Page 172 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“Tiffany,” Nikki said. “You over there dreaming about your mystery man or what?”
I blushed, embarrassed that I had been caught in a daze.
“Sorry,” I apologized.
“So, I was asking if they were from Cayden,” Nikki said. “They have to be, right? Maurice told me that Cayden is majorly sweating you. Did you hear from him at all this weekend?”
I debated telling Nikki the truth. If I told her about Saturday night, she would tell Maurice and then the rest of the office might find out. I didn’t even know what I wanted from Cayden. I couldn’t let the rest of our co-workers know that we had slept together.
“No,” I lied. “He must have been busy.”
Nikki rolled her eyes.
“Figures,” she said. “Typical man wants a girl but doesn’t want to put in any work. I would offer to hook you up with Maurice’s brother, but it appears that you already have someone in your life.”
I shrugged and changed the topic of the conversation. I didn’t want to talk about the flowers or Cayden anymore. I was beginning to get a headache. This was getting to be too much. I couldn’t let myself fall further for Cayden. I needed to stop this before it had a chance to really get started.
The morning went by quickly without a Cayden Lewis sighting. He was usually tied up in meetings on Monday mornings, and I was glad. I still wasn’t sure what to say to him, especially after the flowers and coffee on my desk. While I was flattered, it also added another layer of confusion to the equation.
“Do you want to grab lunch?” Nikki asked me, shutting her laptop.
“No thanks,” I responded. I wasn’t feeling hungry and I knew she would want to talk more about the flowers and the mystery man.
“Alright, I’ll see you in a bit,” she said, leaving our office. I stared at the flowers for a bit after she left, still confused.
“Hey, Tiffany,” a voice cut through my thoughts. I looked up to see Cayden standing in my doorway. Of course, he looked absolutely stunning as always.
“Hi,” I said. “Thank you for the flowers.”
He walked into the office and grinned.
“Beautiful flowers for a beautiful girl,” he said. “I just didn’t want to leave a card because I knew Nikki would have read it. I just wanted to do something for you to put a smile on your face.”
“That was very thoughtful of you, Cayden,” I responded. “Can you close the door?”
He grinned and closed the door. He walked over to me. He was expecting a kiss, but I quickly stood from my desk and backed up from him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. There was a genuine look of concern on his face.
“I can’t do this,” I told him. “It’s just too much.”
He wrinkled his eyebrows. He was confused. To be honest, so was I. What was I doing?
“What is too much?”
“This,” I pointed to the flowers. “The flowers, the dinner, the weekend. It’s too much. And, we work together. We shouldn’t be doing this.”
He stood quietly for a minute, taking in what I had just said.
“But, we had such a great time on Saturday night,” he said. I sighed. It was true, we did. I couldn’t dispute that.
“I’m not just letting you end this before it begins,” Cayden said. His response took me by surprise. I thought that I could just tell him I couldn’t do this, and it would be the end. I would go back to my boring life alone and he could go find someone who looked better with him. I didn’t know what else to say to him. I would need to give him a reason that he couldn’t argue with.
“I need a solid answer, Tiffany,” he continued to speak. “I had such a great time with you last week. I don’t understand where all of this is coming from. Did I do something wrong?”
I shook my head. I wanted him to leave before someone, namely Nikki, came into the office to witness our little lovers’ spat.
“I am just not ready,” I told him. “I am not ready to move on, and I don’t know when I ever will be.”
