“Did you see how jealous she was that he made such an effort with you?”
Shrugging I lean forward and check out the pretty eyeliner Denise expertly applied on me. “I don’t want anyone jealous of me. It doesn’t make me feel good.”
“It would make me feel good!” She points to the clock. “Holy shit! It’s seven fifty-eight! Two minutes!”
The doorbell rings and we freeze.
Bucky jumps off the bed and runs to answer it for me.
Denise shouts, “No minutes!”
“Go get him Bucky!” I sit on my bed, dress complaining that it prefers to stand.
“Why aren’t you answering the door?”
“I can’t do this.”
“Maddie, yes, you can.”
“No, I really can’t.” Our eyes lock as I implore her to understand. “I’m too excited. I’m in over my head, Denise! He’s too perfect. I can’t do this. Please tell him I’m sick or something.”
She thrusts her arm out. “Bucky is barking at him, Maddie! Let the man in! He’s getting harassed by the dog he saved! Is that wrong or is that wrong?”
“Oh, shit.” I rush out, her chasing after me, both of us in heels that abhor running. “I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this.”
“You’re a catch!”
“Stop saying that.”
“Would I be friends with you since birth-ish if you weren’t amazing?”
“You were stuck with me. You hated Tee Tee.”
“Well Titty wasn’t easy to like.”
I crack up, holding onto a wall, laughing nervously and sounding sorta like a lunatic.
Denise pushes me, grinning her ass off, “Laugh your way to the door, woman!”
Nicholas’s voice comes through the wood, a smile in his voice, too, since he can hear us. “Madison? That you?”
“Gah!” I scramble past my overly excited Labrador. Grabbing his collar I unlock the door and wave Denise away.
“I’m not going anywhere! I want to see this! You kidding me?!”
Cracking it open, and then widening his view, I smile, “Hi, sorry, wasn’t ready yet.” I’m bent over to control Bucky, so my cleavage is doing yoga, reaching for the floor.
His jaw drops to join it.
I straighten up in a hurry.
Bucky leaps onto Nicholas who laughs and gives him lots of pets. “He remembers me, look!”
Nicholas is dressed in a black, form-fitting sweater and dark, sexy jeans. Black boots reach out, their detailed threading screaming, these weren’t cheap.
In awe of him my nervous throat closes as Denise and I share a look.
She nods with understanding.
“How ya been, boy? Lookin’ good! You’re almost as tall as I am like this.” Nicholas’s grin lights up my whole apartment.
“You’ve had dogs before,” I smile.
Rubbing behind Bucky’s ears, Nicholas says, “Oh yeah, my whole life. Big ones, small ones, we had them both.”
“No cats?”
“Not when we were kids, but my sister Zoe, she recently moved in with our cousins and shares theirs—Samantha and Lexi.”
“Those are cute names for cats.”
He laughs and lets go of Bucky, stretching his shoulders. “Ha, no, those are my cousins.”
“Oh, Sorry.” I glance to Denise as I recall him shouting Alexis Cocker. Guess that’s Lexi, and Caden mentioned her, too. I’m just too fucking nervous to remember all those damn Cocker names.
Nicholas glances around the apartment as he tells me, “Sally Ashes and Ralphie Rooster, those are their cats. Cute as hell.” He locks onto me. “Maybe you’ll meet them someday.”
I laugh, “Yeah right,” and tuck curled hair behind my ear—Denise’s handiwork—aware that he is now checking me out and not hiding it.
“Damn, Maddie, you look beautiful.”
“Uh…those are definitely cute names. Do you wanna wash your hands? He licked you like crazy.”
“You mind?”
“No, go ahead. Kitchen’s right over—” Denise thrusts a damp towel at Nicholas. “Where did you get that from?”
“I ran and got it while you were talking. I know you.” She grins at me. “Now get out of here.”
Nicholas cleans up, amused at her subtlety, his eyes flicking to Bucky. “He’s in pretty good shape.”
“Thanks to you.”
“Hey, I just got him out. It’s been all you from there.” He returns the towel to Denise’s outstretched hand, “Thanks,” locks eyes with me, reaches above my head to wrap his fingers around the door’s edge. “After you, gorgeous.”
My eyelashes flicker to him. I’m so confused by this whole thing, and it’s showing on my face as I gaze at him.
Denise sighs, “Why are you still here?!”
Blinking to the floor on a smile, I walk into the fluorescent hallway.
She closes the door with the words, “Hey Bucky, it’s you and me now.”
Nicholas walks at my side, so much taller than I am. He shoves his hands in his pockets.
“I’m going to stuff these in here so they behave themselves because wow, that dress.”
Biting my lip I glance up to him. “You like it?”
He coughs on a laugh, “Nah, it’s too loose on you.”
Playfully smacking his arm I grin, “Tell that to my lungs. They think they got jailed for a crime.”
“Oh, it’s criminal alright,” he says, voice thicker. Stopping in the hallway he lifts my chin, searching my eyes. I hold my breath, excited and nervous. He’s so close in this bright light that I can see a dozen or so golden slivers in his irises. So complex, so breathtaking.
“Why are we stopping?”
“Madison, I’m not going to make a move on you tonight, but not because I don’t want to. I’m keeping my promise to earn your trust.”
With parted lips I stare at him, stunned because he seems so genuine. “I don’t know what to say to that, Nicholas.”
“Hopefully that you wish I’d take it back.”
Softly laughing I shake my head once and his fingers drop and slide back into his pocket.
“No, I’m not interested in being another girl you don’t remember.”
Narrowing his eyes he reminds me, “I never knew her name.”
“It’s Alicia. And she’s a person.”
“She wanted it to be the way it was. Some people get off on anonymous.”
“Not me.”
We continue to his Tesla, deep in thought. As he opens my door his smile returns, “You’re a puzzle.”
A spark of pride glimmers behind my eyes. “Thank you. But just so you know,
