Page 31 of Falling for You

“Shit. It’s already eight. No wonder we’re so tired and starved. Should we order some pizza in or do you just want to go home?” Ari asks.

I hear Jana gasp and I suddenly sit up in my seat, looking at her wide-eyed expression.

“Oh shit. Oh no. Ohhhhh nooooo.”

“What?” Ari mumbles, head laid back as she turns on the massage chair she’s resting in at the pedicure station. Her hand is out-stretched like she’s asking for more food.

I place the box in her hand and she immediately digs her hand in. Me, though, I just chew on the inside of my cheek and shoot worried eyes in Jana’s direction. “I forgot.”

“Forgot what?” she mumbles while crunching, eyes closed.

Jana looks at her and rolls her eyes then stands up, hands on her hips and glares at me. “Chlo! Rex is probably wondering what the hell happened!”

“Who’s Rex?” Ari asks, lifting her head to look me in the eye.

“Shower boy,” Jana explains.

“Ahh. I heard he’s hot. Like, cover model hot.”

“He is,” I blurt out before thinking better of it.

Jana smirks then explains. “He is super hot. He’s also incredibly hotforour girl, here. And she just stood him up for a date. I was right here and he wasn’t even embarrassed about asking her out in front ofeveryone. They made a date for tonight and she totally ditched him!” She points a long finger at me, the pointed red tip of her fingernail wiggling in a circle in my direction. Full of blame, that one.

I stand up, grab hold of her finger and turn it on herself. “It’s not my fault! Who’s the one who jacked up the schedule today?”

“Well, that’s unnecessary. Earlier you both said it wasn’t a big deal.”

I snort at her sudden reversal.

“Just call him up,” Ari says, her voice wavering a little bit from the massage chair. She’s so relaxed I wouldn’t be surprised if she fell asleep soon.

“I don’t have his number,” I mumble.

“You gave him yours!” Jana shouts loudly then covers her mouth when she realizes how loud she is.

“Yes. But I didn’t gethis.”I remind her as if she’s the dumb one.

“Do we need to spell it out? Check your phone, Chloe. He’s probably texted or called you if he was planning on going out tonight.”

“Oh right.” I slap my hand on my forehead and rush to the back room to get my phone. I’m so tired my brain isn’t even functioning correctly right now.

I quickly unlock my phone and notice a few messages from an unknown number. My heart beat accelerates as my thumb slides to open them up.

Squeezing my eyes shut tightly, I will my pulse to slow down, my breaths to even out. I don’t know why the mere thought of receiving a text from Rex has my body reacting so strongly, but I can’t stop myself from feeling more than a little bit giddy.

The thing is, I know what Rex is about, and it’s not relationships. Liberty is a small town and people talk — especially at the salon — about the sexy bartenders at The Flying Goat. How one of them was swooped off the market and is now married, expecting their first child. It seemed as though it was a sad day for the single women of Liberty when he made it clear he was taken. And the other one is the biggest flirt and is notorious for sleeping around. All the women gush over his sexy glasses and tattoos and I swear one client actually swooned when she was talking about him winking at her one night. That’s my Rex. Well, notmyRex. Geesh. Just… Rex. I get it, though. He’s one of the most charming men I’ve ever met outside the pages of a book and yet, he’s real.

But even knowing that, I feel like there’s something different about him asking me to dinner tonight. Which I forgot about like an asshole. Maybe it’s naïve of me to think that I’m the exception to his obvious aversion to dating. I’m not exactly well-versed when it comes to dating. I simply don’t put myself out there very often. I’ve dated, tried the online and app thing to help me find guys with similar interests, but the last few have been doozies. Bad enough that they’ve made me remove the apps from my phone and cancel my online dating subscriptions.

Because when I do keep them up, shitheads like the last guy come out of the woodwork. Luckily I have a bit more self-respect than to put myself in that type of position again and have learned how easy it is to walk away from the jerks and whackjobs.

He’s probably written me off already but I can’t just let it go. No matter how busy I was or whether or not I intentionally didn’t reply to his texts, I need to call him.

First, though, I read through his texts. The time stamp begins at 2:17 pm today and a quick

Unknown:Dinner still work tonight?

Before going forward, I quickly plug his name and number into my contacts.

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