And Then It Happened: An Unexpected Romance (5 page)

Say yes! Maybe he wants an invitation to come over and rock your world.

No. Now if it was Colin Kaepernick, then maybe.

You have a thing for tattooed guys, huh?

Yes and since you don’t have any tattoos…well…snore.

Is that a challenge?

Say yes!

No. Just telling you how it is.

Ugh. This conversation is going nowhere fast.

I smiled at his obvious irritation. I doubted many girls turned him down and I loved being the one who did.

How does it feel to be shut down?
I couldn’t help but ask.

Like a fresh and exciting challenge.

Oh boy!

But before I could respond to that, he wrote,
Well, as much as I’d like to continue this titillating conversation I’m off to bed. We will continue ‘sexting’ soon.

Holy cow, I thought, as I lowered myself into bed once more, my whole body
was throbbing with excitement. Texting Adrian was a lot of fun. I liked it a little too much. If it weren’t for him cutting off the conversation I would have kept it up all night. What was going on with me? I was playing with fire. Fire was dangerous. Was I losing my mind?

***

I threw my car into park before jogging up the stairs to my house. I’d forgotten my wallet and only realized it after I got to the store. I needed to buy a new outfit to meet my date tonight. I only had two hours to find something nice to wear to an upscale restaurant in Orange before I needed to come home and get ready.

I swooped my wallet off the kitchen counter as I made my way out my front door. But my path was impeded by Adrian.

“Where are you off to?” he asked, his eyes sliding over me. I hadn’t heard from him since our sexting conversation two days ago.

“Nowhere,” I replied hastily, trying to scoot around him. I tried to ignore the thrill coursing through me just by being near him. I had to focus on my date tonight, and more importantly
on what I was going to wear.

He mimicked my movements, trapping me on the sidewalk.  “I don’t believe you.”

I huffed. “Fine. I’m off to buy a dress for a date I have tonight.”

“A date?” He seemed surprised
, which really offended me. We may have texted a few times and he may have been abnormally nice to me recently, but months of torment weren’t going to just disappear overnight. 

“Yes, a date. Now get out of my way.”

He didn’t listen to me. “Do you know what you’re going to buy?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t tell me you’re running down to Kohl’s to grab the cheapest dress you can find.”

That’s exactly where I was going. Not that I’d admit that to him. “Good guess, but no,” I replied.

“Liar and because I find myself free right now, I’ll help you out.”

He swiped my keys from my hand and made his way toward my car.

“And I’ll drive since I’m pretty sure you’d ditch me the first chance you got.”

“I don’t need your help,” I said sternly, following him to my car. “Just give me my keys.”

He opened the driver’s side door and let his eyes slide up and down my body. “Trust me, Janet. You do.”

I didn’t have time to argue because I was already running late, so I let Adrian have his way.

“Don’t tell me this is a store owned by one of the girls you’ve slept with,” I stated, as he pulled away from the curb.

“It’s my brother’s shop actually,” he said and I flushed at my accusation.

“Oh, cool,” was all I could mutter as he turned onto the main street by our houses.

“So who are you meeting tonight?” Adrian asked.

“Some guy named Rob.”

“Rob. And what does Rob do?”

“Rob’s in real estate.”

“Real estate,” he said and I shot him a look.

“Why do you say it like that’s a bad thing.”

He shrugged. “It’s not.”

“What are you not telling me? Do you happen to know a Rob who works in real estate?”

“No,” he said as we came to a stop at a red light. My cell phone vibrated in my pocket and I silenced it.

“Who was that?” Adrian asked and when I didn’t reply he asked, “Craig wasn’t it?”

“Did you look at my phone?”

Adrian shook his head. “No, but you have the same look on your face you did when I was standing naked in front of you…”

“Don’t remind me about that, please,” I said, glancing out the passenger side window so he couldn’t see me blush.

“This doesn’t happen often, you know? Usually girls remember everything about this,” he said, waving his hand in front of his body.

“Humility. Does that word even exist in your vocabulary?”

“Of course it does and so does ‘truthful’.”

I exhaled loudly and fought to exorcise all thoughts of Adrian from my mind, hot sexting and all.

“So what’s it about Craig that still has you aching for him? Does he have an extra large dick or what?”

“What? No.”

“No, he has a large dick or doesn’t?”

“What? His dick is average, I guess. And I meant ‘no’, girls don’t think like that, okay?”

“I know they don’t and I don’t get it. It’s such an important part of our anatomy. It should matter.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter
to me,” I replied, watching as he drove me into Brea, a large city in Orange County that abutted Fullerton.

“So then why are you all hung up on him?” Adrian asked after a moment of silence.

“We were just together for a really, really long time.”

“How long is long?”

“Eight years. We were together since high school.”

“Ah,” he replied as he steered my car into a parking spot. “Well, that is a long time.

“Thank you for understanding.”

“So I’m guessing you’re not totally over him then?”

I shrugged, remembering his text to me. “I don’t know. I think I am, but it will take a long time before that totally happens. It’s not something someone just gets over.”

Adrian
nodded quietly as he parked the car. Then he hopped out and opened my door. This little gesture surprised me. Perhaps he wasn’t such a barbarian after all.

“Ready?”

“I guess.”

“Don’t be nervous. Gabe is the best at what he does. And don’t get too turned on by what you see. He’s gay.”

And with that proclamation, he led me into a small shop lined with unique clothing that I’d never seen before. This was definitely not Kohl’s.

