He turned around to find his entire team watching him, including Anthony.
“Decluttering,” he said as he transferred the paper to the waste bin.
They had all found the humor in the impassioned Post-it notes pleas, but it was ridiculous to make fun of them now. No one gave him a hard time. It was possible it was too early to give a shit about the end of a stale joke.
Returning to the counter where Anthony stood, Duncan ignored his friend’s pointed stare.
“There’s no need to mock people,” Duncan explained.
“Right,” Anthony replied. “We didn’t really talk about your date.”
Duncan took a drink of water from his bottle. “Fake date. And it was good. Informative.”
If circumstances were different, he’d probably be more effusive, but his friend was already skeptical about this setup. So, it wouldn’t inspire confidence if Duncan went on about how he found Retta a surprising mix of awkward and bold.
At any given moment, he could see the gears turning in her head, but she did everything with gusto. He definitely didn’t mention the superfluous second date. It was undoubtedly going against the hypothetical fake-dating manual he now felt compelled to write.
Anthony continued to study him. “You think you two are comfortable enough with each other now to make it believable?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Duncan said, shrugging. She was definitely more comfortable with him. She licked his face, dammit.
“Why are you smiling?” Anthony asked.
“What? I can’t smile now?”
His friend squinted.
“She’s cool.” Duncan could feel the eye-roll without even looking at his friend. He knew what he was thinking. “And no, I didn’t sleep with her.”
Not that he hadn’t thought about it. It wasn’t hard for him to envision Retta advancing upward from the foot of a bed where he lay. She wouldn’t touch him until she got to his face where she’d lick him and whisper in his ear about wanting to taste more of him.
He blamed his unplanned months-long celibacy on all the dreams and thoughts. Another consequence of trying to get this business up and running. It was just his luck, however, that he’d start seeing someone who he had no intention of sleeping with. There were too many complicating factors for the possibility of an easy, no-strings-attached hookup.
That being said, he was operating under the understanding that getting involved with someone else right now would be some sort of a violation. So jacking off in the shower would have to suffice for now.
ChapterTen
Retta had wokenup early and managed to run a few errands, clean her apartment, and start removing anything in her place that seemed even remotely romantic. For instance, the candles in her living room migrated to her bedroom, she didn’t purchase flowers as she customarily did every other week, and she removed her doormat that read: “Love you, bye!”
Despite all the extra steps she was doing for Duncan’s arrival, she’d insisted they do the movie watching at her place. This would allow her at least a bit of control. She needed a definitive end to this date seeing that during the last one, time had slipped by so quickly. There wouldn’t be a midnight bedtime today. To ensure that even more, she’d scheduled this date on a night she was babysitting her brother’s kids. Duncan had to be out of her apartment by 4 p.m.
At around noon, Retta was in the middle of making donuts she’d promised her niece and nephew when Duncan showed up to her apartment with a six-pack of beer, two different kinds of pizza, andRockyon DVD.
As he entered her home, a clean laundry smell accompanied him. The white T-shirt he wore looked great against his dark skin and seemed to accommodate his large frame so long as he didn’t flex or stretch too much.
“I hope you’re not loyal to a certain brand,” he said, placing the beer on her counter.
“No,” Retta said, averting her gaze from his arms.
“You making something?” he asked, pointing over her shoulder to the spot where her oil was heating.
“Yeah, I’m babysitting my niece and nephew in the evening. They both love chocolate donuts. I’m almost done here, then we can start the movie.”
She resettled herself in front of the stove and proceeded to drop dough into the hot oil. The color darkened and a distinctive aroma bloomed.
“How can I help?” Duncan asked as he came to stand right behind her.
“You can wash your hands and chop the chocolate for the ganache,” Retta said, gesturing toward the counter behind her.
