Not a Chance(66)

Travis opened his mouth to talk, but nothing came out.

"You'll have to forgive him," Arden said with mock sweetness. "He's new to the whole monogamy thing. Sometimes he forgets about me."

Jessie gave her a tight-lipped smile. "Of course." She walked away, giving Travis one last deadly glare and a flip of her middle finger.

Arden was grinning, clearly trying not to laugh. She turned and went back to her purse. She slung it over her shoulder and came back to his side. She took his hand and started pulling him toward the hallway. "Come on," she said. "Let's get coffee."

They were halfway to the cafeteria when Travis finally laughed. "I don't know what just happened back there."

"Oh, don't worry. You dodged a bullet. You're welcome by the way."

"I don't agree. She was really nice."

"No, she would have been one of those super clingy women. When you tried to break things off she would have gotten all vindictive and scary. I saved you."

They made it to the cafeteria and Arden bought them coffee. Travis collapsed at a table, confused, more than angry. The cafeteria was relatively empty and therefore quiet. Arden sat across from him, slid his coffee across the table and lifted her own to her lips. There was something different about her. She looked peaceful. Travis didn't know what this meant.

"Was that fun for you?" Travis asked.

She smiled, closed-lipped. "Yes. And I think I want you to quit making dates with strange women for a while."

"Really?" Travis felt a sudden surge of excitement.

Arden nodded. "And when you get Tonya settled back home with the baby and you find you can get away for an evening, I'd love for you to come over."

"To your house?"

She nodded matter-of-factly. "I had so much fun during our snow-storm whenever we cooked together. Maybe we can do that again. I've been recording Food Network shows that I like so I can learn how to make some of the recipes they demonstrate. Sound fun?"

Travis swallowed and shifted in his seat. "Yeah. Sounds fun."

"So, maybe Saturday? If you're able to get away?"

Travis nodded vigorously, trying with all of his might not to knock over the table and tackle her right then.

She stared into her coffee and smiled. "I appreciate you restraining your excitement."

Travis cleared his throat. "You're welcome."

"I've got another treat for you," she said.

"Yeah?"

"Yep. You get to drive me home. Because I don't care if Emma is with me, I'm never getting in the car with Dustin again."

"What did he say to you?" Travis asked.

Arden added another packet of sweetener to her coffee and swirled it around. "Nothing. He did nothing but look at me dirty. I tried talking about you and when he had to reply, it was in monosyllables and grunts. I've never known with so much certainty that someone hated me."

"He doesn't hate you, sweetheart. He's just convinced you're the source of my misery lately."

"Am I?" Her hair fell into her face and he longed to push it back. She did that herself, though.

"Not entirely."

She nodded. "Well I won't hurt you anymore. I have to finish breaking up with Nick before anything can happen between us," she said, just as though she were discussing her to-do list for the day, "so I'm not going to kiss you today."

Travis felt the blood leave his brain at the mere mention of kissing her. He was so starved to be loved by her that just the thought of a kiss lit him up. "But you're going to kiss me after you break up with Nick? Maybe on Saturday?"

"Oh, definitely on Saturday. Possibly before if the break-up is pretty clean cut. I'll call you."

Travis sat on the edge of his seat. She was digging around in her purse for something. "Arden?" he said, getting her attention. He looked into her pretty brown eyes and felt himself start to smile. "You're so straight-forward and calm about this, I just have to make sure...we have a date on Saturday...right? A date? Like, I can put the moves on you and you won't completely reject me, right? That kind of date?"

She looked into his eyes, smiling. But suddenly her eyes welled up and her smile became strained. "A real date." She nodded, some of the tears spilling down her cheeks. "I'm very much looking forward to having the moves put on me. My parents are going out of town this weekend. So we've got the whole place to ourselves."

Travis couldn't sit still for the excitement. He grabbed her hands and brought them to his lips, closing his eyes and relishing the feelings that filled up his chest. He opened his eyes and looked at the ring on her finger. "When's this come off?"

She pulled her hand back and started digging through her purse again. "Soon as I can find...oh, here it is." She pulled out a small, velvet drawstring bag. Then without any hesitation, she slid the ring off and dropped it in the bag. "I'll try to get this back to him today. I'm thinking about doing it at the bank while he's working. It can't get too ugly if we're in public."