The doorbell rang, and he padded down the hallway to answer it.
* * *
Amber looked around after taking off her boots. Sebastian lived in a small house that was a short drive from her apartment. It was clear he hadn’t lived here long. Not because there were piles of boxes, but because it was a bit sparse. Like it needed some homey touches. Perhaps she could make him a cross-stitch that said, Welcome to my den of pleasure.
“What’s so funny?” Sebastian asked.
“Oh, nothing,” she said. “It smells good.”
He led her to the dining room table, where there were two empty bowls, spoons, butter, and a small pile of crusty rolls. He placed a large pot on a trivet.
“I made lentil-sausage soup with kale,” he said, ladling them each a bowl.
They sat in silence as they waited for the soup to cool, Sebastian constantly dipping his spoon into the soup and letting it drip off, Amber tearing her dinner roll and buttering it.
This was weird. Why was this weird?
Was it because just last night, they’d sent each other naughty text messages?
Nah, she didn’t think that was it.
She tried some soup.
“It’s delicious,” she said.
“Thank you.” His voice was unsteady.
They’d already slept together and sexted, but she hadn’t been to his place before, and they were having a home-cooked meal for the first time. Perhaps he was nervous.
“You wanted to feed me something with sausages, didn’t you?” she said. “Except the sausages in the soup are cut up, so I can’t see whether they were long and extra-thick. Were they magnum sausages?”
God, she sounded like she was drunk on a piña colada.
Sebastian lifted a spoonful of soup to his mouth, then snorted and put down the spoon. He started laughing as she’d never heard him laugh before. He chuckled a lot, sure, but this was a full-on belly-aching laugh, and she couldn’t help the warmth that spread through her body. Though perhaps he was laughing like this mainly because of his nervousness, which was kind of cute, actually...
Friends, she reminded herself. Friends make friends laugh.
He squeezed her hand, then went back to eating his soup.
She could get used to this. A nice, casual dinner at the end of a workday with Sebastian.
Friends! she screamed inside her head. This is friendship, not romance.
“Amber?” Sebastian said, his eyebrows drawing together. “Is everything okay?”
“Oh, yes, everything is great, thank you!” Her voice sounded a little too chipper, but he didn’t comment on it.
After dinner, Sebastian brought out some candy cane ice cream, the kind she’d had in her basket at the grocery store two weeks ago.
Two weeks? Weirdly, it seemed both longer and shorter at the same time.
Everything was going great so far. They’d been having sex about twice a week—and regular sex was exactly what she needed.
She had a generous serving of ice cream, then stood up and slid onto his lap.
“You’re wearing too much clothing,” she declared.
“Am I?”
“Mm-hmm. I think it’s time I did something about it. To thank you for the great meal.”
And that was exactly what she did.
* * *
It was nine o’clock, and Sebastian had stuff he should probably be doing—dishes, for example—but instead he was lying in bed with Amber, her head resting on his shoulder.
His bedroom seemed boring compared to hers. There were no crochet peacocks on the bedside table, no cross-stitched rules above the bed.
“What’s rule number two?” he asked suddenly. “Rule number one is no dating...what’s rule number two?”
“Yet to be determined,” she said. “I’m keeping my options open.”
He pulled her closer. It was a touch drafty in his bedroom, and they were snuggled up under a mound of blankets...and there was nowhere else he’d rather be.
“You said you’re taking a break from dating because you tend to date terrible men.”
“Yes.” She sighed. “I really do. Any type of bad boyfriend you can think of, I’ve had.”
“Cheaters?”
“That goes without saying. One guy claimed he was single but turned out to have a wife and two small children. I also dated a man who thought women shouldn’t be able to vote.”
“He didn’t think women should vote?”
“He only said that once. When he was drunk. Went on a rant about how women were too liberal and didn’t know what was good for them. I bet that was how he truly felt; he just knew better than to spout those views when he was sober. Then there were a couple of white guys who had creepy Asian fetishes. One thought I should be more in touch with my culture and mocked me for some of the non-traditional food I made. The other thought I should be submissive. When I dumped him, he blamed my lack of meek and polite personality on me being...” She shook her head. “I won’t repeat what he said. Slurs against people who are biracial.”
Sebastian’s hand tightened on Amber’s arm, but then he realized he might be hurting her. He let go and soothed her skin with his fingers. “I can’t believe you dated those guys.”
“I’m incredibly dumb.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“You don’t have to lie. I was young, I liked men, I wasn’t too picky. I enjoyed the attention.”
“I’m sure they didn’t act like total jerks when you first met them.”
“No, but I should have known better. Especially when I...” She shut her eyes for a moment. “You can’t tell Zach or anyone else in my family, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I dated a few men who were quite a bit older than me. Like, when I was nineteen, I dated a guy who was thirty-five. Older than you are now. He made me feel grown-up. I wanted people to see me as something other than the baby of the family, wanted them to take me seriously. It felt like he did. Then he dumped me for someone who was only seventeen.” She shifted against Sebastian. “I also dated a professor.”
“While he was teaching you?”
“No, afterward. Well, we kissed once
