Hold Me Close(66)

He’d caught her staring at his hands and gave her a bemused look. “I’m glad I ran into you. I was going to call you. Next week is First Friday here. All the stores and galleries on Front and Second are open late. There’s music and food and stuff. Would you like to go with me?”

“I’ll have to see if I can find someone to stay with my daughter, but yes. That sounds really nice.” Effie smiled, tilting her head to study him. “I’ve never gone to First Friday.”

“It’s fun,” Mitchell said. “It’ll be more fun with you.”

The bell over the door jingled, announcing a new arrival, but Effie didn’t turn until a flash of navy blue caught her eye along with a glimpse of pale hair. Shit. She half turned in her chair toward the window, but of course it was useless. Bill’s job was noticing things. She braced herself for him to stop by the table and make things awkward, but he ordered his coffee and bagel to go and headed back out without so much as a hello.

Mitchell had noticed her concern. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just... It’s nothing.” Effie gave him a bright grin.

Mitchell leaned to the side to look out the window at Bill walking away, then back at her. “You in trouble with the law?”

He’d said it like a joke, but Effie didn’t know him well enough to be sure of that. “No. God, no. Not at all. I know that guy, that’s all.”

“Ex-boyfriend?” Mitchell asked. “Or...current?”

“Neither,” Effie said firmly. She put her mug on the table and reached to put a hand on Mitchell’s wrist. “Just some guy I’ve known for a while. Sort of a friend. Sort of. But definitely not a boyfriend.”

Mitchell looked pleased. He pushed his glasses up again, then drummed the table edge in a little riff Effie almost recognized before he quit. “That’s nice to know, I guess. Um, Effie, I have something I’d like to talk about.”

That could never be good. It was the sex. It had changed things. Maybe she was overthinking it? But no...not from the way he was looking at her. Shit. “Okay.”

“I haven’t been seeing anyone else but you for the past month or so. I know we didn’t talk about being exclusive, but I wanted to let you know. Would you... Would you like to just see me? I mean, it doesn’t have to be anything super serious,” he added hastily. “But I believe in being up front and honest. I hate all the game playing on that site, to be honest.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Effie said, though actually she’d never experienced any games because she usually didn’t bother dating a guy more than once and had never had a problem using the block button.

“And I thought since we...already, well...”

She tried to answer but managed only to nod and smile. Mitchell frowned a little, as if she ought to have said something more, and dammit, she probably should have, but what was there to say? They’d f*cked. It happened. People did it all the time and never spoke to one another again. Why did relationships have to be so much f*cking work? Effie turned her mug in her hands. She had not, in fact, been dating anyone else from LuvFinder since she started seeing Mitchell, but that did not make them exclusive. Yet she’d told Heath and her mother and herself it was what she was looking for—and it was, wasn’t it? So why, then, when faced with having to make it official, did everything inside her squeeze like a fist?


“So...?”

She bought herself some time by sipping some more coffee, then gave him a small smile she suspected wasn’t going to make her answer any more palatable. She had to tell him the truth, though. She hadn’t been entirely truthful about a lot of other things, so he at least deserved her honesty now.

“I’m not sure I’m ready to make that promise.”

“Oh, sure, sure. Right.” Mitchell nodded, his gaze going shuttered.

She’d hurt his feelings. “But I’ll let you know about Friday as soon as I can figure out who can stay with my daughter, okay? I’d really like to go out with you.”

“Great.” Mitchell stood, his coffee only half-finished, his croissant barely touched. He wrapped it back in the paper and put the lid on his paper cup. “You have my number. Just give me a call. Or text. It was nice seeing you, Effie.”

She stood and gave him a one-armed hug. Awkward, but not unpleasant. “You, too. I’ll call you.”

He gave her a little wave as he went out the front door. Effie watched until he disappeared from her sight, then sat back with a sigh to pull out her sketch pad. She’d made only a few strokes before her phone buzzed with a text. Mitchell, already? She grinned, then frowned when she saw who it was really from.

Nice looking guy.

Bill. With a sigh, Effie thumbed a reply. Don’t you have some criminals to harass?

Would rather harass you.

She twisted to look out the window, expecting to see him watching from across the street, but all she saw were parked cars and a guy in a long dark coat and a striped scarf coming into the coffee shop. She didn’t answer the text, but she couldn’t manage to concentrate on any drawing ideas, either. Fucking Bill, she thought with the corners of her mouth turned down.

I’m getting off shift now. Come over.

NO, she typed and erased. Typed it again. But she didn’t hit Send. Another text came through while she was debating.