Abbey turned around as Nick was helping Max out of the car. She stepped up next to them and they walked past the rows of bundled Christmas trees lined up against the wall and into the store. She got a cart and led them to the produce section to get what she needed for her recipes.
They’d picked out an onion, a green pepper, and a lemon when Max said, “I have to go to the bathroom.”
She spun around quickly to ensure that he didn’t look at Nick for help. That would put Nick in a very awkward position, and she honestly didn’t know if he’d suggest that she take him or not.
“I’ll take you,” she said, swinging her handbag into the top basket of the cart, her cell phone and lipstick flying out of it and hitting the floor. She bent down to retrieve the fallen items and dumped them on top of her handbag along with the shopping list. “Could you stay with the cart for a second, please?” she asked Nick. “The bathrooms are over there.”
“Certainly.” Nick walked around to the front of the cart and stood. Abbey ran off with Max, weaving through the crowd.
It took ages just to get to the bathrooms. When they did, Max shut himself in a stall and it was taking him forever.
She took a minute to look at herself in the mirror, and she played with her hair a little under the harsh fluorescent lights to try to keep the frizz from showing too much. Leaning forward, she had a good look at her face. With her fingers, she wiped a little runaway mascara from below her eyes. She turned away from her image just as Max opened the door.
“Done!” he said, and he came out. She helped him wash his hands.
When she and Max came back, Nick was standing at the cart, a smile playing at his lips. Abbey gave him a suspicious look and waited for an explanation.
“I got almost everything that was on your list,” he said, still smiling. Why was he looking at her that way? He held up her phone. “Your friend, Adrienne, says you can bring a date tomorrow.” He turned it around so she could see the messages that had floated onto her screen. To her horror, there were a few more that she couldn’t read because he was holding the phone too far away. She swiped at it, and he playfully held it out of reach—only briefly though, and then he held it out to her.
When she read the messages on her screen, embarrassment hit her face like a bolt of lightning. She read them one after another:
Don’t forget you can bring a date tomorrow.
Bring the hottie millionaire! I dare you!
I’ll bet you wouldn’t ask him anyway.
“So,” he said, still smiling playfully at her. “Who’s the ‘hottie millionaire’ you’re hanging out with?”
He was baiting her, and he knew it. He knew that there weren’t any other millionaires in her circles. She stood mute for a moment, already thinking of ways to torture Adrienne when she saw her tomorrow. He leaned in for an answer and she focused on his gorgeous eyes.
“You know,” she said. “Just someone I met at the… furniture store…”
“Mmm,” he said, nodding.
“Millionaires have to shop at furniture stores too, you know,” she teased, her heart pounding a hundred miles an hour at the sight of the affection on his face.
“Not the ones I know. We hire beautiful ladies to do it for us. What kind of millionaire is this?”
She tried to hold in her laugh but it came out anyway. “Clearly a hot one,” she said through her giggles. “…according to my friend, Adrienne.”
“How would she know unless you told her?”
“I can’t help it if I find millionaires who shop at furniture stores attractive.”
“Then I’d better find one quickly,” he said, looking around. “What do I still need? A new desk…?”
She laughed again.
“So, are you going to take him to the party?”
“He wouldn’t want to go,” she said.
“Says who?”
“Me. I know him too well,” she said, trying not to give away her growing fondness for him. “He will probably be working. I wouldn’t want to distract him,” she said with a sly smile. “Now do we have everything we need?” She didn’t want to admit to him that, even if he agreed to go with her, Adrienne had only been kidding, and if she actually showed up with Nick, her friend would probably die of nerves trying to entertain him. But the way he was looking at her was making her think that he wanted to go with her. Max was waving his hand under the lights of the vegetable shelves, trying to turn the little misting sprinklers on. “I think they’re on a timer,” Abbey told him, trying to divert Nick’s attention.
“Are you worried I won’t enjoy myself?”