Blurred Lines: A Friends with Benefits Romantic Comedy by Marion De Ré

Author:Marion De Ré [De Ré, Marion]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

18

Bored together

He goes for the lemon meringue pie, and I take a chance on the raspberry pistachio cheesecake. Both are as sumptuous as the main course—and yeah, he lets me pick from his plate.

I’m wiping my mouth with my napkin when a tall, handsome forty-something saunters up to our table.

“Braden,” he says with a big smile.

“Hi, Mike.” Braden shakes his hand. “How are you?”

“Good, good. Busy.”

“Mel, this is Mike, the owner. Mike, this is Mel,” Braden says.

“Nice to meet you, Mel.” Mike leans forward to shake my hand.

“You, too.” I offer a warm smile. “This place is incredible. We had a great time.”

“Thank you! I’m glad he was looking to impress you, or I’d never see his ass in here,” he says, slapping a hand on Braden’s shoulder.

“Not to impress. To apologize,” Braden replies, crossing his arms.

He lets out a hearty laugh. “Did it do the trick, then? Did you forgive him?” Mike asks me.

“I forgave him before he invited me, but it was a nice touch.” I smile, batting my eyes at Braden.

Mike chuckles. “Well, I’m glad you had a good time. Come back soon.”

“Thanks, Mike,” Braden says. With that, Mike excuses himself to talk to other clients.

I turn back to Braden. “Were you really trying to impress me?”

He gives me a smug smile. “I don’t know . . . Are you impressed?”

“Maybe a little,” I tease.

His smile stretches wider. “Then yeah, I definitely was. Should we go?”

“Sure.”

He helps me up before following me out of the dining room. At the entrance, Barbie Blondie is still manning the reception counter. And she’s the one sliding him the bill, much to my chagrin. She’s completely ignoring me now.

“Did you have a good night?” she asks, leaning forward just far enough to expose her cleavage.

“Um, yeah,” he says, turning to me. I give him my best “go for it” expression, even if what I really want is to smash her head on that marble counter. Braden opens the leather booklet.

“Cash, credit, or debit?” she asks.

“Credit, please,” he replies, fishing his wallet from the inside of his blazer. As she takes his credit card, she grazes his hand on purpose, and he instantly turns to look at me. For a single second, my heart leaps. She makes a pass at him, and the only person he’s looking at is me. But then I remember he’s not my boyfriend, and he never will be. I have no right to deny him this.

So, I silently press him to take action, giving him wide eyes and a thumbs up.

He blows out a breath and presses down hard on the button of the card reader.

“So, do you want to get a drink sometime?” he asks, whipping his card back out of the machine.

She looks surprised, her eyes flitting toward me. Oh, so you do remember me now, huh? I plaster the biggest fake smile of approval on my face, and her attention shifts back to him.

“Yeah, I’d love to”, she says, giving him his card receipt.

“Great. I’ll call you,” he says blankly before hurrying out of the restaurant.

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