Page 38 of Playing With Danger

Damn.

He was right; my question wasn’t cool. I knew him. I knew that if he was ready to move out he’d tell me. He wouldn’t do what I’d accused him of doing.

Double damn.

I finished unloading the dishwasher and cleaning up the kitchen, giving both of us a few minutes to cool off before I went into my room to grab my phone. That scene wasn’t fun but it was far from the first tiff we’d gotten into and it wasn’t near as heated as some had been.

Friends argued.

Then they made amends and moved on.

But it still didn’t feel good I’d messed up.

I picked up my phone off the charging pad on my nightstand and saw I had a text from Valentine.

I should’ve ignored it.

Someone with stronger willpower would’ve.

I, however, was weak when it came to Valentine.

When you get this, call me.

I scrolled up to the last exchange from earlier.

How does this sound for a coffee shop tagline? Coffee is the key to a perky day.

Within minutes Valentine had replied.

Horrible.

Ugh.

Did you want me to lie?

No. But you suck at the gentle let down.

Sorry, baby, I didn’t take you as a woman who liked it gentle.

After he’d sent that I’d reread the text no less than ten times trying to figure out if he was flirting or not.

I ended up sending a lame response.

It doesn’t have to be gentle as long as I’m prepared.

It was a solid five minutes before he came back with…

Noted.

After that, I didn’t know what to say so I stopped texting and went back to work on Hot Java’s not-marketing campaign that included a rebrand. Thankfully I had a budget for logo design and a copywriter to come up with a catchy tagline and headlines for advertisements. Clearly, slogans weren’t my strong suit.

Nothing from our previous exchange hinted at why he’d want me to call him. Which meant my good sense was overridden by curiosity. I needed to talk to Hayden, but that would take more than a couple minutes and Valentine never stayed on the phone long. At least that was what I was telling myself when I called Valentine first.

I hit his contact and waited. After the forth ring I figured I’d get his voice mail. At this juncture that should’ve been a relief. Everything about him was confusing and scary and made me feel anxious. Not to mention turned on. Maybe in a few months when I was over my crush we could be friends. I could drop by the Hope Center and watch him play basketball before I did my volunteer thing with the kids. Not that I’d called or emailed to ask about volunteering. I wanted to but if I did that now, I might come across as a stalker.

“Hey,” he answered. “Hang on a second, let me go outside.”

A few seconds later the sound of music disappeared.

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