A Fare To Remember_ Just Whistle_Driven - Vicki Lewis Thompson [12]
Hannah smiled at him. “Ready?”
You have no idea. “Sure. Let’s go.”
“I put the rest of the flowers in the ice bucket. Wait a sec. I should probably throw my undies and makeup in the suitcase and put the wet clothes in the laundry bag.”
“Probably should.” And he shouldn’t watch her do that, either. But he did, anyway, torturing himself with a view of silk and lace in various colors being tossed from a drawer into the duct-taped suitcase she’d taken out of the closet.
She ducked back into the bathroom and returned with her cosmetics bag. Then she grabbed two cans of tuna and dropped them in her oversize purse. “For tonight, in case we pass any homeless people.” Finally she turned to him. “Now I’m ready. You’ve been extremely patient.”
“It’s easy.” And it had been, which should have surprised him. Normally he didn’t like waiting for people.
“It’s not easy for everyone. A lot of people are very impatient. They have to have everything happen right this minute, but you don’t seem like that. You seem like the kind of person who’s willing to delay gratification.”
“That probably depends on the gratification.” He was very much afraid that everything he was thinking was showing on his face.
She met his gaze and a becoming pink tinged her cheeks. “I suppose it does.”
He wanted to kiss her so much he ached. But it was too soon. “Let’s go get some dinner.”
“Yes, let’s.”
As he followed her out the door and closed it behind him, he wondered if this was the way things had gone for those other couples taped to the dash of Mario’s taxi. A feeling of inevitability was settling over him.
THE EXCITEMENT OF SHARING a restaurant meal with a certified New York City bachelor wiped out any lingering sadness Hannah felt over the loss of her clothes. They hadn’t been practical in the first place, being dry-cleanable, but the price had lured her into buying them. Tomorrow she’d look for washable clothes and let Zach drive his hard bargain.
And didn’t that sound sexy? She kept admiring how good he looked as she sat across the table from him at the Thai restaurant. He made her chicken with peanut sauce taste like the best meal she’d ever had. The restaurant had chosen blue neon as the light of choice, and the eerie glow turned the customers into a crowd of the undead, but Zach was the most handsome zombie in the room.
She was developing a giant crush on her one-person network. Standing in her hotel room talking about delayed gratification had nearly done her in. How embarrassing if she’d jumped the gun and planted one right on him.
That would have been jumping the gun, too. Instinctively she knew that. She didn’t want to come across as some eager hick from Arizona who didn’t know the rules. Of course she’d seen Sex and the City, but that was all about sophisticated New Yorkers getting involved with other sophisticated New Yorkers. She didn’t want to come off as green as grass or hopelessly lacking in subtlety.
She could do subtle. She would let Zach make the first move toward getting physical. From the way he looked at her, she thought he wanted to, but he was restraining himself. That was her cue to restrain herself, which she was doing.
“Mario said you’re an investment counselor,” she said. “That seems like a very New York thing to be.”
He made a face.
“What, you don’t like it?”
“I like working with clients, but…the atmosphere of the company is very competitive, especially lately. There’s this guy named Ed, who’s in his fifties, been there a lot of years, but he doesn’t push like he used to.”
Hannah nodded. “Seems like people deserve to cut back at some point.”
“Not according to my boss. He’s ready to kick him out of his primo office location and put a top producer in there.”
“Would that top producer by any chance be you?”
“Yeah, it would.” Zach took a sip of his Thai iced coffee and set it down on the table. “And I appreciate the recognition, but I feel crummy about taking that office away from Ed.”
“So don’t take it away.”
Zach laughed and shook his