Before I could respond, he’d reached for the door. Deciding to behave in front of the group of people waiting for a table, I shrugged noncommittally as I stepped inside. “Thank you.”
He whispered low as I walked in front of him. “I just want to see your ass when you go inside.”
My bark of laughter had several people turning to look, and Scott just smirked. He might’ve never been the most outrageous person around, but something about opening up to Dare and me had helped him relax.
With each hurdle, things got easier and came more naturally.
When Dare had messaged me first thing asking me if I’d given Scott a sexy good-morning kiss yet, I’d been a little embarrassed to admit I wasn’t sure what he would think of it. We’d been friends for so long, moving fully into boyfriend mode seemed weird when we lived together.
Dare had sent back a devil emoji and a laughing one and had given me a shove in the right direction, along with an order for us to have a date night. I’d been happy to comply with both instructions. So had Scott.
As we were seated and told our waiter would be with us shortly, I turned back to Scott. “I’m assuming you got the new clients you were talking about?”
He lit up. “Yeah, it went really well. I’d always thought I’d focus on clients more my age since the fact that I’m not that old can work against me with older clients, but it’s working out a lot better than I expected. I like hearing their stories and they seem happy with me, so it seems to be a good fit.”
“Is it something you’re going to work on developing? I mean, focusing on more mature clients?” I wasn’t a salesman by nature but it seemed like a good market if he could keep building it up.
He glanced down at the menu before looking back up at me. “I think so.” He shrugged. “I need to figure out how to develop and then grow it but it’s working so far.”
I grinned. “Because you’re hot.”
He blushed and rolled his eyes, either not sure how to take the compliment or not sure if I was serious. “I’m pretty certain that’s not it.”
Before I could go into exact detail about how right I was on that statement, the waiter approached the table. Ordering went smoothly and we got our food quickly. In fact, everything went smoothly. I’d never had a date like it.
In the past, there had always been a level of uneasiness or just general wariness during a date. Even when the guy was nice and we seemed to click, there was always the idea in the back of my head that he wouldn’t understand.
I’d known that I’d probably let a couple of great guys escape because of my own issues. I’d either not been ready to talk about it or I’d been skittish because of some vague comment about alpha guys. Big meant take-charge to a lot of people, and I’d never figured out how to change that perception.
We’d both ordered steaks, and with the baked potatoes and sides mostly consumed I was starting to get full. “Did you get a chance to talk to Dare today?”
Scott gave me a curious look. “Just a few texts, and they seemed deliberately vague.”
I had to laugh; he was right. “Probably.”
He waited a few seconds then shook his head. “Do you want to tell me why he was vague about our date tonight?”
“I’m not sure I’m supposed to.” Dare had to work most of the afternoon and possibly well into the evening. It all depended on how the group he was working for went. He’d said that he was going to try and meet us at the restaurant for dessert but he wasn’t sure if it would work.
Scott sighed. “I’m not sure whether or not I should just let you be cryptic or if I should push.”
“No idea.” On one hand, I liked making him a little frustrated, since it kept him on his toes; on the other, I wanted to tease him about what might happen later.
“I’m not sure I like surprises.” His dry response made me laugh.
“You’ll learn to live with it. I think Dare likes them.” I stretched my foot forward so my leg brushed against his. “Next time, it might be you drivingmecrazy, though.”
He grinned as he cut off another bite of steak. “That would be much more fun.”
As we finished, we talked about work and plans for the rest of the week. We both touched on weekend plans with Dare, but he hadn’t said anything specific, and I wasn’t sure what Scott was ready for. I was voting for him staying the weekend with us, but that might be pushing it. Especially since we hadn’t even had sex yet. None of us.
Which brought me back to getting physical with Scott.
“So we’re both wimping out with this conversation.” I set my fork down and focused on Scott, not willing to let myself talk around it again. “What do you think we should do this weekend? Traditional date or something more?”
We’d start simple.
Scott seemed relieved I’d pushed the issue, and seeing his nod made something inside me relax. “Both. I think we should do something like a traditional date because getting to know him and just seeing how we all fit together is important. But I also think we need to see how we…how things feel when he’s…in charge.”
