“This is the cheapest one they have,” she said. “What do you think?”
He nodded, simply because the act of picking out a bed frame had become a lot more stressful than necessary.
“Perfect.” Lily took out her phone and snapped a picture of the product name and number. “I work at Mitchell & Milton, by the way, since we were talking about our jobs. It’s a book publishing company.”
Nick felt like his whole body had just caught fire. He knew from her emails that she worked in publishing, but he had no idea that she worked at the same place that was publishing his books.
“I don’t work on any of the popular stuff, though,” she continued. “I edit nonfiction.”
“Oh,” he said, slightly relieved, remembering that detail from her emails as well. It meant that she had nothing to do with his book. But still. It reminded him that he had to stop whatever it was that they were doing here . . . even if he had enjoyed being so near to her.
“Now it’s your turn to help me,” she said. “Are you hungry? Let’s talk over Swedish meatballs.”
* * *
? ? ?
The food court at ikea was virtually deserted, because it wasn’t like many people wanted to eat their weeknight dinner at a furniture store. Nick sat across from Lily at an empty table, unable to understand why he couldn’t say no to her. Lily poked around at her meatball for a second, then laid down her fork.
“Okay,” she said, placing her hands flat on the table. He tried his hardest not to devour her face with his eyes and took a deep breath to steady himself. “So, tell me, how do you do it? What’s your secret?”
“Huh?” He blinked, pulling his gaze away from her lips. “My secret?”
“How do you talk to people and flirt with them? You were so smooth with the way you encouraged Henry, and he called you a ladies’ man.”
“Whoa, nah. I’m not a ladies’ man. Henry saw me talking to a woman outside of our building one time, and it was because she was asking if I was registered to vote.”
“Henry probably saw the two of you together and assumed you were flirting. You have this way about you.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s relaxed and unassuming. And you actually listen when people talk, like you care about what they have to say. Not to mention your body language.”
Nick glanced down at his posture. “My body language?”
She leaned forward and lowered her lashes. Deepening her voice, she said, “Is it crazy that I want to kiss you?”
He blinked, mesmerized by the look on her face and surprised by the sudden turn in conversation. His eyes were drawn to her lips again, and damn if he didn’t inch closer to her on instinct.
Then she sat up straight, backing away. “That’s what you said to me in my apartment, and then I basically jumped on you . . . and then you ran away because you remembered you didn’t want to get involved with anyone.”
It wasn’t a complete lie. Nick had casually dated—if you wanted to call it that—here and there when he worked for World Traveler. When both he and the person he was seeing knew he’d leave in a couple weeks, and that things could never get serious. They knew that once he was gone, there wouldn’t be much further contact. In fact, the women preferred it that way. They saw Nick as an opportunity to have an exciting fling with a foreigner, and they could go back to their normal lives once he left. Of course, that all ended once he’d started emailing with Lily. He’d been so stuck on her that once he’d moved to New York, the thought of entertaining someone else hadn’t even crossed his mind.
“Like I said, I don’t really want to date either,” Lily admitted. “I haven’t had the best luck in the past. My sisters are always trying to set me up, and those dates end in varying degrees of disappointment. Violet is getting married at the end of August and I bet her and Iris that if I could find my own date to the wedding, they’d have to stay out of my love life for good.”
Nick thought of the emails she’d written to him about going on dates with models and businessmen to please her sisters, and how those dates often left her feeling unhappy. He didn’t like that it was still happening.
“Why don’t you just say fuck it and go to the wedding by yourself?” Nick asked. “They should leave you alone regardless.”
“You don’t know my family,” Lily said morosely. “Winning the bet is what will stop them. So can you help me?”