Page 23 of Reaching Gavin

“Oh, well, your sister is very pretty,” I managed to force out, trying to head toward safer waters and hoping I didn’t spontaneously combust from the heat he was throwing my way.

“And obviously she’s not my girlfriend,” he said with meaning.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” My voice piqued on the last word, betraying exactly why I was asking the question.

“I’ve been a little busy with NorthWest Investments for the last couple of years. I dated a few women off and on. Nothing serious. I guess I haven’t been lucky enough to meet someone in the office like half my staff.”

The hula dancing stopped. He hadn’t been lucky enough to meet someone? Was he talking in the past tense? Did he mean currently? What did that make me? Invisible? Or simply undesirable? “I understand. I’ve been really focused on finishing my degree.”

“So you are dating anyone then?”

Okay, I wasn’t imagining the way he leaned closer as if he wanted to put less distance between us.

“No, I pretty much swore off men after the last one.” Oh my God. Why did I have to say whatever came into my mouth around him? He was like a walking, six- foot- tall vial of truth serum. Sexy, sexy truth serum.

“Someone burned you,” he guessed. He hesitated as if he wanted to say more. I could see he was holding something back. Probably he wanted to ask if it was Trevor. It was pretty obvious there was something going on there. If I was going spill my guts to him I might as well be honest up front.

“I was dating Trevor—the other intern. He cheated on me.” It stung as I ripped that Band-Aid off and the air of truth hit the freshly closed wound, but not as much as I thought it would. Trevor might be around, but he was definitely wasn’t in my life anymore.

“And then you both went after the same internship?”

I could see him trying to process this information. I needed to be sure he understood exactly how that had gone down, because it might be pretty easy to jump to the conclusion that I’d followed him to the company. “I had applied for the internship while we were together. He decided to as well apparently. I had no idea that he’d also gotten one. You might remember the first time we met in the office.” I gulped down half my glass of wine and reached for the bottle. This truth stuff felt new. Usually, at this point, I was trying to flirt or sound smarter than I felt. With Gavin it was somehow easy to just open up to him, but scary at the same time.

“I remember that,” he said with a smirk. Gavin ran a hand through his hair and I wondered what it would be like to run my own hands through it — to feel his body against mine — to kiss him. “Cassie?”

I blinked, he had said something and I was busy in la la land fantasizing about kissing him. “I’m sorry?”

“Is working with him going to be a problem?” Gavin’s eyes squinted in concern and I refrained from hiding under a throw pillow.

“No! I mean, I’m a professional. Of course, I will put Trevor in line if need be.” It was probably best that he know that now. I’d be totally professional until Trevor stepped out of line.

“I bet you will.” Gavin didn’t seem bothered by this idea, instead he seemed rather amused. “So you’ve sworn off men?”

This was my chance to take that back. Or to make my move. Instead, I nodded. Because it was the truth and I found lying to Gavin impossible. I had sworn off men. “I need to focus on me for a while. I have things I want to do with my life.”

“I get it,” he said. “I kinda said the same thing. I just have the list in my head of all the things I want to accomplish before I turn thirty.”

“You still have a while then…” I was fishing for information. It was obvious and I should have been ashamed of myself. I wasn’t. Finding out info from the source was less pathetic than Google stalking him later.

“Four more years,” he said matter-of-factly. “The thing is I’ve checked off most of my list. It’s kind of strange. I guess I have to figure out what I want to do next.”

God, I hope I was on his next to-do list.

“I understand. I’ve decided I need to get out of school, graduate with honors, get amazing internships, and plan to land a kick-ass job. But now that I’m completely on the path to doing all of those things, I’ve started to think about what happens after all of that.”

“Have any answers?”

I shook my head. “You?”

“No, but I’m excited about the possibilities.” His eyes were blazing and I wondered if maybe he was thinking what I was thinking. What would it mean to be part of Gavin’s life? From the way his gaze seared through me, he was wondering the same thing. Before either of us could find out, he stood and grabbed his jacket. “I should get home. My kid sister is staying in my apartment for the weekend.”

“I’d love to meet her sometime,” I said, my cheeks turning red. I’d gone from keeping him at arm’s length to asking to meet his family. What a difference a non-date made.

Gavin didn’t seem to mind my request, however forward it might be. “She’ll be in the office. She’s spearheading that preservation committee.”

“The one that’s trying to stop us?” I asked, taken aback. “Talk about a case of sibling rivalry.”

“It’s one of her great joys in life: to try to make things hard for me. Actually, we’re pretty close, despite her need to be a pain in the ass.” They had to be if she was staying with him while actively working against him.

He moved towards the door and I followed after. We lingered a moment, a few feet apart, before he reached for the handle. “Don’t work too hard this weekend.”

“Am I that obvious?”

“I think we have a lot in common.”

“Then maybe we can figure out our next steps together.” Did I just say that? Out loud? To him? I was going to have to glue my teeth together when he was around.

Gavin didn’t say anything, but he was smiling as he left.