Page 3 of Love Undiscovered
I turn the shower back off and open the bathroom door, so I can talk to him. Happy, when I do, to see he’s at least put his boxers on. I may not be able to benefit from any physical contact with the man, but I can definitely still appreciate the physical attributes. He, in turn, looks my naked frame and up and down. I don’t try to hide.
“I don’t want you to call me. I think it’s best if we don’t see each other anymore.”
“We can’t even be friends? I mean, we had a good time, I thought.”
“We did have a good time.” I gesture to the bed. “Before we had—”
“Okay, okay, I get it. You don’t need to keep reminding me,” he says.
“Bye, Alex. I hope you have a good rest of your day.”
“Seriously, Remi? You stop me in the middle of sex to tell me it’s bad, get out of bed, ask me to leave your house, and then tell me to have a good day? Is there something wrong with you?” His voice rising to a shrill at that last question.
More than you know.
I can’t help it, I start laughing. I mean, I suppose that should offend me, but I find it funny for some reason.
After a brief pause, he laughs with me. His lightly muscled abs contracting.
He really is good-looking.
I consider changing my mind about him, then shake my head, ridding it of such a thought. I grab a robe from the back of the bathroom door and put it on, then reach my hand out to him, “Friends?”
He takes my hand and shakes it. “Friends.” He grabs his pants and puts them on, then looks at his watch. “I guess if I leave now I can still make my game.”
“Game?”
“Yeah, the law enforcement basketball league.”
“You’re in law enforcement? I thought you did IT consulting work.” I try to rapidly think back to when he’s talked about his job in past conversations. How had this not come up before?
“I do. But I specialize in IT for police departments.”
“Oh. I had no idea.”
“Does that make a difference?” he smirks and runs his hand through his sex-tousled hair. I fight the urge to run my fingers through it after him.
What is wrong with me?
“No.” I laugh slightly. “I just have friends in the police department and the fire department.”
“Why did you think I was traveling to two different regional police departments over the last six months?”
“Well, I wasn’t really thinking about who you were working with. Or where you were working. Just that you were traveling for work.”
“My base is out of San Soloman, but they lend me out to other divisions as a consultant. So, this last gig was actually two different locales, one in NoCal and one in the Central Coast. But both were PC refreshes,” he says as he finishes dressing.
“Oh.” I have no idea what a PC refresh is, but I don’t want to ask him for fear that he’ll actually try to explain it to me, and then he’ll never leave.
“Anyway, the annual ball for San Soloman law enforcement is coming up. I was going to ask you to go with me.”
“That’s sweet, but I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t? I thought we were friends now.” His face hardens as he talks. I’ve made him mad. I try to soften the blow of rejection. “Can’t. I’m actually already going.”
“Weren’t we still kind of dating, or at least talking, up until a few minutes ago? Or… is that why you stopped me earlier? Because there’s someone else? Why did we even get together today then?”
“No. Believe me, that is not the reason. I wanted to get together with you today, I didn’t realize it was going to go like it did.” I don’t blame him for being frustrated. If I were him I would be too.
