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I glance down and see he’s holding her hand. Cringe. “No problem. Good luck with everything.” I can’t help but squirm at the delayed results of that hand holding session.

Water is still dripping from all my clothes and my hair, so I try to squeeze some of it out.

“Looks like you dodged a bullet,” Trey says, twisting his shirt to let out a steady waterfall. Of course, that means I can see some of his skin underneath, and I have to look away before I get caught staring. I mean, my chances are slim with this guy. Even if there was some chemistry happening a few moments ago. Too bad it was in stinky water.

Even though today’s date bombed, there are still three more to go.

“Yeah, on a few levels. I’ll see you later. I took the train here.”

“What are you doing tonight?” Trey asks and I stop in my tracks. Did I hear him correctly? Those kinds of words usually lead to what is normally termed a date.

I shrug. “I’m not sure now. I mean, we were supposed to be eating with our respective dates, right? I could get a few hours of work in.”

“Why don’t you come to my house and we’ll order food? Then you can walk me through your process of organization.”

The temptation is strong. Of course, why wouldn’t I want to go hang out at his house and ogle him while trying to earn a paycheck.

“I’m soaked.”

“Me too. I took an Uber here. Why don’t I call us a ride to take you home to change and then you can come back? I had some ideas I wanted to run by you.”

He’s trying awfully hard to get me to his house. And then he takes a step forward, making my breath hitch. He lifts his hands into my line of sight and gives me a small smile.

I give him a strange look. “What are you doing?”

“Showing you that there are no warts on my person.” He starts laughing and I join in half-heartedly.

“Trey, you’re my boss. I don’t think holding hands is necessary.” Even though I would love to check that one off my list. Again.

He sighs. “I know, I was just making a joke. You won’t have to worry about picking them up from me.”

“Fine, it will be good to make some progress on your house. There’s no way I’m up for the torture that is my dad’s house today.”

“Chinese okay?”

“Now you’re speaking my language,” I say, grinning.

He pulls out his phone, which somehow didn’t get hit by the water because he’s taller than me. Once he’s off the phone, he says, “Should just be five minutes. She’s close.”

“Who’s close?” All I need is the continued torture of watching him with yet another woman.

“My sister.”

What was I thinking?

Moms are usually more open to any women in their son’s life. The sisters are the ones who’ll either breathe fear into the potential prospect, or report back to the mom everything she sees. I should’ve never agreed to a work dinner.

26

TREY

Okay, it’s not my proudest moment, but I figured she wouldn’t want to ride home with one of her roommates or one of my good friends. There’s too much to tell on that front and I don’t need my friends pointing out how well we click together. Because I’m already feeling that.

Payton is Switzerland in that regard, except she’s my sister and she won’t be able to keep her mouth shut when she gets home. It’s worth the risk though.

“Our chariot awaits, m’lady,” I say, trying to ease Kenzie into the fact that we’re basically being chaperoned by my sister, the Uber/Lyft driver. At least the car is clean when we get in.

“Trey, welcome to the speed wagon. And who’s your beautiful friend?” Payton gives me a few looks and I know what she’s thinking. To be honest, I might’ve been thinking similar thoughts while in the water, I just don’t need anyone scaring Kenzie away.