No Kissing Allowed (No Kissing Allowed #1)(26)

Alexa went for the elevator, and I stopped cold. “Yeah, I’m not stepping foot on that thing. I got stuck in it last night.”

Her eyes went wide. “Are you serious? Why didn’t you tell me?”

I shrugged. Because Aidan kissed me last night and this morning and I can’t seem to think about anything else. “I don’t know. I guess it slipped my mind.”

She went toward the stairs. “Oh my God. Was there anyone else in there with you?”

I paused, unsure if I should lie about Aidan or tell her the truth. It wasn’t like we’d had sex in the elevator. “Actually, yeah. Aidan.”

“Holy shit.” Alexa spun to look at me. “You were stuck in an elevator with Aidan? What happened? Please tell me something happened.”

Why didn’t I just lie?

We were outside now, walking down the chaotic sidewalk, everyone out and about, and she was still waiting for my response.

“We barely talked, and then the elevator was fixed. It wasn’t a big deal.”

No, it was a huge deal. Aidan was caring and sweet and so open about his life. It was a different side of him—a side I wanted to get to know a lot better. The thought made my insides tingle with excitement. UT Guy and Aidan were blending together in my mind, each bit of information I had about him helping to put the pieces together. Aidan was professional at the office, driven and smart. But he was still a twentysomething guy and acted as such in his free time. UT Guy was his after-work persona, the real him when he didn’t have to be on. And didn’t we all have those two sides?

We sat down for lunch and ordered salads; all the while I longed for fried chicken and mac and cheese. For a moment, I missed home. I missed the constant smells of something cooking from our kitchen, Mom’s voice as she sang along to some tune on the radio. Our house wasn’t grand, but it was a happy place to grow up.

“So no hot make-out sessions in the elevator, then?”

“With who?” Lauren asked as she and Grace sat down to join us, both on extended lunch breaks—aka their bosses were out of the office. I introduced them and then returned to my salad.

“With Aidan, our boss,” Alexa answered with a laugh. As though the possibility were absurd.

I shook my head and smiled. “Sorry to disappoint you. No elevator make-out sessions to report.”

We preferred the stairs.





Chapter Fourteen


Lauren and Grace were already at the bar that night, ordering drinks, before I could ask if one of us should stay sober. You know, as lookout. Or maybe just because I wasn’t feeling the go-wild vibe Lauren and Grace had sung the entire walk over.

We’d agreed to stop by True Heat, a new club that had opened up and was touted to have the best apple martinis in the city. Apple martinis were to our group what cosmopolitans were to Sex and the City, so there we were, eager to see if we agreed. The problem was that while I loved my friends, I didn’t want to have random guys talking to me, dancing with me, trying to get me back to their apartments. My mind was on one guy. And that realization was freaking me out.

I’d spent the rest of my afternoon in creative, working through the final campaign additions, and then when I finally returned to my desk, Aidan’s light was off in his office. He’d gone for the day without even a text good-bye. I tried not to read too much into it. We weren’t anything, barely enough to even call us a something, yet it felt very much like a something to me. No romance, no feelings. No labels, I reminded myself. Though I knew I was already labeling us.

I stepped up to the bar and smiled as Lauren handed me the signature apple martini. “It’s orgasmic. Try it.”

I took a sip, then two, moaning for effect. “Wow. I think I need a cigarette now.”

She grinned. “Oh, you will after you see what we’ve found.” She leaned in closer and pointed to her left to a table of guys, Grace already talking away to one of them. The other two were staring at Lauren and me. A few weeks ago, I would have been stoked at the possibility of meeting someone new, but now? My insides felt as though they’d been flipped upside down and weren’t quite sure how to work.

“You must be Cameron,” the guy nearest to me said. He had thick dark hair and dark eyes and the sort of eyelashes that made girls want to weep from jealousy. He was cute, but beyond that, I felt nothing for him at all—no excitement at the potential. No interest in learning more about him.

“I am,” I said. “But I didn’t catch your name.”

He held out his hand. “Eli. Your friend told me you’re in advertising. I’m a graphic designer at GG.”

GG—aka Graham Group. Just the name made me uneasy after hearing Aidan talk about his dad.

“Ah, good firm,” I said, already wishing I could get out of the conversation.

“Where do you work?”

“Sanderson-Lowe.” I peered around to see if the girls wanted to go dance, only to find them already on the dance floor. Crap.

Eli leaned in closer. “We’re competitors,” he said, his eyes flashing with mischievousness.

Yeah, not happening.

I motioned to the dance floor. “I’m just going to go find my friends.”

“I’ll come with you.”

And now this was turning into one of those scenes in the movies, where the girl was stuck with the weird guy, when she wanted to be with her soul mate, and then soul mate guy walked in and swept her off her feet. Only, my guy wasn’t going to walk in and he certainly wasn’t going to sweep me off my feet. The thought made me sad for reasons I couldn’t fully understand. Didn’t I want to focus on my career? Wasn’t I the one who said no labels? So why did none of those ideals seem right to me anymore? The truth was deep down I wanted it all—the career and the soul mate. I just wasn’t sure that was reality.