Page 64 of Love In Hiding

“When you least expect it is when it does.”

“It seems that way. I think if I didn’t get to see the other side of him when we were away, I’d still be grinding my teeth when his emails popped up.”

“Then it worked out. So tell me about the date.”

“He caught me walking out of the building, so we arrived together. He’s less than a mile away, said it’s closer for him to walk to work now where he took the subway before.”

“I’d hate that,” Paris said. “It’s why we grabbed this place when we saw it.”

“We grabbed it because it met our needs, but I agree, I wouldn’t want to take public transit more than necessary, nor did I want to get a taxi every day either.”

“Back to the date,” Paris said.

“We had dinner. They were fast as always. He called me out on that. I laughed and said if it went south, we wouldn’t have to stay in each other’s company too long.”

“If you had thought it was going to go south you wouldn’t have twisted at him earlier.”

“I know. But I could have been wrong. I’m glad I wasn’t.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Normal date things. Why he was still single or how long it’s been since he’d been in a relationship. He said years. He’s been busy with work like us. Being on the road.”

“You said why he left his last job.”

“Yeah. So he wasn’t around much. He admitted he wasn’t always able to give time to someone, not that he wasn’t willing. I asked if he was willing with me.”

“Good for you. But you pull no punches either.”

“He learned that about me.” She confessed what she’d done earlier in the office. Him pulling her close and her leaving him hanging.

“Ouch. But that’s normally like you.”

“Tonight, he did it back. Made me kiss him.”

“We know you did,” Paris said, smiling and sitting down. “What did you feel?”

“Hot. Smothered.”

“That’s not good.”

“Like hot fudge over cold ice cream smothered. Then add sticky caramel on that.”

Paris rubbed her hands together. “Now we’re getting somewhere. So, didyouget somewhere? Am I going to worry about walking in on something? Signs on doors? Things like that? We haven’t worried about those things in years.”

“No,” she said. “He left after the last kiss. It was a good thing. I think we both wanted more, but we need time.”

“You do or he does?”

“Both of us. There is so much on the line. I keep asking myself why I couldn’t have met him some other way. Why it had to be through work.”

“Because you’re nervous that you work together or that you’ll get on each other’s nerves?”

“Both.”

“You’ll have to work that out. I’m sure you can. Or he can.”

“Stop laughing,” she said. “I know you’re finding humor in all of this. He’s totally not my type.”