Page 23 of Rich Girl
We get to the door and step outside the restaurant, neither one of us making a move to say goodbye and walk away. I take that as a good sign.
Someone bumps into me from behind, and I fall against Ray’s body, my fingers automatically grabbing at his buttoned-down shirt.
“You okay?” he asks when I don’t let go right away.
It takes quite the effort to step away from him. The hardness of his muscles that I felt under his shirt are a very pleasant surprise. From what I can tell, Ray Parker is all man.
My first impression of him when I walked to the table was that he looked just like the picture on the app. Nothing had been photoshopped, and I was relieved by that. However, once we started talking, it was obvious that we had nothing in common. And I had a feeling he wouldn’t be impressed by my daily activities back in Boston.
“I’d like to walk you home.”
I turn startled eyes to look at Ray. I am not ready to let go of him, and I dread the thought of having to find someone else for Adeline’s wedding, but I expected him to take off by now. The fact that he wants to walk me home is a huge problem.
“Uh…”
He takes my hesitation as me being scared of him.
“I swear I’m not a psychopath.” He takes a step back and puts his hands up in defense. “You can take a picture of me and send it to your friends so they know what I look like in case something happens to you.”
That doesn’t sound comforting at all.
“What could happen to me?”
“I worded it wrong,” he apologizes. “I just want to make sure you make it home okay. It’s late, and the city is full of crazy people.”
I sink my teeth into my bottom lip as I mull things over. What to do, what to do… The man thinks I am a regular working class citizen. If he sees the hotel I’m staying at, everything would change. On the other hand, I’ll never see him again after he drops me off.
“It can’t be this bad.” He gently presses a thumb to my lip, forcing me to release it from my teeth.
I take a deep breath in and decide to risk it.
“I’d love it if you walked me back, Ray.” I purposely avoid the wordhome. The smile he gives me in return almost blinds me. I really wish I could start this over and not lie about myself.
He grabs my hand, leaving me unsure of how to react. The move is so natural, I flex my fingers around his hand on instinct. He squeezes me back, the rough pads of his fingers scratching lightly against my skin. It is not something I am accustomed to, but definitely don’t hate it.
“How far is it?”
I am so distracted by his hand holding mine, I have no idea what he’s talking about.
“How far is what?”
“Your place, silly,” he laughs.
“Oh.” I swallow hard in an effort to buy myself more time. “It’s three blocks away.”
“And you got lost getting here?”
The surprise in his voice is real. I would be shocked by that piece of information too if I were him. The reason I got lost was because I have no sense of direction. When I looked everything up on my phone, it seemed simple enough. But once I was outside, I have no idea where I was in relation to what I was seeing on the map. Was I supposed to go left or right? Where was south?
In the end, I chose to go right. And I was wrong. So, after walking for two blocks in the opposite direction, I panicked andchecked the map again. That was followed by me stopping a stranger to ask them if they knew how to get to the restaurant that Ray had picked for our first meeting.
“Uh, I was nervous.”
It’s a good excuse as far as that goes, and it helps that it was true.
“Nervous about meeting me?” he sounds incredulous. “I’m a teddy bear.”
He really is, damn it. It’s unfair how sweet he is. He is a bit rough around the edges, but the more I get to know him, the more I like him. I wonder if he is starting to change his opinion of me as well.
