It's About Time (Blossom Peak #4)(28)
Sally nods and then leaves us alone again.
Reaching toward the tower of onion rings, I pluck one from the top of the stack. “Since when do you drink beer?”
“I’ll have one every once in a while, but usually only from here.” Dilynne takes a bite out of a potato skin.
“Didn’t know that.”
She snickers. “Yeah, well there’s a lot of shit that you don’t know about me, Elliot.”
I grab a napkin and wipe my mouth before replying. “Exactly, Dilynne. Which is why this little idea of yours is moronic.”
She shakes her head. “That’s where you’re wrong. You do realize that all of the hatred between us could actually be spun as sexual tension?” Just the mention of sex—particularly sex between the two of us—makes my blood flow south. “People might think that we hate each other, but we could just tell them we finally gave in and had hate sex, and suddenly, feelings started to develop.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I say as I reach down and adjust my dick. The ironic part of her explanation is that over these past few months, I’ve wondered what sex with Dilynne would be like. Since my cock only seems to perk up for her, it’s only natural that she’d be the star of any of my sexual fantasies, which is even more of a reason why we shouldn’t do this.
Trying to avoid the attraction I’ve started feeling toward her has been working so far, but I’m not sure that acting like she’s my girlfriend would help it go away.
Although, if I was forced to know her better and had to regularly spend more time with her, it just might.
But is it worth the risk of finding out?
“ It’s not ridiculous,” she continues. “Haven’t you ever heard of enemies to lovers? This shit happens all the time in romance novels.”
I tap the table in front of me. “This isn’t a fucking romance novel, Dilynne. This is real life. In a small-ass town where everybody knows everybody’s business.”
She swats my hand from the table. “No shit, Elliot. And that’s exactly why I think both of us can benefit from this arrangement.”
Sally comes back with our beers, setting them down on the table. “You two good for now?”
“Yes, Sally. Thank you,” I reply, waiting for her to leave before lowering my voice and leaning closer to Dilynne. “Forgive me, but I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out how the hell this helps you?”
She leans back in her side of the booth, the harshness in her face melting slightly. And then she catches me off guard. “Because…because you’re not the only one with an ex you want to convince everyone you’ve moved on from.”
And then my memory catches up. “That Vinnie guy?”
She straightens her spine again. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about Dilynne over the past year, it’s that she doesn’t like to let that shield of hers down for very long, a detail I hadn’t bothered to notice until I couldn’t look away from her any longer.
It’s subtle. It’s in the way her lips fall from her smirk, or a few too many blinks when words hit her harder than she lets on.
But I’ve caught it, and now I can’t unsee it.
I can’t unsee her.
“Yes, and in six weeks, I have to face him for the first time in years at Motorlux.”
“That’s the car show you’re restoring the Porsche for, right?”
She seems slightly surprised that I know that but doesn’t let it linger too long. “Yes.”
“So what? He’s in the competition too? Are you afraid he’s going to beat you?”
She scoffs. “First of all, he’s not going to beat me. And second, you don’t get it. You’re not a woman, let alone a woman in the car industry…”
“Dilynne, you’re one of the most confident people I know. Why the fuck would you care about your ex being at the same competition? Knowing how you are, you’re probably already envisioning winning the whole fucking thing…”
Her lack of response makes me feel uneasy. She looks away from me, lost in her thoughts for a few moments, but I’m captivated by the way her face transforms as she thinks—her throat bobbing with each rough swallow, her lips moving from flat lines to frowns and back, and the wrinkle between her brows that only softens once she’s ready to speak again.
When her eyes lock back onto mine, I realize I’m holding my breath as I wait for her to fill the silence.
“Everyone has an ex that feels like a weakness, Elliot—that one ex that gets to you like no other. Tori is yours, and Vinnie is mine. I don’t need you to understand my reasons for wanting a buffer between me and him, but the thing I do think you can understand is that having that buffer makes being in the same room with them easier to deal with, am I right?”
I think back to how grateful I was that Dilynne was in my office today when Tori came back in, trying to force me to talk to her. “Okay, I understand that.”
“You and I don’t see eye to eye on a lot, but I think we can on this.” Nodding, I wait for her to continue. “So, in this situation, I think we can he lp each other. Once Motorlux is done, we can break up, go back to hating each other, and no one will be shocked because, well? It’s you and me. That’s what we do.” She shrugs, but confusion fills my head.