I laugh. “So you’re trying to tell me I owe it to Henry to sleep with you?”
“Whoa there, tiger,” Christian says, waving his arms. “I don’t think anything was said about sleeping with anyone. I mean, hey, I’m game if you are, but I was thinking of taking it a bit slower—maybe spend some time together under a different pretense, see if there’s anything to this.”
“We spent most of last month together,” I remind him.
“I know, and that was fun, but it was as friends. It was also before I realized you still had feelings for me—”
“An attraction, not feelings,” I argue.
“If you say so,” he chimes, presumptuously.
“So what are you saying?”
“Go out on three dates with me,” Christian proposes. “If at the end of those three dates you aren’t madly in love with me again, then I will give you and Henry my blessing.”
“I’m not doing that.”
“Why? Scared of what you might discover?”
“No!” I shout, my face growing hot.
“Then why not?”
I hesitate; his suggestion has my head spinning. “I can’t … I …” I huff, now completely flustered. “That’s cheating, and I won’t do that to Henry.”
Christian stares at me. “I know how I feel about you, and I’m pretty confident that if you open yourself up to us, you’ll find out you feel the same, but I don’t want you to do anything you could possibly hate yourself for later.”
“Then it’s settled. You’ll leave me alone for the rest of the time I’m here.”
“Not so fast. What about we agree to three dates, but with ground rules. No sex, no kissing, just a G-rated date,” he suggests as a solution.
I shake my head. This feels wrong, and my mind is telling me to tell Christian to get the hell out of my sight, so I can get on a plane and head straight home. “I don’t know. What makes them a date?”
He takes a step back, widening the gap even more between us. “I promise, nothing physical. All I’m asking is you give me a real chance to win you back. If you go and marry him, without really knowing if we are truly over, it’s like you’ll never be able to completely give yourself to him. Do you really want to do that to Henry?”
I know what he’s doing. He has always been a master at spinning things in the way he wants people to see them. And even though I know what he’s doing, I can’t believe what I find myself saying. “All right.”
“Seriously?” he asks, surprised.
“Yes, but if you step out of line in any way, this little experiment is over. Got it?”
“Of course.”
“And, after the three dates, when I’m still in love with Henry, you’ll let this drop once and for all?”
“I give you my word. But by then, you’ll be mine again,” he says confidently, darting around the counter and out the door, yelling over his shoulder, “First date is this Friday at seven o’clock. I’ll pick you up here.”
As the door falls closed I’m suddenly light headed. I lean my body weight against the table to steady myself. What just happened?
OLIVIA STUMBLES ACROSS the floor and begins pulling fabric samples out of one of the boxes lining the wall. I look over at Emmie, perched on a stool next to the table. This does not seem to bother her. I consider going over to stop the mini tornado, but decide she’s having far too much fun to interrupt her.
“So you know this can only end in disaster?” Emmie says, before popping another grape into her mouth.
“Yes, you’ve told me every day for the past three days, so I’m starting to understand your opinion quite well,” I say sarcastically, leaning over the table and snatching a grape from her hands.
“And since when do you have so much cleavage?” she asks me, staring at my chest.
I quickly stand, self consciously looking down at my body. “Hey, I have nice tits.”
“That’s not what I said,” she corrects me. “You have amazingly perky, beautiful little tits, but that’s not what’s hanging out of that shirt. That is come major cleavage, girl.”
I look down again, smile and reply, “I guess it’s the bra.”
“I thought this was supposed to be a pretend date.”
“It is,” I confirm, furrowing my brow.
“So you just want to blue-ball him.”
I shrug. “I don’t know, maybe.” We both laugh before I add, “If he crosses the line, then this stupid little experiment is over. That’s the deal. And if my cleavage is too much for him to resist, then I guess our first date will be our last.”