I treated him to an eye roll. “No? What makes you think that?”
“The woman of my dreams would be far more covert at getting my attention with her purse. More of a drop and less of a throw.”
“Such high standards,” I drawled.
All I got for that was what I was already starting to think of as Cormac’s trademark grin.
Chapter Seven
Over the next few days, I could barely turn around without Mac—yes, I’d finally given in to the inevitability of dropping that extra syllable—being there, unless I was at work. Therefore, it came as no great surprise when he invited himself along to dinner with Henri. Once I’d completed the introductions, I sat back and watched, somewhat intrigued by how the two of them would get along.
Henri wasted no time in going into full flirt mode, his chin resting on his hand while he regarded Mac with a laser sharp focus that said I may as well not have been there. Mac either didn’t notice or didn’t care. After ten minutes of Henri almost falling over himself to shower Mac with compliments, some of them so corny they belonged in an earlier decade, I couldn’t take any more of it. “What about Finn?” I asked Henri. “What happened to waiting as long as it takes for him?” It was mean of me to ask in English, but it saved on translation time when Mac would no doubt have asked for one.
“Finn?” Mac enquired with a frown. “Finn, as in my brother’s boyfriend. Finn, as in the man he is completely besotted with, and who is equally besotted with him? That Finn?”
“One and the same,” I drawled, refusing to feel guilty when bright spots of color appeared on Henri’s cheeks.
Henri shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I have reached the conclusion that he’s not interested in me.”
I barked out a laugh. “You think? You’ve just come to that conclusion, have you? Why now when you couldn’t reach it on the first, fifteenth, or even hundredth occasion of me informing you of that exact fact?”
The spots of color grew more vivid. “I had to get over him first.”
“Get over him? Nothing happened between the two of you. You’ve had how many conversations in total? Three? It can’t be any more than five.”
Henri shook his head wearily. “Love isn’t about how many times you speak, or how much time you spend together. Love is about a meeting of minds, a connection.”
Mac cocked his head to one side and considered Henri’s words. “I have to say I agree with him.”
“Don’t!” I said, completely serious. “The last thing you want to do is agree with him when he has you lined up as his next victim.”
“Next victim!” Henri sat up straighter, appalled by my phrasing. “I am not a serial killer.”
“No,” I conceded. “You’re a man who falls instantly in love with the most unsuitable men you can find. And sometimes, I think that’s worse. Mac is straight.” Henri immediately looked to Mac for confirmation, Mac nodding. “And then you get your heart broken and I have to pick up the pieces.”
Henri left soon after that. Whether he actually had a meeting he’d forgotten about, or it was more to save face, was up fordebate. Once we were alone, Mac studied me across the table. “What?” I finally asked.
“It’s quite the rollercoaster being your friend, isn’t it?”
“You think I was harsh?” I provided an answer before he could. “I probably was. But Henri also knows that I would do anything for him, that he can call on me at any time and that I would come running.”
Mac nodded slowly. “You’re quite the pair.”
“Are we?”
A smile played on his lips. “The man who expects to find love with everyone he meets, and the man who has given up on it.”
There was no need to ask which of those descriptions was supposed to be me. “You sound like Finn. I haven’t given up on it. It’s just not a priority for me right now.”
“When will it be a priority?”
How was anyone supposed to answer a question like that? So I didn’t even try, turning it into one of my own instead. “And where do you lie on that spectrum?”
“Currently closer to you than Henri.” He held up a hand before I could comment. “But… I think that’s understandable when I’m just out of a relationship that turned sour.”
“Sour?”
“Very sour. What’s sourer than sour?”
