Page 76 of Boyfriend of the Hour

And so, at approximately 2:04 a.m., Nathan sighed on the other side of the bar at Opal while I gleefully gave him lessons in acting like a believable boyfriend.

Not that I’d been looking forward to it or anything. Nor lit up like a glow stick at a rave when he walked in after his shift at the hospital.

Seriously, though. No one had the right to look that good in scrubs. Once again, his shoulders and ass made the shapeless blue garments look like couture.

“This seems unnecessary,” he said as he produced a cloth from his jacket pocket and polished his glasses. “You’re working. You don’t even drink when you’re working.”

“Only because it makes it harder for me to count tips.” I continued restocking the garnish trays under the bar. “You asked me to help you with this stuff, mister. So, for the third time, pretend we’re on a date. Didn’t you ever play make-believe as a kid?”

He replaced the glasses and lifted one eyebrow in a way that made my knees weak. And not in a way that was all that unpleasant. Yeah, I could take this role play we were doing to a whole other level.

No, Joni, no. Bad girl. Roommate, yes. Dr. Zaddy, no. Stop fantasizing about that stern, no-nonsense expression he is wearing right this second.

It really wasn’t fair. People weren’t supposed to get hotter the longer you knew them. Almost two weeks into living together, I should have started to resent things like how Nathan never left so much as a crumb on the counters or the fact that he absolutely refused to drink tap water. Instead, they just made him more attractive. I honestly wanted to jump the guy every time he watered his plants or glanced at me after polishing his glasses.

Like he was doing right freaking now.

I think you’re smart.

It was that comment that did it. No one else in my entire life had ever said that to me. But Nathan Hunt, the biggest, hottest, cutest nerd on the planet…thought I was smart.

Maybe if he hadn’t said that, I wouldn’t have been sacrificing tips just to watch him sip club soda like a dude about to fall off the wagon. Instead, here I was, hanging on his every word.

I cut another lemon in half with a loud chop of the knife on the cutting board. “You’re supposed to be practicing, babe. Let me hear it.”

Nathan’s big brown eyes rolled as he sat forward and clasped his hands. The action made his biceps stretch his thin blue sleeves to their limits. “Fine. I’ll get you another vodka soda.”

I set the knife down. “Dr. Hunt, what did we just discuss? If the girl says, ‘Sure,’ you don’t just order her something, even if you think you know what she wants. You ask her first.”

Nathan tilted his head in a way that made him look like a curious cartoon chipmunk. One rocking an indecently hot five o’clock shadow. “But you always drink a vodka soda. You avoid extra sugar when you can. If you were my date, I would have already figured it out.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Aw, sweets, I love that you figured that out. And you should definitely work that into the conversation because it shows you see a girl and notice her.”

Those big shoulders shrugged again. “I always notice you.”

It was like he was commenting on the weather, but it still made me lose my breath. Nothing special, and yet somehow the most romantic thing I’d ever heard. Better than any shitty poem boys wrote in grade school, let me tell you.

Roses are red

Violets are blue.

Water is wet.

And I always notice you.

“That,” I managed with a shaky exhale, “is exactly what you should say to any girl you’re with. Right before youstillask her what she wants.”

“This doesn’t make any sense, Joni. It’s just a simple observation.”

“My dude, all women want is to be observed—to beseen. That’s the stuff we love to hear, probably above all else. But we also want to speak.”

His forehead crinkled adorably. “So you want to be seen and then heard.”

“Exactly.” I giggled. He wasn’t making a joke, but it did sound the opposite of what old-fashioned people said about children. “So, try again.”

Nathan huffed, clearly impatient. It made me want to jump over the bar and give him a hug.

“Fine. I noticed you enjoy vodka sodas. Would you like another?”