The Wedding Date, page 17
“Oh, I have a guess.” He dropped the box on the nightstand and tore open a condom packet as he stood next to the bed and looked at her. “I’m going to guess over and over again. All night long and most of the day tomorrow. We have to make up for lost time.”
The next morning, Alexa sat back against the plush pillows of the hotel bed and watched him pour coffee from the room service carafe into her mug. He added one sugar and handed it to her before pouring his own.
She beamed down at her mug. She couldn’t help it. He remembered how she took her coffee. She cupped her hands around the mug and let the warmth spread through her body.
He got in bed next to her and pulled the basket of pastries up to join them.
“One of the best things about hotels,” he said, “is that you can get crumbs in the bed without worrying about it. I know it’s no doughnut, but do you want the bear claw?”
He turned toward her halfway through his raspberry Danish.
“Hey, what’s going on with your program for teenagers? The arts thing?”
She paused midway through pouring herself more coffee to smile at him. Wow, did it feel good for him to care enough to ask about that.
“I’m cautiously optimistic. The goal is to get it on the city council calendar for mid-July. Keep your fingers crossed.”
He tore the top off the blueberry muffin and offered her half.
“Great, will do.” He held up two crossed fingers and poured her more coffee.
“I saw Abby and Jack the other day, by the way. She told me about how much you’re helping them. Thanks for that.” He leaned over to kiss her. His lips were sprinkled with sugar. Perfect.
“When do we have to be out of here?” She looked around him to the clock radio on the bedside table. “It’s almost ten. Wait, when’s your flight?”
“Twelve thirty, but I can change it, like I . . .” His voice trailed away as he turned away from her to pick up his phone. “I can change to the flight at eight tonight?”
“Yeah, that works.” She was glad he looked back down at his phone and couldn’t see how wide her smile was.
He moved the pastry basket to the foot of the bed and put his arm around her.
“Last night . . . you didn’t say whether you were sleeping with anyone else.”
“Oh.” She hadn’t expected him to bring this up again. And her whole “don’t overthink it” motto certainly wouldn’t have let her do it. “No, I’m not.”
“Good.” He smiled and leaned down to kiss her, but she pulled away. Now that he had brought it up . . .
“I don’t want this to be . . . but when you said you weren’t sleeping with anyone else, did you mean . . . I know you meant the ‘not at the moment’ thing as a joke, but—”
He kissed her cheek and pulled her against him.
“What I mean by that is that you’re the only person I’ve slept with since I met you in that elevator, and that as long as we’re doing this thing, that will remain the case. Okay?”
“As long as we’re doing this thing” rang in her ears. She knew it meant there was a time limit on their relationship, such as it was. But she didn’t want to push this conversation too far; she didn’t want to fight with him and spoil it all again, so she buried those misgivings.
She rested her head on his shoulder.
“Okay.”
He lifted his hand to her cheek and rested it there for a moment before turning her toward him for a long, slow kiss.
“Now, let’s make good use of our last hour of this hotel room, shall we?”
16
When Alexa got in Drew’s car at LAX the following Saturday morning, he kissed her for so long that airport security banged on his window to move him along. Oops.
“How was the event last night?” he said when he finally drove away from the curb. The mayor had had a big charity event the night before, so Alexa couldn’t fly down until Saturday morning. Drew was on call that night, so he couldn’t fly up.
“It went well, I think. I haven’t had a chance to check to see what the press said about it. I crashed when I got home, and the Wi-Fi was broken on the plane.” She settled against the seat and grinned at him. “Is one of those coffee cups for me?”
He lifted the coffee he’d gotten her out of the cup holder and handed it to her.
“The drive from the coffee shop to the airport should have cooled it down enough for your delicate tongue.”
She lifted the coffee halfway up, paused, and opened her mouth. He laughed.
“I love that you’re going to make that joke, but I just meant you’re always complaining about coffee being too hot.”
She smirked and put her purse on the floor in front of her before she took a sip. Then she looked up at him.
“Hey, Drew?”
He fought back a smile. He knew what was coming.
“Hey, Alexa?”
“What’s in this bag right here?” she asked, pointing to the waxy paper bag at her feet. They both knew what was inside.
He didn’t fight his smile anymore.
“Why don’t you open it up and see?”
“Doughnuts! And they’re still warm? How did you manage that? You’re my hero.” She’d bitten into one almost before she finished that sentence. He looked over to see pure bliss on her face and grinned. The only other time her face looked like that was right after sex. Maybe he needed to work to keep that look on her face more often.
Thank God for that conference. He was so glad this woman was back in his life.
On the way back to his apartment, they drove by the Santa Monica Pier.
“I haven’t been there since I was a kid,” she said. “It was always so fun.”
An SUV pulled out of a parking spot ahead of him, and he made a snap decision.
