Date Shark (32 page)

True, sneaking into her apartment when she was at work probably wasn’t what Leila had in mind when she gave Eli the key, but if he was going show her exactly how he felt about her, it had to be done. After relocking her door, Eli hurried into Leila’s bedroom and started searching for the scrapbook. He found it on the top shelf of her closet. Half a second later it was laid out on the coffee table and Eli was dialing.

“Did you find it?” Ana asked.

“Yes. Will pictures from my phone be good enough?”

Ana considered. “It should be. Send me the first one and I’ll tell you what I think.”

The picture was snapped and sent quickly. Waiting for Ana to get it and decide if the quality was good enough for her to work with took a little longer. As he waited, Eli flipped through the pages. Every outfit Leila had designed was gorgeous. He was sure Ana would love them and go along with his plan. Eli turned another page and all of his thoughts focused on the image in front of him.

Despite being friends with Ana and Leila, fashion was still not one of Eli’s best subjects. He was sure there was a name for the style of the bodice, a strapless, sparkling number that showed off every curve of the paper model. Maybe there was even a name for the bottom half of the dress, but the best way Eli could describe it was that it looked like a waterfall. Layer upon layer of sheer material flowed down the dress in varying lengths. The same crystals that adorned the bodice began sparingly at the top of each layer then clustered together at the hem. It looked like water falling into dozens of glittering ponds. And he couldn’t help but notice the model looked an awful lot like Leila. Eli knew this was the dress his plan hinged around.

“I just got the image,” Ana said. “Let me open it up.”

He could hear her mouse clicking, then silence. Eli held his breath. He had sent her a picture of a yellow sundress that reminded him of a marigold with its gathered, full skirt.

“Leila made this?” Ana questioned.

Eli wasn’t sure if the tone of her voice said that was a good thing or a bad thing. “Yes. What do you think?”

“It’s incredible. I love it!” Ana laughed. “I could just strangle her for hiding these from me. Why on earth wouldn’t she tell me she could design something like this?”

A huge weight lifted from Eli’s shoulders. “I think she was worried you would think she was trying to upstage you.”

“Are you kidding me? This is exactly what I need to start thinking of expanding. Hurry up and send me the rest of them.”

Eli did as he was asked. He listened happily as Ana open each file and doled out praise. When she got to the last dress, the waterfall gown, she went quiet. This time Eli didn’t worry.

“Eli, this is beautiful. This is the dress you want, right?”

“Can you think of a better one?”

“No,” Ana said, “it’s perfect.”

Eli grinned. It really was. “Can you do all of this in time?”

“You had to wait until the last minute, didn’t you?” she grumbled. “A month isn’t nearly enough time, but I’ll get it done.”

“Thanks, Ana.”

The line was silent for several seconds. It made Eli nervous, and rightly so. “Eli,” Ana said, “I’ll follow through on this regardless, because I can already tell I’m going to make a bundle on her designs, but the last dress and everything that goes along with it … it isn’t happening unless Leila dumps Luke and you ditch the date shark business. You know that, right?”

He had four weeks, and very little time to see Leila as she got ready for the show. But he was so close already. Everything was going to work out, he was sure of it. Mostly. “Don’t worry, I’ll be ready. And so will Leila.”

“I really hope so,” Ana said softly.

Eli ended the call soon after that and put the scrapbook back where he had found it. There was a temptation to linger in Leila’s bedroom. It wasn’t that he wanted to snoop through her underwear drawer—Eli wasn’t a creep—but more than once he had fantasized about being in this room with Leila. Making that a reality was so close. His fingers trailed across the violet and chartreuse comforter spread neatly across her bed. One corner was turned up slightly. Eli reached to correct the blanket, his eyes falling on Leila’s nightstand where there was a picture of her at his house one of the nights they played poker with the guys.

It was a poorly posed picture, Leila holding her phone out in front of the group to snap the photo. Guy was only halfway in the frame and the top of Vance’s forehead had been chopped off. But Eli and Leila were dead center. Eli’s arm was around her shoulders, their heads leaning against one another, and Leila’s was wearing the most brilliant grin. She was gorgeous.