“Hey, Adrian. What a surprise. Why are you visiting me?” a handsome man asked from behind the counter. The longer I stared the more I saw a resemblance between the two of them. I could definitely tell they were brothers even if Gabe dressed considerably better than his brother.

“Bringing a friend in for some fashion advice,” Adrian said with a smile as he gestured to me.

Gabe seemed surprised by Adrian’s admission and ended up staring at me for a few minutes. I shifted awkwardly where I stood, not sure if I should hold out my hand or wave when Adrian snapped his fingers in his brother’s face.

“Gabe. Stop gawking.”

Gabe shrugged dramatically. “Sorry, but you’ve never brought a girl here before. So excuse me for staring.” He lowered his voice and asked in an exaggerated whisper, “Are you two…dating?”

“No,” I said much too loudly. “Nooooo.”

Adrian shot me a look. “You don’t have to be rude about it.”

“We’re just…” ‘Friends’ wasn’t the right word, so I shrugged and explained, “He’s my next door neighbor and he bugs the crap out of me most of the time.”

“Oh,” Gabe said, his eyes widening s
lightly. “Oooooh. So you must…”

“This is Jane,” Adrian said much to quickly and if I hadn’t been so surprised that Adrian introduced me by my act
ual name I would have wondered what Gabe was going to say.

But I didn’t have time to analyze it. I
needed to be home soon to get ready for my date. I tapped my wrist and shot Adrian a glance.

Adrian nodded, turning toward his brother. “Look, bro, she needs to get going so could you pull a couple dresses that would make her look less…”

“Don’t say it,” I interjected, holding up my hand, not wanting to hear the insult. I turned toward Gabe and explained, “I have a dinner date tonight at Giovanni’s in Orange.”

“Oh, nice place,” he replied, slanting his brother a look. Adrian just turned away and glanced at a rack of shirts. “Let me pull a few things and I’ll bring them to the dressing room.”

I nodded and a few minutes later I was undressing and shimming into a dark green silk dress. The dress hung off my shoulders and hugged my every curve, not to mention made my boobs look enormous. With some high heels I could be model material.

“Could you help me zip this up?” I asked, stepping out of
the dressing room.

Adrian
spun around and stared for a moment before nodding.

“This is a nice dress, right?” I asked, trying to divert my attention from the feel of his fingers gliding across my skin. “Makes me feel really pretty.”

He let his eyes roam my body in the mirror before he shook his head. “No. This isn’t you.”

My heart dropped and I, disgustingly, felt ugly.
“What? Why not?”

“Because it’s too…” he thought for a moment before he waved his brother toward us. “Gabe, what’s wrong with this dress. I’m not gay so I can’t quite seem to find the words.”

“Gosh, Adrian is such an insensitive bastard sometimes,” Gabe said as he strode toward us, rolling his eyes to the ceiling in exasperation.

“Tell me about it,” I said, liking Gabe immensely.

“And I don’t know what he’s talking about. This dress is superb.”

“No, this dress is slutty,” Adrian said. “Which is definitely not a bad thing, but we don’t want to give Rich a bad impression.”

“You mean Rob,” I muttered as Gabe spun me around, his eyes moving over my form in contemplation.

“And why does it matter if I give Rob the wrong impression. What if I want to give him the wrong impression?”

No, you want to give Adrian the wrong impression, you little slut.

“Fine
, do what you want, but it looks tacky,” Adrian replied.

“Nothing in my store is tacky,” Gabe
said, staring angrily at his brother.

“I agree,” I said.

Adrian shoved his hands in his pockets, looking defeated. “Fine, but can you try on something else, just to keep your options open?”

I don’t know why I found his insistence so cute when it should have bothered me. And apparently Gabe thought so too because he held out a navy blue dress and said, “This one is probably more you.”

“So it’s drab and boring,” Adrian teased and unlike before where this would have rubbed me the wrong way, I merely shrugged it off.

“Let’s see, shall we?” Gabe suggested, pushing Adrian away from the dressing room so I could have my privacy

“I’ve already seen her naked,” Adrian insisted.

“He’s been spying on me,” I interjected loudly, pulling the sleek blue dress up my frame. Unlike the green dress, this was a little more my style. It was graceful, but still a little risqué.

I stepped out of the dressing room and watched as Adrian’s eyes widened before narrowing to slits.

“Wow,” Gabe said, turning to look at Adrian. “It looks good on her, right?”

“It’s still a little too revealing,” Adrian said with a shrug.

“What?” I asked, my brows coming together in confusion. “How is this too revealing?”

He gestured toward the dip at the front of the dress that, while it may have been low, didn’t show off too much of anything.

“I’m just saying you’re going to give Rob the wrong impression.”

“Oh whatever, Adrian,” Gabe said with a snort. “You’re such a hypocrite.”

“Right?” I said dramatically, turning toward Gabe. “Thank you for understanding.”

“How am I a hypocrite?” Adrian asked, his eyes locked on mine. “I just know you and I know you won’t want Rich looking down your dress the entire evening.”

“
He won’t be.”

“If I were on a date with you and you were wearing that dress all I’d be looking at is your tits.”

“That’s all you do anyway!”

Gabe choked back a laugh, earning a glower from Adrian.

“Whatever. It’s your funeral,” he muttered, folding his arms across his chest.

“Exactly. And I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.”

Adrian shrugged his shoulders like he couldn’t give two shits about me before thoroughly examining a rack of pants.

“I’ve never seen him like this,” Gabe whispered to me. “He must really like you.”

“Stop talking shit, Gabe,” Adrian said before turning to me. “Just buy the damn dress. I have plans later and I don’t want to be late.”