“No time like the present.” He reversed into the spot and grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”
When they got back to his apartment, they were both giddy, sunburned, and exhausted. They’d ridden the rides, played arcade games, eaten too much, and laughed even more. They’d even goaded each other into temporary tattoos—she’d gotten a flower on her cheek; he’d gotten an anchor on his bicep. Before they’d come back to his apartment, she’d made him run down into the water with her and shrieked when he splashed her.
They dropped down onto his couch as soon as they walked in the door. She leaned her head against his shoulder, and he pulled her tighter against him. She curled her legs up on the couch so that her body was tucked against his. He wanted to drag her into the bedroom for a long afternoon sex session, or even just have her here on the couch again. But right now they were so comfortable. He’d wait just a few minutes.
He woke up when the afternoon sun came through his kitchen windows and hit him in the eye. They’d somehow moved in their sleep to lying almost flat on the couch, but her head was still tucked in the nook of his shoulder, and his arm was still tight around her. He could stay like this for another few hours.
His stomach rumbled.
Oh, right. Except for that. The hot dogs and cotton candy from the pier couldn’t hold him forever.
She squeezed her eyes together and stirred, turning into his chest, away from the light. She kissed his chest as she snuggled against him, and the warmth from her casual caress spread through his body.
“Mmmngry,” she said into his collarbone.
“Hmmm?” He stroked her hair away from her face. Remnants of the flower were still on her cheek. He rubbed at it with his thumb.
She lifted her head a few centimeters.
“I can’t believe you talked me into this flower. I’m sure I look ridiculous.”
He smiled down at her, her cheek pink and creased from being against his chest.
“You look beautiful.”
She pulled his head down to hers and kissed him, her hands in his hair.
“I’m hungry,” she said against his lips. “You?”
He chuckled and ran his hands over her hair to her back, and then again. A woman after his own heart.
“Starving. What’s your feeling on burgers and fries? We should probably eat here instead of going out, since I’m on call tonight . . .”
She kissed his collarbone again.
“I have very positive feelings about burgers and fries. Eating here is perfect, since I accidentally glued myself to this couch.”
He kissed her ear to make her giggle and rolled out from underneath her and stood up.
“Good thing you have me. I’ll go pick them up and bring them back here while you try desperately to unglue yourself.”
So they ate their burgers on the couch while they watched terrible movies on Netflix and kept their fingers crossed that he wouldn’t have to go into the hospital.
It was probably a real risk to pull her into the bedroom . . . but he was on call until six in the morning. Was he supposed to not have sex with her tonight?
Afterward, damp and panting, he reached blindly for his phone to make sure he hadn’t missed a call. Just then it rang.
He kissed her hard and jumped out of bed after he got off the phone.
“I’ve got to go. Keep the bed warm for me, okay?”
She turned and looked up at him with that smile that always made his heart turn over.
“I’ll be here when you get back,” she said.
“I’m counting on it.”
• • •
It took Alexa a while to fall asleep after he left. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to sleeping alone. But she missed him next to her.
She wouldn’t admit this to anyone other than herself, and then only late at night, but ever since that first weekend with him, every night when she lay in bed she imagined him there with her. Even those nights right after their stupid fight. She would think of his strong arms around her, hear his slow, steady breathing, feel his chest rise and fall, and his warm body against hers, and it all lulled her to sleep. It felt silly to do it there in his bed alone, but she did it anyway.
She woke up in the middle of the night to feel him pull her against him. When his arms were around her, she felt like nothing else mattered. Like nothing bad could ever touch her.
“Everything okay?” she whispered.
He kissed her forehead.
“It is now. Go back to sleep.”
After a lazy day on the beach the next day, they went out for Mexican food Sunday night. She took a sip of her margarita, and her lips puckered at the salty/sweet tang of the drink. She took a bite of a salsa-laden chip and smiled. Chips and salsa were tied up there with cheese and crackers for the perfect snack food. Maybe not as perfect for being stuck in an elevator, but . . . He interrupted her tequila-influenced musings.
“I’m not on call next weekend, so I can come up.” He paused. “If that works for you.”
She licked the salt from the corner of her mouth and noticed his eyes follow the movement of her tongue. She smiled and did it again.
“Yeah, that works for me.”
She got to the office the next day, feeling much more wide awake than any woman who’d been on a seven a.m. flight from LAX had any reason to be. But when she had a wake-up call like Drew’s . . . well, that was going to keep her awake all day.
Theo poked his head in her door on his way into the office.
“I don’t need to ask how your weekend was; that look on your face says it all.”
Her cheeks got hot, and she tried to tone down her smile, but when Theo plopped in her chair and handed her a doughnut, it blossomed again.
“I’ll try to pull myself together by staff meeting.”
Theo bit into his own doughnut and took a sip of her coffee. They’d long ago started taking coffee the same way to simplify their lives.
