>>Landry: If you think I’m a CEO I need to explain my business to you better.
>>Jamie: CEO, genius, marketing wizard. All impressive to me.
>>Landry: Thanks again for the coffee. Needed something more substantial than a vanilla latte after last night.
>>Jamie: You didn’t seem hungover.
>>Landry: I clean up well.
I imagined sending the text I actuallywantedto send:no, Landry, you don’t just clean up well, you always look so fucking good it hurts.I held myself back, though, opting for something nice but less aggressive.
>>Jamie: Damn right about that, Lucky Landry.
>>Landry: Want to know a secret?
>>Jamie: Of course I do.
>>Landry: I didn’t get any sleep at all after you left, actually. Not a wink.
>>Jamie: Bullshit.
>>Landry: Yep. This morning was painful.
>>Jamie: No wonder you needed more coffee… and I thought I had a rough one this morning.
>>Landry: You looked great too, by the way. No surprise there.
>>Jamie: You trying to be nice so I’ll bring you more coffee?
>>Landry: Nah, I just enjoy your presence. The coffee is a bonus.
I realized I was smiling to myself like a lunatic as I walked down the cobblestone sidewalk, shopping bags swinging on my wrist.
I liked that I could joke around with Landry. And after feeling like I’d made some sort of fool of myself coming onto him last night, it was a relief to see he was as casual as ever. Just Landry Lucock being himself, I supposed.
>>Jamie: Thank you, though. There. I know how to take a compliment… sometimes.
>>Landry: You should come out for dinner and drinks with me and my colleagues tonight. They know how to have fun, and everyone else will be busy at the rehearsal dinner.
I paused for a moment, surprised at the invitation.
>>Jamie: So you don’t want to run for the hills, far away from me after last night, huh?
I bit the inside of my cheek, watching for the three little dots that would mean he was responding. After a few minutes I realized he may have gotten busy with work again, so I started down the street, just in time for my phone to buzz with a call.
“Shit, a phone call,” I told him, a light breeze blowing my scarf around as I spoke. “I must really be in trouble.”
He hummed, his rich, velvety voice sexy even over the phone. “Only the good kind of trouble, and only if you want to be.”
“If you’re trying to get me tostopcoming onto you, you’re doing a bad job when you say things like that.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “Listen, we just broke for an early lunch, so I wanted to call. You don’t actually think I’d want to stop speaking to you after last night, do you?”
I turned a corner and saw a sweeping view of the snowy mountains, all backdrop to a quaint, cobblestoned street. I paused there, leaning against a stone wall and kicking at a pebble with my boot.
“I thought it was a possibility.”
“Jamie,” he said, his voice dropping a few decibels in a way that made me want to melt right into the ground. “Last night was the most fun I’ve had in… weeks? Months?”