Page 97 of Party Favors

I was glad to see him again, but it was different. I still thought he was handsome, but that fluttery feeling I used to get every time I saw him?

It was gone.

That feeling now belonged to someone else.

But maybe it had been an out-of-sight, out-of-mind situation. What if those feelings came back now that he had returned?

“I wanted to ask you to have dinner with me tonight,” he said.

A lance of shock pierced me. “What?”

“Dinner. Tonight. Me.” He was being playful and flirtatious. He’d never treated me that way before and I didn’t know how to take it.

I wondered if it was even appropriate, given that he was my boss.

As if he could read my mind, he said, “I’ve already disclosed to HR that I intended to ask you out, if you’re worried about that.”

I felt like somebody had punched me hard, knocking the wind out of me. I didn’t understand what was happening.

Adrian had just strolled back into my life as if he’d never left, and then asked me to have dinner with him?

Maybe I was misunderstanding his intent. “Dinner? Did you want to talk about work?”

“I am asking you on a date,” he said. “So that we’re clear.”

Adrian Stone wanted to take me on a date?

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Absolutely nothing was clear right now. In fact, him “clarifying” was only making me more confused. “What about Colette?”

A look of pain crossed his face, but it quickly disappeared. “She and I are done.”

There was obviously a lot more to that story, but there wasn’t time to ask about it now. Adrian was waiting for an answer.

An answer to him asking me on an official date. Something he’d planned to do before he’d ever stepped foot in the office today, given that he’d already told HR.

Unlike Max, who was kissing me while still having dinner with his ex-girlfriend—and who knew what he was getting up to in Los Angeles, how many dates he’d gone on. He hadn’t even bothered to reach out to me while he was gone. He wasn’t being clear about his intentions with me at all.

And I preferred this.

It was everything I’d hoped for since I’d started working here, but there was no joy here, no excitement.

Just an aching hollowness.

Maybe that would change if I accepted.

“Yes,” I said cautiously. “I’d like to have dinner with you.”

“Great! How about eight o’clock at my apartment?”

“Sure.” I nodded. I waited for a beat, but that hollowness didn’t go away. If anything, it got worse.

“Thanks, doll. Can you close the door on your way out?”

I got up, my body feeling unbearably light. Like I was no longer tethered to reality.

I couldn’t believe Adrian had finally asked me on a date.

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