Page 60 of New Girl in the City
“Good because this thing gives a man zero range of motion. I’d be screwed if I had to take someone down in this damn jacket,” he told me, gesturing at the sleeve with a grimace. He opened the door and I raised an eyebrow at him as I moved to get in.
“Why would you need to take someone down?” I asked.
“Dunno. It’s New York City, you never know when you’re gonna have to do it”
“I guess that’s true, but you would look great doing it.”
He made an unconvinced sound and closed the door behind me. Our drive to the office was pleasant, nearly as normal as any couple could hope to have. Except that I was in the back seat and he was in the front. I pursed my lips, thinking over the situation. Maybe I should be in the front? Is that what happened now that we were...together?
“What is it?” Liam asked me when he caught sight of my look of concentration.
“What is what?”
He raised a finger, gesturing in the mirror. “That look. What’s going on?”
I raised a hand to my face, looking away and out the window. I hadn’t realized I had been thinking so loudly, but I guessed it was better now than later. “I was just thinking about what we were.”
Liam’s eyes narrowed at me before they hit the road again. “What do you mean what we are?”
“I mean we’re dating, right?”
“Mmm, that’s a big yes Princess.”
“Okay, then what are we? Exclusive or, I don’t know is this open to---”
“I don’t share, Mel.” This was said in a low voice that made me take note. I looked back to him to see that he was definitely looking at me when he should have his eyes on the road.
“Watch the traffic!”
He looked back towards it, but it was with a sigh. “This isn’t open to anyone else.”
I felt a rush of warmth in my chest. “It isn’t?”
“Yes, Mel, don’t sound so shocked. I’m a one-woman kind of man.”
“I didn’t say you weren’t.”
We drove in silence for a minute or two before he spoke again. I nearly spit my coffee out at his words. “So what are we talkin’ about here? You asking me to be your boyfriend?”
“I never said that I wanted--” I began, hurrying to stop him. Liam continued on as if I hadn’t spoken.
“Because if you were…”
“Because if I were what?” I asked, prompting him to keep speaking.
His eyes flicked to mine before they moved away again. “Because I’d be open to that.” I saw his grin in the rear-view mirror, but he didn’t look at me. “I’ve been thinking about you all weekend, Mel. Was hoping we could have this little talk but was thinking maybe we could do it over dinner. But now is as good as any.”
I bit my bottom lip. “You know that would have been a lot better than on the drive to work.”
“You wanna be my girlfriend, or what?” he asked, coming to a stop in front of my building. I rolled my eyes, but I did it with a grin.
“Yeah, I wanna be your girlfriend.”
“Nice.” Then he was getting out of the car and when he opened my door it was with a stupid smile on his face.
“You’re real cute when you wanna talk about big things early on in the day,” he said, handing me out of the car before shutting the door with his hip.
“Well, you’re real cute all the time.”
