Operation Foreplay (30 page)

“I like it when you blush.” I heard the words but was focused on the way his lips moved when he said it.

Clearing my throat, I shoved my phone back in my bag and stepped toward him as he took a step back. “I”—I tiptoed up and bit his bottom lip—“don’t blush.”

“Sure you don’t. And you don’t have a stash of candy hidden in your unused pots and pans, either.”

I whipped my head back and forth and placed a finger on his mouth. “Shh. We don’t talk about that in public.”

He took the coffee from my hand and sipped the hot liquid. “Strong.”

“Manny knows how I like it.”

Jared’s eyebrows shot up. “Does he now?”

I smiled and winked and stepped toward the train that had just pulled up. “Time to go.”

“After you.” Jared gestured, grabbed my briefcase, and handed me back my coffee.

We settled in the only two open seats we could find near each other. Thankfully it was summer and we didn’t have to deal with oversize coats and winter wear. Jared sat across from me, my briefcase settled on the floor between us.

“Want the rest of my coffee?” I took one last sip before I offered it to him.

He took it and drank while I dug in my purse for a compact and lipstick. Carefully I lifted one leg up and settled it on Jared’s seat, between his legs. I lifted the other and crossed it carefully over the first. I closed my eyes when I saw him look at me and shift forward in his seat.

I popped open the silver compact, twisted the tube of red lipstick, and carefully slid the color across my lips. Flicking my gaze over the mirror, I watched Jared watch me. And then I stretched and pointed my toes.

It was difficult to stifle my laugh as he jerked back with his eyes wide.

“Melody.”

“Jared.” I mimicked his deep voice.

“This is not helping things.”

“What things?”

“You certainly know what things.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket and jingled them before dropping them on the floor. Leaning forward to pick them up, his hand slid along my leg until his fingers disappeared under my hemline.

Immediate lady boner.

It was my turn to jerk back and pull my feet off the seat as I smacked his hand.

“What?” He smiled and leaned back in his seat.

“You know what.” I adjusted my skirt, crossed my legs, and folded my hands in my lap, suddenly very aware of them. “Are we still on for tonight?”

“Yeah. Berk said he’ll meet us at the place. Still not sure about a city location. I kind of wanted to be closer to home.”

“We can just look. Berk knows you’d rather stay local. Speaking of home, has your sister talked to you about what Drew has proposed?”

“He proposed?” He sat straight up.

“No. He asked her to live with him.”

“Really?” He settled back in the seat. “I wouldn’t be surprised. She’s there all the time anyway. Hey. How come he never stays at her place?”

“Because you’re there.” I smiled.

“He doesn’t like me?”

“It really doesn’t have much to do with you other than the fact that you’re
there.
”

“I’m not following.”

“Well, let’s just say—” I paused, attempting to come up with the right words. “Your sister and Drew are a bit
adventurous
in their escapades—”

“Stop!” He held up his hand and scrunched his face. “I do not want to hear about my sister and her boyfriend in that way. She is my sister and she is a nice girl.”

I burst out laughing loud enough that the entire car looked up. “Oh my God! Grow up. You don’t think your sister has—”

“Nope. Stop. We will not talk about this.”

“Okay.”

“Seriously.”

“I got it.”

“I’m not kidding, Mel.”

“Sheesh. I got it. We won’t discuss how your sister ties Drew down—”

“No!” He leaned forward and clapped his hand over my mouth. “Please. Stop. Talking. I’m going to take my hand off. Do you promise not to mention that thing you were mentioning ever, ever again?”

I opened my eyes wide and nodded slowly.

“Promise?”

I garbled “I promise” through his hand.

He released his hand from my face and pulled back slowly, hesitating as if he were waiting for me to say something I shouldn’t.

I grabbed his tie and pulled him close, meeting him halfway. “I’m sorry.” And I planted a big kiss on his mouth.

“Are we doing dinner before we meet with Berk?” he asked.

“Sure. Meet me at my office?”

“Your boss won’t have me escorted out?” He smiled.

“I don’t think he’d come out of his office if you’re there.”

“No? Did I scare him off?” He rubbed his nose against mine.

“Probably.” I nipped his bottom lip before pulling back and gathering my things. “Let’s go.”

We shuffled out of the train onto the platform, following the narrow space to the out-of-order escalator to the main floor of Penn Station. I looked around and for a moment I thought I’d lost Jared, until he grabbed my hand and steered me toward the coffee stand.

“Be right back,” he said and disappeared into the small convenience store located nearby. I casually looked around while I waited, taking in the people walking past.

I was lost in my thoughts when he returned, surprising me with a large plastic bag of gummy bears.

“I refilled your stash at your apartment but I wasn’t sure if you were running low at work.”

“Have I told you how amazing you are?”

“Not today.”

“Well you are. Amazing.” I tiptoed up and kissed his mouth with full lips, lingering a beat longer than usual.

“Keep kissing me like that”—he pulled me into a hug—“and I may not make it through the end of the day without you near me.”

“Well, we should get going. We both need to be at work.”

“Work.” He screwed up his face as if trying to remember.

“You know, the place that pays us money?”

“Oh right, right.”

He took my hand, leading me to the stairs and then outside to Eighth Avenue. We didn’t say much as we waited in line for a cab. Since we’d both end up in the same vicinity, we shared the ride. He promised to call me later and meet me after work as I was dropped off first. I stood on the sidewalk in front of my building with a coffee in one hand and my briefcase and a plastic bag full of gummy bears in the other. It was as I watched until the taillights disappeared that I realized I’d fallen. The
L
word even sat on my tongue.

