Mr. Big(9)

Mia shook her head. “No, we met up at Bella Italia,” she began.

“Up the street?” Maddie asked tilting her head slightly.

“Yeah, that’s the one,” Mia answered. “Anyway, we had a nice dinner and he’s a really nice guy, but he didn’t do much talking about himself. He just kind of asked me tons of questions all night. By the time we left, I felt like I had been on a job interview, unless he was interviewing me for something else, and I can tell you right now, I don’t want to know about it if he was,” she said, rolling her eyes a little.

Liam lowered one brow. “He was nice but trying too hard?” he asked, evaluating what she had shared with them.

She nodded. “Way too hard. He had a dozen roses for me at the restaurant,” she said with a small smile. Ava put her hand on her heart and swooned a little.

“That’s so sweet!” she cooed.

“…and then he sent roses to me at my office today,” Mia continued.

Maddie raised an eyebrow and turned her head slightly in surprise.

“Then he called me about five times today and sent me two emails,” Mia finished, lifting her glass to her mouth for a sip of her cocktail.

Liam frowned and knitted his brow. “He’s trying far too hard. Leave now,” he stated flatly.

Mia looked at him and lifted her palm in the air in agreement. “Right? That’s what I thought. The man is just a little too overboard. A little too inquisitive and too desperate. I don’t know why, he’s rich and good looking. He doesn’t have to go after women like he’s coming after me.”

Ava was still grinning romantically. “What’s his name?” she asked with a grin, looking up through her eyelashes.

“Logan Parker,” Mia answered as she set her glass down.

Maddie choked on her drink and covered her mouth for a moment as she swallowed. All of the friends turned to look at her. She glanced around the table and smiled; her cheeks turning a soft shade of pink beneath her freckles.

“What? I know him,” she said quietly, as a smile played at the corner of her mouth.

Liam raised an eyebrow. “Really? How well?” he asked in a teasing tone.

She shrugged. “Well, I can tell you he’s one hell of a lover. I still think about him now and then. That man can rock your world in the sheets, but this clingy behavior he’s showing right now? Yeah. That’s just the beginning, Mia. I was sick of him after the third date, and no matter how hot the sex was, I just couldn’t take the clinginess outside of the bedroom. It drove me nuts. It took me four months to finally get the message through to him to leave me the hell alone.”

She sighed. “He’s not a bad guy, far from it. He’s actually really thoughtful and sweet, but good god, the man just won’t let you have a moment’s peace. Ever.” She frowned and went for her martini again.

Ava pouted and Liam rolled his eyes as Mia sighed. “Great. He’s a client. Now what am I going to do? I don’t want to lose his business, just him.”

Maddie shrugged. “You tell him you’ve started seeing someone else and you aren’t able to see him anymore. He’s old fashioned enough that he will respect that.”

Mia frowned. “I don’t feel like commitment to a relationship should be considered old fashioned,” she said with disappointment, because she knew that in many ways, at least in their modern rushed world in Manhattan, it kind of was considered old fashioned.

Maddie smiled at her. “It’ll get him off of your phone and your doorstep, and you can keep his business. Just tell him there was someone else you were dating and it turned serious. Poor timing; you know, that sort of thing.”

“I’ll take that advice. Thank you, Maddie,” Mia said with a relieved frown.

“So what else is going on?” Maddie asked, looking around the table.

Liam perked up and grinned at all of them. “You know that show ‘Sex in the City’?” he asked with a wicked giggle.

They nodded and smiled. Ava put her hand on her heart. “I love that show!”

“Well,” Liam leaned in to share juicy news with them, and they leaned in closer to hear it. “I've been doing some design work at a firm where there’s a guy who looks exactly like Mr. Big.”

Ava squealed and bounced a little bit in her seat. “Really?” she asked excitedly, clasping her hands beneath her chin.

Liam nodded. “Really! Anyway, I was shocked to hear that several of his staff members call him Mr. Big, and when I heard them do it, I laughed and I said, ‘Oh, you see it too… he looks just like that guy off of that TV show!”