Page 11 of Finding Romance (Romances in the Building #2)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Kasen

It only takes one minute and twenty-seven seconds, give or take, to determine that Piper really doesn’t know much about dating. She can quite literally count all the dates she’s been on with her fingers and toes.

I swear with each of my questions her face turns a darker shade of pink.

“So, you really haven’t dated much,” I state, a little shocked.

Her face darkens again into an almost red hue. She nods and keeps her eyes on her feet. I reach out and slowly push her face up with my forefinger. Eventually, her eyes meet mine.

“There’s nothing to be ashamed about or embarrassed about, little escape artist. It just seems to be that you’ve managed to escape romance altogether.

But we’re going to work on that and find you the romance you deserve,” I assure her.

I shouldn’t be around this woman. She’s too damned tempting.

But I can’t let some jackass ruin her heart because she is unsure of herself on a date.

I can do this. I can help her. And then she’ll leave and I can move on with life knowing I did something good.

“I have a college degree. I’m a full-grown woman and don’t know the first thing about dating. It’s so embarrassing,” she whispers as if someone else will hear her. I drop my finger.

“First, you said you’ve technically been on twelve dates.

Three with one guy, two with three others, and one with three others.

So, you have dated. But you also said that ten of those dates were in high school with boys you had class with, so children.

No offense, but you were all not experienced, so of course they sucked at dating too.

And it sounds like the two college dates were with jackasses who only wanted one thing. ”

She looks at me confused for a second and then that pink color returns. Damn, she’s innocent. I’d ruin her for sure. Time to turn on the big-brother vibe. I’m always happy to play that card with any of women in the building—since they are the only women I see on the regular.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asks.

“Yes,” I assure her.

She puts her hands on her hips and gives me a sassy look. “What are your credentials?”

I nearly choke on my saliva. “Are you questioning my experience?” I growl.

“I mean. I laid my dating life, or lack thereof, out on the table. It’s your turn. Quid pro quo,” she challenges, her singular eyebrow over her green eye moving higher on her forehead.

“Fine. My first kiss was when I was thirteen. I had two long-term girlfriends in high school and probably went out on a dozen or so dates with other girls. I went on a few dates during my time in the Navy, but honestly, it was more one-night stands when I had leave. Then in college, I had a long-term girlfriend for a year, the longest girlfriend. After that, I’ve had a string of dates, but mostly I kept a hook-up buddy for emergencies,” I state matter-of-factly.

“For emergencies?” she asks.

“Yep.” I don’t elaborate. I honestly haven’t spoken to that woman in over three months, right before I left on what was supposed to be a work trip but turned into nearly three months of staying with my grandmother.

She drops her hands from her hips. “Dinner and maybe a movie,” she says.

“OK. I can do that. When?”

“Tomorrow?” she asks.

I have a standing online game tomorrow. Shit. I don’t want to tell the boys what I’m doing. Then I remember Roxy and Al heard our conversation. Would they tell the others?

“How about the day after tomorrow? I have a previous commitment tomorrow,” I offer, deciding I should keep my standing game even if they do find out.

She looks at me with curiosity and then her face falls. Damn it.

“Not that. It’s a game with friends,” I admit.

“Oh, OK. That works,” she says. She goes to leave and looks back at me. “What should I wear?”

“Whatever you’ll be comfortable in. But it’ll be a nicer restaurant, not a local bar,” I say as I decide on the location.

“What does that even mean?” she protests.

“It means, no jeans and T-shirts, but dresses, pants, nicer tops are fine, nothing too fancy. We aren’t going to prom,” I try to explain.

“What are you wearing?” she asks. Now I’m getting exasperated.

“Black pants, gray sweater,” I say with a clenched jaw.

Her lips twitch and then she manages to say, “OK, I’ll see you at…?”

“I’ll pick you up at six,” I state.

“Oh, uh, can I just come over here? I don’t want my aunt knowing,” she says.

“What about Al and Roxy?” I ask because they clearly know.

“I’ll tell them to keep it quiet,” she says.

“Good luck with that,” I tease and she groans.

“Fine, pick me up at six. But I’m telling them we are just going out as friends,” she grumbles.