“You going to see him again? Or is that an ‘of course’?”
She tried not to let her smile take over her whole face but probably failed.
“He’s coming up this weekend.”
She switched the conversation to work so she wouldn’t get carried away.
“What do you think the press will say about my program? Who are we targeting to leak about it? Or do you think an interview?”
Theo stood up.
“That reminds me,” he said. “We need to name this thing. It needs a good terrible acronym.”
Just then, the mayor poked his head in Alexa’s office.
“Thought I’d find you both here. Just wanted to let you know Richards is against the delinquent project. He fought me on it at dinner this weekend.”
Shit. Richards was the city councilman from the Berkeley Hills, and a good friend of the mayor’s. She opened her mouth to defend her project, point by point, when the mayor stopped her.
“Alexa. You don’t need to argue with me on this. I’m on your side; this is our program now. I’m just telling you what we’re up against and what work has to be done. Just huddle with Theo and figure out a plan, okay?”
She smiled at him.
“Yes, sir.”
• • •
Drew had driven straight to the hospital after dropping Alexa off at the airport. Even though that gave him plenty of time to get through his pile of stupid paperwork, he didn’t get much done.
Usually when he got home in the middle of the night after a stressful surgery he felt exhausted and wrung dry. But Saturday night when he’d walked into his bedroom and seen her there in his bed, he’d felt a sense of homecoming that he hadn’t felt in years. And when he’d wrapped his arms around her and she’d curled her body against his, his whole self had felt at peace.
He shook his head in an attempt to pull himself back to earth, or at least to his office. Why was he being such a teenager over this one girl? He was acting like this was the first girl he’d ever slept with.
He was going to have to break up with her soon. If he didn’t, he’d invariably do something to fuck it all up again. How terrible would it be when she looked at him with loathing in her eyes instead of that smile?
He couldn’t end things yet, though. They’d just started back up again. Maybe after this coming weekend.
He’d settled back in with the paperwork when his phone buzzed. He snatched at it, but it was just Carlos asking if he wanted anything from Starbucks.
Large with a shot of espresso.
He’d already had coffee with Alexa this morning, but after not a lot of sleep and getting up early to go to the airport, he’d need more caffeine than usual today.
As Carlos walked into his office, his phone buzzed again. This time, it was her.
Landed, but there were no doughnuts waiting for me at Oakland airport, terrible way to get off a plane.
He laughed down at his phone and looked up to see that smirk on Carlos’s face.
“Good weekend, I take it?”
He picked up his coffee and took a sip.
“You can stop gloating anytime now. Yes, yes, you told me so.”
Carlos grinned.
“As long as you remember that. When’re you seeing her again?”
He shrugged.
“This weekend I’m going up there.” Carlos’s grin got bigger. “Don’t give me that look! Don’t make a big deal out of this!”
Carlos rolled his eyes as he left the room.
17
Alexa and Theo and their deputies huddled and came up with an acronym (Teen Arts Rehabilitation Program, or TARP, a name she and Theo knew they’d be mocked about forever), a deadline (the city council meeting in July), and a schedule of community meetings to hopefully garner support. This all meant Alexa was at work until eight or nine the whole week, and spent a few more hours working at home on her couch every night.
She probably would have worked a few hours less that week if she hadn’t been texting with Drew in between every meeting, but she couldn’t help it. His texts always made her smile, made her relax after tense moments, and sometimes made her blush.
Him being so far away was starting to make her go crazy. Why couldn’t she drive straight to his house from one of her long workdays to get rid of some of her frustration in the best possible way? Why couldn’t she wake up with him in her bed in the mornings, so at least she’d have those five minutes before she pulled herself out of the warm circle of his arms to feel content and at peace?
Text messages were great and all, but . . . well, she was happy he was coming up this weekend.
• • •
Drew loved feeling the buzz in his pocket and knowing it was her, that anticipation of reading what she’d said throughout the day, the smile she always put on his face. And he really loved the texts they sent each other late at night . . . and sometimes referred to throughout the day.
He told her about the baby who peed on him, causing both him and the baby’s dad to double over with laughter; the five-year-old twins who both broke their arms when they jumped off the roof “just to see if they could”; the little girl who swallowed a penny during a temper tantrum and giggled uncontrollably when she saw it on her X-ray.
One day she had a meeting that he could tell stressed her out from just the length of her first text.
The good news is that my boss is firmly behind the project, and that is really good news . . . but the bad news is that some other important people aren’t, and this is going to be a fight. I’m thrilled about the first thing but kind of freaking out about the second.
He tucked his files under his arm so he could respond.
That’s awesome about your boss. You were worried, right?
Her response came a few seconds later.
Yeah, I was. Never realized he trusted me this much! But now I feel like I have to fight even harder.
He sat down on the exam room table to think about his response.
