Page 14 of Simply Irresistible
I laughed. “I suppose. But mostly at the magazine.”
“What’s it like working for Brianna Heatherly? Is she as horrible a boss as Roger?”
I shook my head. “No, not at all. Brianna is a wonderful boss. She’s tough, but that’s why she’s the best. She doesn’t take any crap, and she doesn’t put up with crap either. She’s well respected at the magazine and in the industry.”
“She’s got that advantage over Roger then. I don’t think anyone at the magazine respects him.”
“I’m surprised he still has a job, honestly. Preston Parks doesn’t usually mess around with stuff like that. It’s why Brianna keeps everything so structured atLL.” Tyler looked like he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself. “I’m sorry for bad mouthing your boss…”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, taking a sip of beer. “I can’t stand the guy. You can say anything you want about him.”
“I’d rather talk about something else,” I said, hoping we could talk about something other than work. “I listened to the tape.”
His eyes lit up. “Oh yeah? What did you think?”
I took another sip of my beer. The condensation made my hand wet, and I took my time drying it with a napkin. I was making him sweat and enjoying it.
“It was okay…”
“Just okay?” he asked, leaning back in his seat.
I grinned at him. “Better than okay,” I said. “I really liked it. I’d forgotten about a few of those songs.”
“Ha! I told you.” He said looking all proud of himself.
“Hey, now. I just said I liked the tape. I didn’t say it was better than the eighties.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “We’re not supposed to talk about decades.”
“You’re right, we’re not.” We’d agreed to that after our disastrous lunch date. “But first, do you have Spotify?”
“Yeah,” he said, drawing the word out.
“I made an eighties playlist for you.”
“I guess I’ll check it out since you listened to my tape.”
I made a face at him. “Thanks for your sacrifice.”
“Anytime.” He smirked.
We spent another hour talking about where we went to college, our favorite Manhattan restaurants, and what we liked about the city. It was surprising how much we had in common, and the conversation between us flowed easily. When some other people came up to use the grill, I helped him gather everything up and bring it back down to his apartment where he had cookies and milk for dessert. He seemed almost embarrassed by it, but I thought it was adorable. We sat on the futon—which doubled as his bed—and ate our dessert while having a surprisingly tame debate over which was the better of the two: cheesecake or carrot cake.
“I’d like to walk you home,” he said at the end of the night. We could have continued talking for the rest of the night, I thought, but we both had to work in the morning, and I couldn’t stop yawning.
“That would be really nice,” I agreed.
We only lived a few blocks from each other; we both chose tiny apartments close to our office building since our jobs often demanded so much of our time. For what we were paying for our tiny apartments, we could probably rent something spacious outside of the city, but who wanted to do that? Manhattan was an amazing place to live. He held my hand the entire way home, even in the elevator. I felt like I’d floated home on a cloud, just being with Tyler gave me a natural high. He’d given me a kiss on the cheek when he left me at my apartment after our escape room date, and I was hoping that tonight he’d give me a little more than that. I wasn’t ready to sleep with him, but a good kiss would have been a great way to end an amazing night.
We paused outside my apartment door, and I thought about inviting him in, but I didn’t say the words.
“I had a really great time tonight, Melanie.” He stood just inches from me, looking into my eyes.
“Me too,” I said, meeting his gaze. “Thank you for dinner.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you liked it.”
“It was delicious.” Okay, this was getting awkward. Were we just going to exchange pleasantries?