The picture couldn’t compare to the three paneled work of art Luke had taken of her, but it was on her nightstand where she could see it every night before bed. Eli turned away with a smile. There was no other temptation to stay. He walked away happy, missing Leila even more than before, but glad he had seen the photo. The feeling carried him through the rest of his day. Angry couples, fighting, even screaming at one point didn’t get under his skin as it did some days. His whole body felt light as he walked up to his apartment hours later.

Eli pushed into his apartment considering what he should make for dinner. A sound from the kitchen made him pause. “Hello?” he called out.

In the back of his mind, it occurred to him that if it was a burglar it probably wasn’t the best idea to announce his presence. Luckily, what darted out of the kitchen at his voice wasn’t covered in all black and a ski mask. She was covered in flour.

“Leila,” Eli exclaimed, “what are you doing home … uh, here.”

She grinned. “Ana told everyone to go home early and take a break. We’re all about to lose our minds with the fall show prep.”

Eli brushed a smear of flour off her cheek with a chuckle. “And what exactly are you doing that has you covered in flour?”

“I’m making you dinner,” she said, as if it should have been obvious.

Then she turned around and walked back to the stove to stir something that smelled of cream and saffron. The tantalizing scent drew Eli into the kitchen. He leaned over her shoulder, his sudden closeness to her almost overpowering the scent. “What are you making?” he asked.

“It’s a potato and leek soup my mother taught me to make,” she said. “It isn’t fancy, but it’s delicious.”

“It smells wonderful,” Eli said as he deposited his keys and phone on the counter. “What’s in it?”

Leila pulled away from the stove and opened the oven. After a quick peek at the biscuits, she answered his question. “Yellow gold potatoes, leeks, bacon, crème fraiche, white wine, saffron, a few other things. I don’t know where my mom learned the recipe, but it was always one of our favorites.”

One quick taste to convince herself the soup was perfect, then Leila turned off the heat and moved on to the biscuits. A small tornado seemed to be unleashed then as Leila bustled about the kitchen pulling down dishes and plating the meal, setting the food at the breakfast bar—her favorite place to eat—and pouring drinks. Eli would have stepped in to help, but she moved too quickly to intercept. The table was laid before she stopped moving.

“Did you have a good day today?” Leila asked when they were both seated.

Eli smiled. “I did. How was yours?”

“Better now,” she said.

It was almost too much to come home to Leila, to eat dinner with her, to have a seemingly mundane conversation. Eli needed a dose of reality before he upset dinner by grabbing Leila and kissing her until she gave in to him completely. He needed a distraction.

“So,” Eli began, “you finally get a night off, and you aren’t out doing something exciting and death defying with Luke? Why not?”

Leila’s head ducked down briefly, but popped back up right away. “Luke already had plans tonight.”

“And he wasn’t willing to break his plans for you?” Eli asked. That truly surprised him. Leila had been so busy lately, anyone other than Ana getting to spend time with her was rare. When she did have a moment, Luke quickly swooped in and stole it away from Eli. He had been more demanding of her time since the double date. Not commandeering Leila again seemed unlikely.

Turning so she could just barely see him from the corner of her eye, Leila said, “I didn’t ask Luke to change his plans.

“Then I have you for the rest of the evening?” Eli asked, unable to contain his smile.

“Yes, I believe you do.” She was smiling as well.

A while later, Eli cleared the breakfast bar and left the dishes for later. Leila was already curled up on the couch clicking through the menu of online movies when he made it to the living room. She settled on one of her favorites,
Singing in the Rain
, and leaned against Eli when he sat down next to her. He loved that she hummed along with the songs, completely unaware she was doing it. She snuggled closer as the movie went on and toward the end her eyes were drifting closed. But she didn’t quite fall asleep.

“I should go,” she said, rubbing her eyes as the credits scrolled across the screen.

He knew she was beyond tired, but Eli wasn’t ready to let go of her. “Have breakfast with me in the morning,” he said.

