“How much more?” Chase demanded, grinning eagerly. “Like give me a percentage.”
“I can’t do percentages right now,” Nick informed him. “After three drinks, my brain shifts back into second-grade math.”
“Just try.”
Nick racked his brain. “I’ll say like ten percent more, but if I’m wrong, you can’t give me shit about it later.”
Chase seemed to ignore the warning and immediately punched the air. “Yeah! I’m getting a new car.”
Nick laughed. “Why don’t you wait on that until it’s set in stone.”
“Ehh, whatever,” Chase dismissed. “I’m gonna buy a new car anyway. And right now we’re going to do a shot.”
Nick raised his eyebrows and gestured with his glass. “Thisisa shot.”
“We have catching up to do after being stuck at work all night,” Chase insisted. “And you need to get sloshed so you can get some tail.”
Nick laughed again as he rubbed his fingers across his forehead.
“Don’t laugh, Chapman. This is serious business. I know you haven’t been laid since—”
“Okay, Chase.” Nick threw a hand up to cut him off. “I don’t need a reminder.”
“I hope you’ve learned something from this whole thing,” Chase mentioned in a snarky tone.
“I’ve learned plenty.”
“Good. Now you know relationships are for suckers.”
Nick raised his eyebrows. “That’s not the takeaway here.”
Chase scoffed. “That’s where you’re wrong, my friend. And fortunately for you, that hot little number over there has been eyeballing me for the past fifteen minutes, and she has a hot little friend. Drink this and come on.”
Nick tossed back the shot and followed Chase. Protesting was useless. Trying to explain the situation to Chase was about as useless as explaining to a dog that scarfing an entire raw steak wasn’t the best way to enjoy it.
His plan to have Sammie come work with him had completely backfired. He’d unintentionally painted himself into a corner, where he got nothing but mixed signals and constant reminders that—even if she ever changed her mind about him—they could never entertain the idea of them while she was working for him.
Basically, he’d either have to totally violate all the rules she believed in, or he’d have to fire her.
Or option three, leave the ball totally in her court and wait for her to come around on her own and rewrite the rules—which is what he’d decided on after she shut him down at the end of the party that night.
But he had no idea how long that would take, or if she’d ever be interested at all. Clearly, she wasn’t interested right then, which was understandable. It had only been a few weeks; a reasonable amount of time for her to still be mad about the whole thing.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t help feeling stupid for holding out hope altogether. Yet, he cut himself some slack because hehadlearned something—this is just the way it is when you love someone.
And he did still love her. That was going to be the case for a long time. Maybe forever.
If nothing ever came of Sammie and him, he’d probably settle for moving on at some point. He couldn’t see himself ever going back to his sleazy office hookups, but maybe he’d go on a real date with someone. Maybe.He definitely wasn’t at that point yet. But he figured he’d get there eventually. He knew most people experience at least one great love at some point in their lives, and his happened to take place a lot later. Not everyone gets to keep the person who takes up permanent residence in their hearts, and if they managed to make due after the fact, he figured he could as well.
Just not right now, and definitely not tonight.
Chase didn’t waste any time with the hot little number, so Nick turned to her friend.
“Nick,” he introduced himself, offering a hand.
“Leah,” she said, shaking his hand.
Now what?