My phone signaled a new text message, pulling me out of my thoughts. It was Jared.

10 more days.

Yep. It was bad.

Chapter Twenty-Five

T
hursday, Berk sat across from me as I barreled through yet another working lunch. I’d barely touched my dumplings and was concentrating on making imperfect numbers perfect.

“You need to relax.”

“What?” I looked up, my glasses perched on the end of my nose.

“You’re getting those wrinkles between your eyes.” His chopsticks pointed at me. “You know the ones you get when you furrow your brow too much?” He scrunched up his face to demonstrate. “I know someone who sells that super wrinkle cream. Let me know if you need the number.”

“How would you like it if I pointed out every new wrinkle you got?” I closed my eyes tight, willing the impending headache to dissipate. “My eyes fucking hurt.”

“Of course they hurt. How long have you been staring at spreadsheets?”

“Too long.” I poked at a dumpling, pushing it around in the soy sauce I’d flooded the bottom of the takeout container with.

“I’m just saying. You need some sort of release. A shopping spree. A massage. A mind-blowing orgasm. Something.”

“God, I wish.” My head fell back and I tried to remember the last time I’d had an orgasm but all that filled my head were images of Jared. I had to tighten my legs to subdue the sudden throb.

Berk seemed to notice the difficulty I was having keeping it together. “How many more days?” His snarky smirk didn’t escape me.

I threw my glasses on the desk and watched them skitter across the paperwork haphazardly strewn across the top. Leaning back, I put my hands over my face and muttered, “Eight. Eight more days.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“Seven days. Well, seven since we made the bet.”

“Seven days just since the bet? And longer since you last had sex?” A strange look of horror passed quickly across his face before he recovered. “You haven’t cheated just a little? You haven’t, you know”—he held up two fingers and made a clicking sound—“one-clicked the clit?”

“No!” I drew out the
o
sound long enough to make it sound like a moan.

“Sweetie, I’ve seen you in some pretty precarious predicaments in the months we’ve been friends. I’ve seen you low and I’ve seen you on top of the world. But I have never seen you like this. For god’s sake, renegotiate or something. You are my friend.”

“One of my best friends.” I batted my eyelashes.

“You’ll never make it.”

“I’d like to officially thank you for the vote of confidence.” I rolled my eyes.

“I call ’em how I see ’em. And you are a mess.” He shook his head and chuckled. “You should go to the gym. Burn through that stress.”

I stood and stretched, attempting to rid myself of all the tightness that made me ache. “I’ve been going twice a day for the past three days. I’m like a walking livewire. It’s like I am in lady boner hell.”

Berk snorted.

“What?”

“Lady boner.”

“Well, what would you call it?”

“I wouldn’t. Remember? I’m gay. I like my boners manly.”

My phone rang and I shuffled through the mess of papers on my desk looking for it. I answered without looking at who was calling. “Hello?”

“Hey you.”

It was Jared.

“Hey.” I tilted the phone and whispered to Berk, “It’s Jared.”

“Hey sexy!” Berk yelled through a mouthful of vegetable lo mein.

“Is that Berk? Tell him I said hey.”

“Jared says hey.” I plopped down in my chair and took a sip of my orange-flavored seltzer.

“How’s your day going, beautiful?”

“Long. Tedious. Slow moving.”

“Sounds like a party.”

“Well, I’d like to think of this phone call as the sunshine in my cloudy day.”

“Is he going to the gym later? I need a workout partner,” Berk asked.

I held out the phone. “Are you going to let me talk to my boyfriend or do I need to hand you the phone?”

“Your what?” I heard the question in stereo and froze, my mouth hanging open, mirroring Berk’s. I was met with silence but could feel Jared’s smirk reach out and smack me through the phone. I cleared my throat and stammered a bit before regaining my composure and shooting the stink face at Berk.

“So what’s up?” I injected an overdose of cheerfulness and nonchalance into my tone to mask the fear that I’d spoken too soon. Or the fear that I finally had a boyfriend. Either way, I was terrified.

“Well, uh”—I listened as Jared regained his composure as well—“I wanted to know if you were free tomorrow night for dinner?”

“Yeah, we can do dinner. My place? What were you thinking? Pizza? I’m having Chinese today so I won’t really be in the mood again. But if it’s really what you want—”

“Melody. No, that’s not what I meant. I meant would you like to go out to dinner. Like out somewhere. Like a restaurant. Like a date. No cheeseburgers this time.”

My throat went dry. “You are asking me out on a date? Like get dressed up and go out?” Berk jumped up and leaned across the desk as I held the phone so he could hear, too.

“Well, yeah. Technically, this would be our first official date but I mean, we can just say we are hanging out or whatever you are comfortable with. I mean, pizza and Chinese sounds great, too. ”

Berk and I stared at each other. I’d never considered the fact that he and I had never gone on a real date before. I guess cheeseburgers really didn’t count.

“Mel? You there?”

“Yeah. Yeah. I’m here.” I shook my head and watched as Berk slow-motioned his way back to sitting position, leaning too far forward in his chair, as if a strange and foreign scene was unfolding in front of him and he couldn’t look away. “Tomorrow sounds perfect.”

“You sure, I mean we can—”

“Jared.” I cut him off. “I would love to go out on a date with you.”

“Okay, good.”

“Okay, good,” I repeated with a smile that hurt my cheeks.

“I’ll pick you up at seven tomorrow night.”

“Seven it is. I look forward to it.” Berk stared at me with eyes wide.