“Fine,” I reply as she leaves me standing there wondering what I just agreed to.

* * *

“You agreed to do what?” Bray asks as we play the game.

Bray, when he’s not working, joins me online and so does Hutch.

Gray and Drew tend to not play but they will consume a drink and chat with us.

I specifically made a setup at my place where we can connect all our computers separately and still hang out.

“I agreed to a practice date. I mean, shit, someone needs to teach her,” I huff, suddenly feeling overprotective of Piper.

“What the fuck do you know about romance?” Hutch says with a laugh.

I glare at him and he just keeps laughing.

“Fuck you,” I curse.

“Whatever, but seriously what if she, like, falls for you and shit. You can’t just break her heart,” he says, his laughter dying.

“I won’t. I’m not that heartless,” I protest.

Everyone stops talking and I feel their eyes on me. I look up from the game. “What?”

“I mean, you were trained to kill people,” Bray points out.

“That’s different. That was the military,” I state, trying to keep myself from remembering everything I did during that time period.

“It’s just…she’s, like, real sweet. And also, can’t anyone in this building just have a normal relationship instead of fake dating or practice dating or whatever?” Drew says from my kitchen where he’s mixing drinks. Gray is sitting at my counter and he looks at me for a long moment.

“What?” I ask as I make eye contact with him.

“Do you like her?” he questions.

Oh, fuck no. I’m not playing that game.

“I don’t like women. I fuck women and that’s it. No more relationships. I don’t have time for that shit,” I say, but the words seem hollow because deep down, I know that’s not true.

“I think Allison really fucked you up,” Bray states, his eyes staying focused on our game. “On your right.”

I put my head back in the game and don’t answer him. He’s not wrong. My last ex did fuck me up. I was dealing with a lot of PTSD issues post my injury while serving. She eventually said I was too fucked up from everything in my past and she needed someone who wasn’t a lifelong fixer-upper project.

“Doesn’t matter,” I mutter.

“It does. You deserve better,” Bray says.

“He’s right,” Hutch agrees. “I know you got this tough-military, mysterious-cybersecurity, gym-rat thing going on”—he motions to my body—“but I’m pretty sure beneath your candied hard shell, you are all gooey on the inside.”

“Dude, that was some poetic shit,” Drew teases.

Hutch glares at him. “I’m not a Longfellow, OK? But you know what I mean.”

“Kase, just don’t rule out making yourself happy. You’re allowed to be happy,” Drew says.

“Speaking of happy, where’s Vito?” I ask, deciding we need to end this conversation about my nonexistent love life.

“He is back in Italy,” Drew says.

We all pause and look over at him.

“Come on, guys. We all knew that the Italian Stallion was going to have to return to his mother country after he finished his graduate program,” Drew says trying to be light-hearted but I see right through that shit.

“Drew, man, I’m sorry. Do you think you could go see him?” I ask, feeling bad for my friend. He’d been dating that guy for almost eight months.

“Nah. I live here. He lives on the other side of the world. We had great times, but it’s over,” Drew states. He turns to Hutch.

“What about Jocelyn?” he asks.

Hutch coughs. “What? What about her?”

“I see the way you two are always talking. What’s going on there?” he presses.

“Nothing. She’s just nice and we chat sometimes. Am I not allowed to be friends with girls?” he says defensively.

“You are, but Jocelyn is a very pretty girl,” Bray states.

“Like you have room to talk. You practically are married to Carly and yet you won’t just seal the deal. Seriously, I could cut the sexual tension between you two with a knife,” Hutch says as we all look at Bray.

Bray groans. “We all know that Carly is like my sister. Nothing is going to happen there. We all know about her past.” The room is quiet again. Carly’s ex was a monster, and we all know it.

The room’s energy turns back to me.

“So, you need dating advice? I could call Roxy,” Gray says with a grin. I throw a pillow at him and he laughs.

“Fuck you very much,” I mutter.

“Hey, don’t knock those romance books she sells until you try them. My sex life has never been so good,” Gray states.

“We are all going to pretend we didn’t hear that,” Drew says as he pours him another drink. I spend the rest of the game wondering if Gray has a point. Maybe I do need to brush up on my skills.