A Wifey for the Bad Boy(122)

She took a long deep breath. She really thought she had dodged that bullet. Yes, he had asked her out but she had so many reservations. Her biggest one being the fact that this was the same man she thought that she could never have. The macho guy in high school. The hot quarterback and she was the kid who never got picked at P.E. They were from two different worlds and there was no way no universe where the two would ever be together.

“Are you going to make me wait forever?” he asked as he slowly began walking towards her. She held her breath and bit her lower lip as she looked at him.

“Dante… we can’t…” she started in a soft voice. “It’s not a good idea.”

“What? When has sharing a meal ever been a bad idea?” he asked. By this time he was so close to her she could feel herself panicking.

“But dinner…” she shook her head. “It’s a little too intimate.”

“But I do want to have something intimate with you.”

“Intimate?” she asked in a whisper and he nodded.

“And I mean it in every sense of the word,” he said in a low tone.

He slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. She gasped as she heard her car keys fall to the floor with a rattling noise.

“Why are you making me work so hard for you?” he asked in a whisper. “I mean, not that I’m complaining. You are worth every single fight but baby…”

“Don’t call me that.”

He pulled her even closer, crushing her against his body. She was so close to him that she could smell his intoxicating scent. It was all around her. Engulfing her. Drowning her.

“I want to call you that.” He began lowering his head, bringing his lips closer and closer to her neck. “Every day for the rest of our lives.”

“Dante…” she said, putting a hand against his shoulder. But he never gave her enough time to say or do anything else. His lips were on her neck and she suddenly felt herself melting into his arms. He was kissing her, nibbling on her neck… doing everything right that made her weak in the knees. She wanted to push him away but he seemed hell bent on having her right there and then. “Dante, please stop it,” she finally managed to say when she found her voice. She pulled herself from him and took a long deep breath.

“What? Why do you keep on pushing me away?” he asked and she stood there for a long minute trying to figure out what she was supposed to say. But after a long moment of awkward silence, all she could do was just bend down to pick her keys before she walked out leaving a stunned Dante behind, looking at her wondering if he had possibly crossed the line.

*****

By the time Corrine got back to her apartment, it was a little after nine and she was exhausted. And she knew that she had nothing left over in the refrigerator. She would have loved to whip something up but she was too tired. She couldn’t even think of making a plate of mac and cheese. It was that thought that made her dial Mr. Wok’s, her favorite Chinese restaurant.

“Yeah, hi. This is Corrine Marshall. I was wondering if I can have Kung Pao chicken and a side of fried rice delivered to me… yes. 1347 Willoughby Street apartment 402… yes, that’s my address…” she kicked off her shoes. “Forty minutes sounds perfect. Thank you.”

She hang up and sighed loudly as she made her way down the hallway to her bedroom. All she wanted to do was to jump in the shower and wash off the day’s exhaustion and maybe try to wash away the memory of what had happened earlier on at Giovanni’s. As she stood in the bathroom, under the running water, she could not help but wonder what Dante’s angle was. The first time she had seen Dante, she had immediately had that feeling that she would never be the kind of woman he would look at twice. His kind of woman. And to make matters worse, he had a girl with him the very first time she had seen him. And it was not the kind of girl you can claim to be just friends with. She had been hanging on to his every word, taking every excuse to touch him… as far as Corrine was concerned, she was just a needy girl who was taking every moment to show the world that he was hers and hers alone.

She did not know how long it had been before she finally stepped out of the shower. She had just wrapped her hair in a towel and put on a bathrobe when she heard her doorbell ringing loudly, piercing through the peaceful quiet of the apartment.

“That was fast,” she thought as she began making her way to the front door. She was sure she had not been in the bathroom for all of forty minutes already. She grabbed her purse and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill before she made it to the door. “You deserve a tip…” she started as she opened the door but her voice trailed off when she saw Dante standing on the doorstep.