The Magnolia Chronicles: Adventures in Modern Dating(34)
As Rob and Andy faded into my peripheral vision, I told myself I wasn't making any choices. I wasn't choosing anything—or anyone. I was merely locating the source of a sound. If I was right, if it was Ben, that didn't mean anything. It meant something but it didn't mean my inner compass was swinging toward him. I wasn't in any position to make that choice.
Innuendos and length-and-girth competitions weren't offers. They were the games played by boys who had oversized opinions of themselves and little more to offer than their Swiss cheese promises. They weren't offering happy-ever-afters. It wasn't clear what—if anything—Ben offered, but Rob was only available for a short-term distraction. Nothing more than tiny orgasms in donut shops. And maybe that was the truth behind my daydream. Rob didn't check the right boxes. There was no future for us, not beyond sex without strings.
Even if Rob happened upon me in this donut shop, I had to keep searching. Keep hunting.
I turned in my seat, slowly slowly slowly but only in my mind, and found Ben on the other side of the shop. There he was, a goddamn manifestation of my biological clock with his tousled-slash-bedhead hair and drowsy eyes. If I hadn't known the thin line on his cheek was a scar, I would've guessed it was a crease from his pillow. I would've traced it with my index finger as I curled into his sleepy warmth.
Biological clocks like whoa.
But Ben wasn't looking at me. He wasn't hearing the clanging of any clocks.
No, his dark olive skin glowed like a Coppertone commercial and his biceps tested the limits of that t-shirt and his hand was low on a beautiful blonde's back. Her fingers were curled around his thick forearm and her long lashes—had to be extensions, that was no Cover Girl mascara—fluttered as she smiled at him. His lips grazed her cheek and he whispered something that had her laughing and nodding.
And there I was, staring at them. I rolled my eyes at all the manifestation bullshit I'd bought into a second ago but that didn't stop me from staring. Ben wasn't checking my boxes either.
As if he felt the weight of my gaze on his shoulders, Ben shifted toward me. He blinked twice, shaking his head. Without glancing away from me, he spoke to his companion. He held up a finger as if he was asking for a minute but then I saw his lips form a definite "No." There were other words but I couldn't make them out and then—then he was moving toward me.
Andy shook her cup, the tumble of ice cubes shaking my attention away from Ben. "I need more tea," she announced. "Do me a favor and don't get your pheromones on my donuts."
"Don't you dare leave," I hissed. I was mentally calculating the seconds until Ben reached our table and this morning went from coincidental to crazy. "Sit your skinny ass down and eat another donut."
"Did my invitation get lost in the mail again?" Ben asked as he dragged a chair over. He greeted Rob with a sharp stare—and an unimpressed frown at our joined hands—before turning his attention to Andy. He held out his hand. "Hi. Ben Brock. Nice to meet you."
"Hm." Andy, ever the ice queen, took a moment to wipe her fingers on a paper napkin and rake her gaze over the firefighter before accepting his hand. "Andy Asani. It's bold of you to invite yourself to sit down."
Ben pulled a bashful, aw shucks, ma'am smile. "In my line of work, most people are happy about me barging in."
"Hm." She treated him to another pursed-lip study. "In my line of work, most people are happy when I tear walls down but I don't make a habit of demolishing things in social situations."
"I think the lady is trying to say"—Rob gestured toward Andy—"that some manners wouldn't kill you, Brock."
Ignoring Rob, Ben turned toward Andy. "My bad, my bad. I just saw my neighbor"—he spared me a smile that could burn up the entire city—"and had to come. I take it you know the feeling, Russo."
Rob growled and…and yeah, that was the password to activating my nipples. I freed my hand and folded my arms on the edge of the table, aiming for easy, but Ben answered the gesture with a smirk.
Was there anything this guy didn't notice? No. Probably not. If I had to bet, I'd say he had an extra eye under all that wavy dark hair and that was his fatal flaw. The eye and the lack of basic handyman skills.
"Aren't you with someone?" I asked, craning my neck to find the blonde waiting in line. She was gazing at the menu board, her fingers pressed to her lips.
"Sara? Am I with her?“ he asked, his eyebrows quirking like I'd asked whether he'd walked in with a flock of sheep. "No. No, dude, no. She's my buddy's sister. He lives in Georgia and she just moved to town. I met her at his wedding a few months ago and told her to get in touch when she got settled. I said I'd show her a few spots around town. Completely neutral territory. She's a little too"—he grimaced at the table before finding the words—"high-test. Right? Like, good people but she says some strange shit. You, my neighbor, you're all kinds of all right."
"As fascinating as this is," Rob started, "it sounds like you should probably get back to Sara. I don't think your buddy would appreciate you ditching his sister."
Ben shifted to face Rob. They glared at each other for an unpleasantly long period of time. It was like the extreme pauses during elimination ceremonies on reality television. That kind of long and unpleasant. I could've left the table, ordered another box of donuts, returned to the table, and eaten most of those donuts in the time they spent glaring at each other.