Page 69 of The Rules of Dating a Younger Man
“I’m here for a medical spa expo. Wells and I spent last night here, and we have to leave later this afternoon. I’ve felt strange being here without you knowing, for some reason. Everywhere I go, I keep thinking I’m going to run into you, though I know that’s unlikely in a city of eight-million people. What are the chances, right?”
“About the same as having accidentally dated your daughter in college?”
“That was bad.” She chuckled. “But true.”
“Well, I have to laugh so I won’t cry, right?” I blew out a breath. “How long ’til you have to leave?”
“A few hours.”
“Meet me for coffee,” I blurted. “Just coffee. Nothing more, Alex. Bring Wells.”
“Wells has plans with someone he met at the expo today, so it would just be me.”
“Okay, then I’d love to show you the building. We don’t even have to go inside. I would just like you to see it.”
After a brief pause, she said, “That’d be nice.”
I exhaled. “Can I call a car for you?”
“Okay. Yes. Thank you. I’d appreciate that.”
“There’s a café right around the corner from here. We can go there and talk until you have to go.”
A bit shocked that she’d agreed to meet me, I stopped short of leaping into the air for joy after we hung up. Don’t get your hopes up. It’s just coffee. She felt guilty for not telling you she was in New York. It doesn’t mean anything.
Thirty minutes later, I waited outside my building until the car showed up.
A breeze blew Alex’s long blond hair around as she exited the vehicle. She was so beautiful and looked amazing in a white peacoat and high-heeled boots. Her mouth curved into a smile when she spotted me standing there.
Instead of pulling her close and kissing her so damn hard, like I wanted to, I held out my hand. She took it. “Thank you for coming.” I squeezed before placing my other hand over hers.
Alex smiled and looked up at the building. “This is it, huh? The famous building?”
“It is.” I smiled proudly.
“It’s bigger than I imagined.”
If these were different times, I might’ve hit her with a sexual joke right then. But alas, I kept my mouth shut. “Come on. I’ll show you inside.”
Alex and I spent the next several minutes touring my property. I specifically didn’t show her my apartment, but we rode the elevator to the top floor, hung out on the rooftop for a bit, and wandered the hallways before heading back outside. I’d wondered if we would run into any of the guys—at least Holden, maybe, since he worked in the building doing maintenance—but no one turned up.
“I’m so glad I had a chance to see it,” Alex said as we stood together on the sidewalk after.
“Me too. I wish it were under different circumstances. But I’ll take what I can get.” I walked toward Billie’s storefront as she followed. “One more stop I want you to see.”
“Ah, this is the famous tattoo shop,” Alex said.
We peeked inside, but Billie wasn’t there. From the window, I pointed out Deek, who was busy inking someone. “That’s the guy I wanted to hook Wells up with.”
“Oh, he’s definitely Wells’s type.”
“Pretty sure he might be everyone’s type, and my type, too, if I swung that way.” I winked. “Come to think of it, my life would be a whole lot less complicated right now if I were gay.”
Alex smiled sadly.
“Come on.” I winked again. “Let’s get that coffee.”
Over at the café, Alex grabbed a table while I went to the counter to order her coffee, prepared just the way she liked it. I also got a few different kinds of pastry in case she was hungry.