Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“Men are not a priority right now.”
“You’ve made that abundantly clear. So I’ll ask you a different question. When was the last time you came out with me and C to have a drink? I mean, C is a stockbroker so she may be even more goal-oriented than you, and she carves out time to sit down with a sister, unwind and commune. You say you will, then Henry Cavill does something, and you’re off to the studio to film a segment.”
Lamentably, this was true.
“I think today proves that my dedication is garnering results,” I remarked.
“I can’t argue that, and this next is gonna be harsh, so beware, but you need to hear it. You could interview God herself, and your mother would still say the dress you wore while doing it was a bad color on you.”
As I sustained that blow (because, even more lamentably, that was true too), there was a knock on the door.
My gaze flew to my bedside clock, and I saw it was 6:02.
Was he serious?
“I can’t talk about this anymore. Hale’s here. And he’s early.”
“Niiiiiice,” she drawled.
“There’s nothing nice about being early,” I snapped as, in my green kimono robe with black at the edges and purple cherry blossoms all over it, I headed to the door.
“Pal, you’ve been out of the game for too long. And evidence is suggesting he’s a master player.”
“How’s that?”
“How many ways do you want me to explain right now?”
“All of them,” I bit out.
“Okay. One, this says he wants to see you, not that he’s trying to pretend he’s too busy for you. Or, in his case, is actually too busy for you and isn’t that into you, so he’s not gonna bother to make a point to be there even on time, much less early. That’s huge. It says a lot, especially for him. A lot that I like, and you should too.”
I hated to admit it, but this made sense, and it felt good, which I hated to admit even more.
“Two,” she carried on, “he’s catching you probably not quite ready, which gives him an opportunity to see you in your natural element, without the full mask of makeup and armor of clothes you’ll don to either repel or impress him. In other words, he’s so interested, he’s angling for a shot at seeing the real you. Three, you’re probably wearing that kimono, which covers everything, but it’s still gorgeous and clingy, and he couldn’t know that was what he was going to get, still, he knows you, so he could guess he was going to get something like that when he showed before you’d be ready, and he wanted to see it. Shall I go on?”
“No, I’m at the door,” I replied, looking through my peephole to see it was indeed Hale and he’d changed clothes since that morning.
Now he was wearing what appeared to be a cashmere sweater in crocodile green that did incredible things for his eyes, a hickory-colored blazer over it. He had a scarf looped around his neck, which meant it was cold outside. I couldn’t see what was on the bottom.
But I could see he appeared displeased, though what could displease him when he was early, which displeased me, I couldn’t know.
However, I was about to find out.
“Have fun, thank me later,” Felicity said, and I heard the disconnect.
I was fuming when I opened the door.
“You’re early,” I pointed out the obvious.
He looked me top to toe to top again, then down to toe before he found my eyes.
“Your intercom doesn’t work,” he stated.
“It hasn’t worked for months,” I informed him.
“Your elevator doesn’t work either,” he continued.
“I don’t think that’s worked the entire time I’ve lived here.”
I moved out of the way because I had no choice, seeing as he moved in.
I closed the door behind him, noting the dark wash jeans and oxblood shoes were the perfect complement for the rest of his outfit. It was also the perfect outfit for a meet-the-parents: casual, but still dressy, like he could be himself, but he’d still made an effort.
Yes, Felicity was correct.
He was good at this.
And I was grateful he didn’t look around. I not only hadn’t had time to tidy, decorating my apartment had never been a priority. As such, it was a mishmash of things I liked that I picked up along the way.
Even so, regardless of the fact it was a happy accident, I personally thought it worked.
It was dark and eclectic.
Uncharacteristically of me, I’d become obsessed when I happened onto some removable wallpaper printed in light green leaves against a dark gray-green background. As such, it set me on the first (and only) nesting mission I’d ever experienced. I put the wallpaper on one wall. I then hadn’t bothered to ask the landlord (that being Hale, but I didn’t know it then), if I could paint the other walls that same gray-green. I just did it.