over her shoulder. “What?”
“Nothing. I just really hope that guy is Rachel’s new boyfriend,” I said, referring to my neighbor on the first floor.
“Why?”
“Because if he’s not, then he’s a friend of Lukas’s.” I closed my eyes as Sara’s went wide. “And he just heard every word we just said.”
5
LUKAS
“Julian said you do most of your business with professional athletes?” the brunette in my lap twirled her ponytail as she sipped a vodka soda.
I nodded as I worked on my third Scotch of the night. I may or may not have started drinking early with Emmett before meeting Julian for cigars at The Pike on Park Ave. After several rounds, the plan had been to come back here to catch the game before dinner but the second we opened the front door, the girl on the first floor popped her head right out. Rachel or Rochelle – one of those two. After introducing herself, she introduced the six or seven friends she had over for a girl’s night out. And just like that, girl’s night out became a girl’s night in my apartment because Emmett decided to op
en his dumb mouth and invite everyone over.
“Not most of my business,” I answered the question vaguely. “But some.”
“Wow.” Ponytail ran my hand up and down her thighs. “You must make millions off of them.”
“They’re good clients to have,” I said. It was the least revealing answer possible but it still drew another few girls to the couch like flies to honey. Straddling the armrest now was a leggy redhead who casually grabbed my free hand and dropped it into her lap.
“I heard you hang out with the New York Empires. That’s so cool – I love baseball,” she purred as across the room, Emmett grinned at me, toasting his lowball of whiskey at my two handfuls of thigh. Combined with the buzz of Scotch and cigars, it helped. It didn’t erase the memory of Lia’s big eyes on my cock, but at least it was something – especially since she’d been avoiding me like the goddamn plague since that day.
“Do you work out with them or something? I mean it looks like you do.”
My answers were on autopilot now, my tongue easily fielding the flirty questions till I spotted Julian coming back into the apartment. I was still talking when I flashed him a death look. We’d both agreed to entertain the girls for Emmett’s newly single sake, but Julian had taken the coward’s way out by disappearing for forty minutes. So as payback, I announced his arrival to the girls on the couch, prompting them to burst into a round of applause as he angled his way back to us.
“Welcome back, Julian!” they chorused in uniform baby voices. He visibly cringed, never having been great at faking interest where he had none. I snorted as he proceeded to ignore his cooing admirers and take a seat on the table across from me, wearing a full grin that suited Emmett much more than it did him.
“What’s going on?” I asked suspiciously. “Where the hell did you go?”
“You’ll thank me in a second,” he muttered before turning to the girls. “Give us a minute,” he said briskly. As they pouted and left, he caught a beer lobbed over from Emmett then turned back to me with the stoic expression I was more used to from him. “What’s your neighbor’s name again?”
“You tell me. Rochelle or Racquel. Could even be Rachel.”
“Not that one. The one you keep talking about,” Julian said as he opened his beer. I groaned.