Page 37 of Studious
I want someone who appreciates me for me. Who doesn’t want me to change. I want someone who’s patient with me and balances me out.
And I want him to look like… Actually, I don’t care what he looks like. I just care how he makes me feel. Although with both the looks and the feels, the only picture that’s coming up in my mind is Danny. Someone who listens and is caring.
I’m interrupted by a text from Mason, who’s in Paris, apprenticing to be a pastry chef. It must be before dawn there, but bakers get up early.
Mason: How’s the new job?
Such an innocent question. That now calls for such a complicated response. What do I tell him? The safe-for-work bits, like I love the job I’m doing and the people I’m working for? Or the part where I got drunk and now have a sex tutor?
Alden: Good.
Mason: That seems evasive.
Alden: Because it is?
Mason: Is that a question or a statement.
Alden: Both?
Mason: Lol.
My phone rings, and it’s my bestie. “I decided our texts are going nowhere,” he says. “So, what’s really going on?”
I gulp. “Hi, Mason.”
“Yes, yes, hi, Alden. What’s going on?”
“Nothing. You?” I can feel his stare through the phone, so I give in. “I love my new job. I’m working with amazing people, and they have a very cool business model and philosophy, and I like the work I’m doing.”
“I’m sensing a ‘but.’”
“But I have a crush on one of the attorneys,” I mumble.
“That’s so cute! Are you going to ask him out?”
I choke. “Me? Ask out an attorney? No. I’m a bookkeeper, not a god.”
“Pretty sure attorneys aren’t gods, either.”
“He is,” I mutter. Then I take a deep breath and get it over with. “I also maybe accidentally kinda got drunk at the firm happy hour and he took me home with him to sleep it off and now I’m even more infatuated. And I’m getting lessons in how to be a playboy.”
I swear Mason is blinking. Then, finally, “No way.”
“Yeah, I know. I totally misjudged my tolerance for alcohol.”
“No, I mean, you got someone to give you lessons, eh? Is he going to teach you how to go after the hot attorney?”
“Um, well, actually, he is the hot attorney.”
Mason screeches, and I hold the phone away from my ear. “I love that!”
“I’m not sure I do. I think I might be in over my head.”
“What has he asked you to do so far?”
“Describe my ideal man for him.”
“Oh really? Who is your ideal man?”
