Love At First Glance (Love at Firsts #1)(29)
“Spencer,” he introduces himself, extending his hand.
“Valentine,” my neighbor says shaking Spencer’s hand.
“What kind of name is Valentine?” Spencer snorts and I elbow him in the ribs.
“I didn’t catch your name.” The man I now know as Valentine asks me.
“H…Haven.” I smile shyly.
“Pleasure to meet you, Haven.”
“Like wise.” I'm sure the smile I'm giving him looks more like a constipated smile considering my nerves.
“If you ever change your mind feel free to slip a note under my door. I’ll always make time for you.” Valentine smirks at me.
“Dude, can’t you see that I’m standing here?” Spencer growls rather possessively. Well that’s a first. I’m slightly taken aback by his caveman like behavior, he’s never like this, if a guy hits one me he usually won’t say a thing and takes a step back to give us privacy. Not that it happens often or anything. Wasn’t he the one telling me that I need to meet someone not thirty minutes ago?
“Oh I can see you alright, but considering the way your woman is flustered by me, I don’t think you two are very serious. You’re probably just friends with benefits. I can offer her so much more,” Valentine provokes.
“A night of sex and an STD?” Spencer grunts.
“You’re funny.” Valentine chuckles humorlessly. “No my friend, a night of orgasmic sex she’ll never forget and many more if she’ll have me, but we could start with just dinner if she would prefer to do things the old fashioned way and have an actual date before getting into bed with me. I’m not opposed to good food and good company.” Valentine smiles sweetly at me and at this point I’m not sure if he means any of it or if he just wants to piss Spencer off. Either way, it’s working. I know nothing about this man, besides the fact that he's a manwhore and yet, I'm swooning over him like a fifteen year old meeting her celebrity crush. I sneak a look at Spencer behind me and I can feel the rage coming off him.
“I’ll think about it.” I blurt out, out of nowhere.
“What?” Both of them say at the same time, Spencer in shock and Valentine sounding surprised.
“You can’t be serious, Have.” If looks could kill right now, I would be getting my angel wings right now. Why is he acting like this?
“What? You were the one telling me I should get out more and meet new people,” I say, embarrassed by his behavior.
“Right.” He sighs and walks back into my apartment.
“Trouble in paradise?” Valentine says amused.
“No, he’s just overprotective.” I explain and give him an apologetic smile.
“I would be too if I had a friend like you.” He flashes me what seems to be a genuine smile. “How about we have dinner together tonight? Get to know each other as neighbors?”
“Uh…why not.” I'm not sure why I just accepted but I want to give it a try, this fine man is clearly interested in me.
“I’ll bring food over to your place tonight and cook, is eight alright with you?”
“Yeah, sounds good to me.” I smile.
“See you at eight then.” He winks at me before disappearing into his apartment.
I walk back into mine to find Spencer leaning against the window, looking outside and completely dressed.
“What was that outside?” I ask him when I reach his side.
He looks down at me. “Are you going out with him?” he asks, clearly not pleased.
“He’s coming over tonight for dinner.”
“That was fast.” He scoffs. “I hope you have fun.” He pulls away from me and gathers up his stuff.
“What are you doing?” I ask him confused by his sudden bluntness.
“I’m going home. I have some paperwork to do,” he says through gritted teeth.
“Spencer, what’s wrong?” I grab a hold of his arm and when he looks at me I see hurt in his eyes.
“You just met that guy and you’re already inviting him over and swooning over him like a fifteen year old girl. It’s not you, he looks like a total douchebag and we were supposed to hang out today.”
“I don’t get why you are so upset about all of this. You were okay when I went out with Vincent and you never were this upset when I first started seeing Adam.”
“This guy isn’t right for you, but you don’t wanna hear it. I gotta go.” He puts on his jacket and leaves without as much as a goodbye. I hate this. We don’t argue or fight often but if we do, we’re upset at each other for about a minute before getting over it. We’ve never had this before. I can feel that something has changed between us, I don’t know what but it hurts like hell. I feel like a part of me was ripped out.
I sit down on the couch, hugging my knees and text Spencer. The only time I’ve ever seen him this upset wasn’t because of me but because his f*ckbuddy at the time wanted more than just what Spencer was willing to offer and started to stalk him and interfere with his life. It went as far as that person getting Spencer fired and nearly arrested. He accused Spencer of domestic abuse. I know he never would do such a thing. That day, he had so much pent up rage that instead of taking it out on me, as it would have been so easy to do because I was in front of him, he asked me for five minutes to cool off so I gave him five minutes. I'm hoping it'll work this time around. I wait for a few minutes before texting him.