Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
My heart rate is picking up speed. “Unfortunately, I have no idea where to send flowers.”
“Where does she work?”
“I have no idea. We only talked a little bit about our jobs, in general. We skipped all the usual small talk and went straight to talking about—"
“I don’t care what you talked about, Gray. Did she tell you her last name?”
I nod. “Diaz.”
He grabs his phone off the table, a man on a mission. “Okay. Easy peasy. We’ll find her on LinkedIn, you’ll send her a jaw-dropping bouquet of flowers in four or five days, if you haven’t heard from her, telling her you can’t stop thinking about her and want to see her again, and she’ll be putty in your hands.”
“Oh, I like that idea. Selena never said I can’t send her flowers. She only made me promise not to light up her phone!”
Max taps on his phone. “She spells Selena with two e’s?”
“I think so. I didn’t ask.”
“Hmm. That’s a common name.” He taps a bit more. “Does she spell Diaz with a z or an s?”
“I don’t know. I was assuming a ‘z,’ but I guess I could be wrong. Fuck.”
Max twists his mouth, still tapping buttons on his phone. “Selena is sometimes spelled with an ‘i’ in the middle. There are a lot of Selena Diazes, with Selena spelled both ways.”
“Shit.”
“Are you gentlemen ready to order?” It’s our waitress, appearing out of nowhere.
“Oh, sorry. I haven’t looked at the menu yet,” I admit.
She says that’s fine and gets our drink orders before heading off.
“Do you think maybe Selena gave me a fake name?” I ask, my stomach twisting at the thought.
“Of course, not. Her friends all called her Selena, repeatedly, remember?”
“That’s true. But maybe she told her friends to call her by a fake name, in case I turned out to be a creep.”
“You’re paranoid,” Max declares.
“You’d be paranoid, too, if you’d been given as many fake numbers as me.”
“That’s nothing but a string of bad luck, Gray. When I was with her friend, Marnie, she said she’d met ‘Selena’ in college at U Dub. I can’t imagine Marnie would have remembered to keep using a fake name for her, hours later, and after having several more drinks.”
I pause. “Actually, come to think of it, the hotel clerk called her ‘Ms. Diaz.’”
“See? Paranoid.”
“So, did you wind up hooking up with Selena’s friend on Friday night after you two went outside ‘for a smoke’?”
Before Max answers my question, the waitress returns with our drinks. After we quickly scan our menus, she takes our food orders and leaves, at which point I lean forward and say, “Back to Friday night. Did you hook up with Selena’s friend after Captain’s?”
Max nods. “We went back to my place, and that woman was like a cougar on a fox.” He snickers. “Cougars are always the most fun. They don’t play coy or feel like they need to wait for a certain number of dates to bang you. If they’re feeling chemistry, they go for it, no holds barred. No second-guessing themselves.” He brings his fingers to his lips and makes a “chef’s kiss” gesture.
“Nice! Maybe we could all go out to dinner together this week. That’d be a natural reason for me to text Selena!”
Max shrugs. “Meh. Sorry, Gray. I can’t help you there. I’d hook up with Marnie again, if we bumped into each other or she texted me for a booty call. The sex was straight-up fire. But as far as going out to dinner with her, or asking her out on an actual date, I’m not feeling it.”
I’m stupefied. From what I saw between the pair at the bar, their chemistry was strong. And he just said the sex was incredible. So, why wouldn’t he want to try dating her? I swear to God, sometimes, Max’s commitment to being non-committal annoys the hell out of me. I say, “It looked like you were having fun with her at the bar. Why not take her out to dinner and see if—”
“Nah. Sorry, Gray. I’d love to help you out, but I’m just not feeling it with her.” He takes a languid sip of his drink, before adding, “Honestly, after the booze wore off, I found her kind of boring.”
Damn.
Hearing Max talk in such blasé terms about Marnie, especially after witnessing what I thought was blazing-hot chemistry between the pair at Captain’s, only emphasizes the amazingness of my night with Selena. Not only was the sex fire with her, but every conversation before and after was incredible, too. The furthest possible thing from “boring.” In fact, I felt endlessly electrified in Selena’s presence, all weekend long.
To distract myself from thoughts of Selena, I decide to switch topics and ask Max about a big patent case he’s assigned to at work. And off he goes, telling me all about it. Even though I’m not a lawyer and only work in the IT department at the same firm with Max, it’s apparently not a breach of his duty of confidentiality to talk to me, a fellow employee, about cases. Or at least, that’s how Max has explained it to me.