He called mebaby. Again. Did one call friends with benefitsbaby?

I decided to put it out there, at least in my own way, to test the waters.

Me:I’m looking forward to it… studly.

Sinjin:Studly? I expect to delve into that more at dinner.

Me: ; )

Sinjin:You’re killing me, baby.

Me:I don’t want to do that. I’ve got too many plans for you.

Sinjin:Dear God!

Me:Can’t wait for dinner.

Sinjin:At a meeting. Smiling like a fool. Getting side-eye from my staff. You’re bad for my reputation.

Me:Hope you aren’t bad for mine.

Sinjin:I’ll be bad for a lot of things. Your reputation won’t be one.

Me:Looking forward to dinner. Let you go now.

Sinjin:Don’t count on it.

As I didn’t know how to answer him because I really had no idea what he meant, I simply neglected to reply. Only thirty seconds later, the knock on the door from my next client rattled through the frosted window and I put all thoughts of Sinjin and his cryptic messages out of my mind, opening the door and gesturing the man in.

I worked one client after the next until Sinjin walked through the door as my last client left the room, sweeping me up into his arms and pressing his lips to mine. “Missed you, baby,” he said.

“Missed you, too.” While disentangling myself from his solid embrace, I thought about it. “Isn’t that weird?” I asked. “We saw each other this morning.”

“Why is that weird?”

“Well… because,” I said, unable or unwilling to put my point into words because of all that would reveal about me. Then he wrapped his arm around my waist and led me into the hallway, where we stepped inside the back room for a moment in order for me to grab my purse and coat.

Sinjin stopped us to shake Dion’s hand before we left, and when it was just him and me again, he pecked my cheek and said,“Seeing you is the best part of my day, Geet. There’s nothing weird about me missing you. When the sunshine is replaced by a cloudy day, don’t you miss it?”

Did he just call me his sunshine?

“Did you just call me your sunshine?” I asked and instead of answering, he smirked right before kissing me for real. Not some measly peck on the cheek. I was talking lips and tongues and enough touches to raise an eyebrow or two from any of the public who might have been passing by at that moment.

Wow.

“I know you don’t have a lot of time, so I took the liberty of ordering ahead of time.”

“Where’re we eating?” I asked.

“That’s for me to know and—”

I pressed my whole hand to his mouth, halting the end of that clichéd bit of witticism. “I’m cold and hungry. If you warm me and feed me, I’ll be your best friend.”

He snickered, snagging my hand to get us moving toward his truck. “My best friend, huh?”

The lightness in my chest at being here, getting to see Sinjin, holding his hand, made me feel positively giddy. Who was this woman? Giddy? Still, I playfully arched a challenging eyebrow and said, “Yeah, what do you have to say about it?”

When we reached his truck, he opened the door for me first and helped me up inside the beast before running around to his side. He’d kept the truck running with his remote start and I sank into the heated seat, letting the warmth suffuse my chilled bones as I watched him swing up into the driver’s seat.