“I’m not going to try. I’m going to succeed.”
After dinner, I made some excuse about running to the store so that I could get away from the guys and go find Viviana.
I feel like shit for the whole night.
The dinner was nice, yes. But I’d texted her that I wanted to have dinner with her and because I didn’t want to come across as desperate for time with her, I’d let her think that it wasn’t important.
Yes, because showing up at her place at nine o’clock at night with cupcakes isn’t desperate.
I don’t think of that as I knock on her door though, hoping that she’s not asleep and I’m waking her up.
Shit.
Maybe I should have texted first. Or called.
But I know she’s not a fan of phone calls, so I let myself hope that showing up would be a good call.
“Archie?” I hear her question through the door. My head shoots up in surprise because I didn’t hear movement on the other side.
“Uh, yeah. Hey,” I tell… the door.
“What are you doing here?”
I try to discern whether or not her tone is happy or mad and decide… that I’m a male and have no way to tell. “I brought you some cupcakes.”
I hold in a cringe, sure she’s watching me through the peephole, and let out a breath of relief when the dead bolt slides open.
“Um, I’m in my pj’s.”
“That’s okay.” I chuckle and try not to think about what her pj’s look like.
When she opens the door, I realize my brain thought “pj’s” meant something silky and sexy. Okay, so I couldn’t stop my brain from going there.
Instead…
“Is that Baby Yoda on your pants?” The question pops out of my mouth without a filter and I decide that I don’t really care.
Because she has Yoda on her pants.
“Baby Yoda is adorable. So yes, I do.” Viviana flashes me a smile and backs into her place, inviting me in.
A good sign. A really good sign.
“I mean, I’m hard pressed to disagree there. He’s pretty cute.”
Viviana has her hair in a messy bun on top of her head and a plain black hoodie on, even though it’s damn near still seventy degrees outside.
“Did you watchThe Mandalorianthe moment it came out every week or did you binge it all at once?”
“Are you kidding? Who could have waited to binge it?”
I set the cupcakes on her coffee table, tracking her with my eyes as she walks to the kitchen and opens her fridge. She pours two glasses of milk and then makes her way back to me before setting one in front of each of us on the coffee table.
“I did.” She raises a brow. “Though, mostly because I was working a lot and didn’t have the time to watch and then by the time I did have some to myself, I was able to watch it all at once.”
“Fair enough,” I reply and pop open the box I got from the bakery.
“Chocolate raspberry? Who likes chocolate raspberry?” The look of disgust on her face makes me laugh.