Page 11 of The Fantasy League
“Sorry if I woke you.” Scarlett’s face was as red as her name suggested. “I couldn’t reach the pan on the top shelf.”
“No worries,” I responded back as I took in the way she looked in her sundress. “So, uhh, how have you been?” I questioned, trying my best to keep a casual tone despite the sense of inadequacy that swept over me.
Fuck if I didn’t feel like a middle schooler trying to talk to his crush for the first time.
Shaking my head, I dropped down onto the barstool at the island and admired Scarlett as she flipped a giant breakfast omelet with ease.
“How haveIbeen?” she repeated the question back to me, glancing uneasily over her shoulder with the spatula still in her hand.
I nodded, giving her another awkward shrug. “Yeah. How have you been?”
Scarlett whipped her body around and stared at me, open mouthed and speechless. “…Are you feeling okay?” she questioned skeptically after a beat, clearly avoiding my question.
“I feel fine… why?”
“Just curious…” Her eyebrows curled upward as she walked a few feet to grab a plate from the cabinet. “I was actually wanting to talk to you about something…”
“So, do you have a boyfriend?” I cut her off, the words spilled from my mouth before I could catch them.
Fuck.I closed my eyes, hoping to erase the last five minutes. Internally chastising myself, I let out a deep sigh and ran my palms down my stubble-covered cheeks. How was I fucking this up already?
“No…” Scarlett trailed off while removing the omelet from the pan, moving it over to the plate. I let out a relaxed breath, feeling a chunk of tension I didn’t know I had released from my shoulders at her answer. “Abel, are you sure you’re feeling alright?” She tilted her head to the side as she held out the plate toward me.
I wouldn’t tell her, but my appetite dissipated the second I started this conversation, and it wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon.
“I feel fine,” I scrounged out under my breath while digging my fork into my breakfast and cutting it into bite-sized pieces. “So I was thinking that… maybe, uhhh… we could go out sometime?” I muttered.
There was no going back now.
Clearly, I hadn’t thought this through.
I was herbossand she was myemployee. I couldn’t go around asking her on a date out of the blue like that. How fucking unprofessional. If I were a betting man, I would’ve put big money on a retelling of this encounter making the headline of Page Six first thing in the morning.
Scarlett sucked in a sharp breath, frozen in place. “What’d you just say?”
“I—”Fuck. “Was wondering if you wanted to go on a date with me?”
She stared back at me blank and tongue-tied, blinking those midnight-black lashes at me for an extended moment before wandering over to the spice cabinet.
What the fuck?Was she… pulling the spices out of the cabinet?
Locking my gaze on her, I analyzed her while she opened each lid, sniffed, and before moving on to the next. Oddly spending more time on the oregano compared to the others.
“What are you… why are you smelling my spices right now?” My brows grew together and concern coated my voice as I inched over to where she was rummaging through the bottles.
She swiveled around, holding the oregano clutched tight against her chest. The blood drained from her face and she looked like she was going to vomit.
For fuck’s sake, what was going on?
Scarlett slowly raked her eyes over my face and body. On a normal day, I probably would’ve gotten a hard-on from her checking me out, but I wasn’t the slightest bit turned on with how weird she was acting.
“I-I don’t know how to tell you this… but I think I might have accidentally drugged you.” Her voice shook like a leaf in the wind.
“What do you mean, you might’veaccidentallydrugged me?” I tried my best to hide the shock in my voice so as not to scare her, but if she slipped me drugs and league officials found out, I would be royally fucked.
“You asked me to go on a date with you…”
“I know that.”
