Page 95 of The Plus One Professional
“She’s not my girlfriend. That was a job. I thought you knew that.”
“Yeah, right. She’s ajob.” I lifted my hands up to do bunny ears for the quotes, but then realized one of them was holding my very full glass of wine. When I saw the precious liquid that was making me feel warm and fuzzy nearly spill, I brought it to my mouth and slurped the liquid up.
“Yes. She is.” He stared down at me and asked again, “Can I come in? Please.”
“Fine,” I said with a sigh.
When he stepped inside, he turned on a swivel doing a three-sixty, taking in my indoor garden.
“Wow. This is…”
“I know. It’s a lot.”
He read one of the cards attached to the arrangement. “Are these all from…”
“Yep. Simon.” I nodded, and my head felt heavy.
“Has my head always been this heavy? What was it the Jerry Maguire kid said? The human head weighs eight pounds? No. That’s too much.”
I nodded again to check the weight. Maybe it was. It felt really heavy.
“How much have you had to drink?” Cole asked.
“How much haveyouhad to drink?” I snapped back, feeling defensive.
“I haven’t had anything to drink. How much have you had?”
I sighed. “When did you suddenly getsoooointerested in how much I’ve had to drink?”
“When you told me your head feels heavy and that it weighs eight pounds and you’re holding a glass of wine that is about to spill.”
He reached out and tilted the glass back up straight.
“This is my first glass,” I told him.
Cole’s head tilted to the side, and I could see he didn’t believe me.
“Of thisbottle,” I clarified, and started laughing. For some reason, it struck me as really funny.
His expression didn’t change—tough crowd.
“I opened a new one after the old one was empty,” I stated proudly. I don’t know why I thought he’d be impressed by that fact, but I did.
“You drank an entire bottle of wine?”
“Noooo, the last bottle was only half full.” Or not, but whatever, it was none of his business.
“What have you eaten today?”
“Pft, stuff.”
“What stuff?”
“I had, um…” I tried to remember what I’d eaten, but my thoughts kept running away from me. I was trying to catch them, but all I could think was how good Cole looked! And how good Cole smelled! And how good his voice sounded!
Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked into the kitchen, but stopped when he almost stepped on Duke and Whiskey.
“Hello.” He bent down and reached out to pet them. Both of them.
