Page 41 of A Match Made In Evan
“What?”
Her pale, freckled cheeks turn a deep red, matching her hair. “God, I’m sorry, James. I was flirting with you.” Her cheeks darken further while I try to come to terms withthatrevelation. “I just threw myself at you back there and everything.” She waves her hand in the vague direction of our hotel room. “I’m so embarrassed.”
“You…wait…what?”
Exactly how long has this been going on? I’ve never noticed any flirting.Howcould I have not noticed?
Andi’s a really attractive woman. With her wild red hair and porcelain skin, and ample curves, she’s got a natural sensual vibe about her. I mean, yeah, she’s joked about us dating before but…
Oh, God, I’m a moron.
The joking was her flirting. She was coming on to me, and I was cracking jokes about HR violations.
I want to facepalm.
Covering her face with her hands, she shakes her head. “Can we just forget all of this ever happened?”
“I…yeah, sure.” I have no idea what else to say, or how else to handle the whole situation. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I was so oblivious…”
No, not oblivious. Distracted.
By Evan.
A buxom, beautiful woman has been throwing herself at me for months, and I’ve been too wrapped up in Ev to notice.
He’s going to get a kick out of that.
“You’resucha man,” she chuckles, and even though it’s an awkward attempt to break past the tension of whatever the fuck this past few minutes has been, I grab onto it and run.
“I am. You need to bewaymore blatant with me, Andi. I’m dumb and oblivious.”
She snorts and finally things between us start to feel normal again. “Can I record you saying that?” she asks, and we start to head towards the elevators again. “I want to make it my ringtone.”
“Nope, you missed your chance.”
I catch her wince out of the corner of my eye. She sighs as she presses the call button for the lift. “In more ways than one, apparently.”
Okay, maybe the tension isn’t all gone.
“Andi…”
She waves my attempted apology off. “No, it’s my bad. I should have realised you weren’t picking up the signs.” Giving me a little smile, she leans over and bumps my bicep with her shoulder. The liftdingsas the carriage arrives and the doors slide open. It’s empty and, as we step inside, she prods, “So…tell me about her.”
“Who?”
“Jesus, you really are dense, aren’t you?Her. The woman who snapped you up right out from under my nose.”
I swallow roughly, feeling my heart rate pick up. Butterflies beat their wings in my belly, and I wonder why I ever thought it was a good idea to bring up my love life to begin with. “She, um,” my stomach swoops as the elevator descends, and hesitate again. “She’s a he, actually. Ev. Um, Evan. It’s…it’s Evan.”
The doors swish open at the ground floor, but Andi stands in place, staring at me as if she’s seeing me for the first time.
I guess she kind of is. Therealme, anyway. The me who has been infatuated and half-in-love with his best friend for decades.
An older guy clears his throat, clearly wanting to get into the lift, and that’s enough to shake Andi out of her stupor. She apologises and hurries out into the hotel foyer, and I follow after her, also muttering an apology to the man as we pass.
“Evan?” she asks as we make our way out through the reception area and to the pickup and drop off zone. “As in…your best friend?”
Still feeling a little sick with nerves, I nod. “The one and same. I’ll, uh, book us an Uber, yeah?”