Leila smiled sleepily. “I would love to, but there’s no way I could squeeze in running, coming over for breakfast, and going home to get ready for work in the morning.”

“Why don’t we cut out some of the driving then?”

She didn’t ask what he meant. All she said was, “I don’t have any clothes here.”

“You asked me to pick up your dry cleaning a few days ago. It’s in my closet.”

“I’m not running in heels and a skirt.”

“Missing one day of running won’t make a difference,” Eli said. “Stay with me tonight. I don’t want you to go. I’ve missed you lately.”

Still leaning against Eli, he could feel it the second she gave in. Her body released the tension it was holding. Her hand curled around his biceps. “Can we watch
My Fair Lady
next?”

Eli started the movie and dropped his arm around her shoulders. There was some relief that she hadn’t asked about sleeping arrangements. He would have offered her his room, of course, but he didn’t know if he could resist the allure of her in his bed. Eli wanted her close, and he hoped her request for another movie meant the same.

Leila’s eyes began to close again shortly after Eliza met Professor Higgins in the street and the bet was wagered. Eli wasn’t sure she was totally awake when she left his shoulder and laid her head on his lap, but she did seem lucid when she pulled him down next to her. Eli fell asleep pressed against Leila with one arm draped over her body, happier than he had ever remembered being.

Chapter 25

Girl Friday

Leila’s phone buzzed in her pocket. It was the second time in so many minutes, but she had no time to check her messages. She pulled another lid off of a box and nearly cried when she finally found the programs that had been missing since Tuesday. How they ended up with the general office supplies was beyond her, but she wanted to kiss the intern, Cecily, for mentioning the ridiculous number of boxes clogging up the supply room.

From her place on the floor, she hit the button on her phone that dialed Ana’s office. It was picked up immediately. “Please tell me you found them,” her harried voice nearly yelled.

“I found them. They were in with the printer paper.”

Leila could hear Ana plop down in her chair. “I think I would have lost it completely if we hadn’t found the programs. Will we ever get through a show without something going wrong?”

“I seriously doubt it,” Leila said.

The grunt that came over the phone said what she thought about Leila’s pessimism. “Well, thanks. I owe you double the whipped cream on your blueberry pancakes after the show.”

“I might need something stronger than whipped cream.”

Ana laughed. “You and me both.”

With that, Ana hung up and both women went on to the next impending crisis, whatever that happened to be. The list changed frequently. Before trying to find the quote from the caterer to prove that they were overcharging Ana, she slipped her phone out of her pocket to see who had been trying to get a hold of her. When she opened her messaging program, Leila stared at messages from both Eli and Luke. She hesitated only a moment before selecting Eli’s message.

I’m sure you’re about to tear your hair out, but don’t worry. Everything will fall into place. I’m thinking of you.

His words made the whole world take a breath. The storm of fashion mayhem that had been hanging over her head for the past month dissipated. Leila knew it wouldn’t last, but that only made her savor the moment even more. It cleared her head enough for her to ask a question that she had been curious about for some time.

Are you going to be at the show tomorrow?

She waited anxiously. Neither Eli, nor Ana had ever explained the real reason behind Eli being banned from the show. Leila knew it had something to do with her, but she had never figured out what. She had suspicions that Ana disapproved of Leila and Eli having a relationship. The
why
was what really confused her. Eli had been a wonderful friend. He had helped her through tough decisions with Luke and other areas of her life. He was everything she ever could have asked for in a friend. Eli was everything she could ever ask for, period. It was frustrating that Ana couldn’t see that.

When Eli texted back, the buzzing startled her into almost dropping the phone. Once she was recovered, she opened the message.

It depends
.

Leila’s brow furrowed. She started typing back immediately.

It depends on what?

Before she could even hope for answer from Eli, her office door swung open. The image of Luke standing in her doorway with a bouquet of gorgeous flowers stunned her into silence. He swept in and scooped Leila off the floor and into a hug. An enthusiastic kiss followed as soon as he set her back down. Leila was giggling with delight when they finally pulled apart.