EvieWe carried our bowls of ice cream to a bench that overlooked the ocean. I sat down first, with Xander sitting down beside me. It was a warm night with no wind. It felt good to get off my feet for a while. I took a bite of the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and let it melt in my mouth. It was my guilty pleasure. One of many. Life was too short and stressful to not indulge in ice cream.“Tired?” he asked.I turned to look at him. He had loosened his tie and undone the top button of his shirt. The gel he had put in his hair was slowly failing, allowing the long layers to fall loose around his ears and forehead. The light from a streetlight nearby cast him in a soft, bluish tone. He looked absolutely handsome. “I am tired. I always like this moment.”“What moment is that?”“The moment the event—whether it’s a party or a wedding or whatever—it’s the moment I can sit and relax without thinking about what I need to do. It’s a chance to go over the event and identify what went wro

XanderI parked my car in the lot of the IHOP where Evie wanted to meet. It was packed, as expected on a Sunday morning. The hostess knew exactly who I was asking about when I described Evie and led me directly to her table. Every time I saw the woman, I was taken aback by her beauty. Her hair was piled on top of her head with little black curly strands hanging loose. She had on another one of those blouses with shoulder cutouts and looked absolutely beautiful.“Good morning,” she greeted with a bright smile.“Good morning,” I said and took my seat at the table. “Coffee, please,” I said to the hostess who was waiting to hear my drink order.“I wasn’t sure you would make it,” she said, taking a sip of her own coffee.“I got hung up on a phone call. I’m sorry.”“Don’t be. I was early. I’m always early.”“And I am almost always late,” I replied.“I’m glad you showed up,” she commented. “Otherwise, I would be eating a lot. I took the liberty of ordering you breakfast. I hope you don’t min

EvieMy stomach felt funny. It had nothing to do with the breakfast. It was him. He made me feel all wet and gooey. He’d been so flirtatious. It was fun. With any other man, I probably would have dumped my orange juice in his lap. With him, I wanted to climb onto the table and beg him to have his way with me.“I’m paying,” he insisted when we got to the ticket booth.“No, this is my idea.”“I’m paying,” he said again and left zero room for argument. He handed a credit card over and bought the passes that gave us unlimited rides.“I was thinking we could visit some of the attractions first. Let our breakfast settle a bit before we go on anything that will give us the milkshake treatment.”He smirked. “Yeah, I’m not sure why we had a big breakfast if this is what you had in mind.”“Because there is plenty to see and explore while we let our breakfasts settle,” I told him. “I suppose I should have asked if you were afraid of heights?”He gave me a look. “I’m not afraid of heights.”“What

XanderMy jet landed just after one my time and four Miami time. The car I hired for the duration of my time in Miami was waiting at the airport for me. It was moments like these I appreciated the wealth I had made. It was a hell of a lot easier than navigating a busy airport and trying to hail a cab. I leaned my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes.The difference in weather was night and day. I would never get used to the humidity in Florida. We had our days in San Diego, but Florida gave humidity a whole new meaning. I shrugged off the suit jacket I thought I would wear to the meeting. I wasn’t going to wear it. The other engineers I was meeting with could think what they wanted.I unbuttoned the top few buttons of my shirt and aimed the AC vent directly at my face. The car stopped in front of one of the many Miami high-rises. I climbed out and headed inside. The driver was going to be delivering my luggage to the hotel while I got through the first meeting of the week

EvieI walked into Nelle’s bar, my face glued to my phone like a true millennial. I was smiling as I sent back a lips emoji in response to something Xander had texted. I barely looked up as I walked through the door, navigating my way around the tables to my seat at the end of the bar.“No,” I heard Nelle say.I looked up and found her staring at me with her hands on her hips. “What?”“Don’t you dare turn into one of those zombies.”“I’m not a zombie,” I protested at the same time my phone vibrated in my hand. I had to look down and see the message.“Yes, you are. Put your phone down.”I smiled and put my phone on the bar, facedown. “There, happy now?”She frowned at me. “I’m not sure. Do you want a drink?”“A glass of red would be nice, thank you.”“Are you off for the night?”I nodded. “For the whole weekend.”“Wow! That has to be a first.”“I know and I cannot wait to just unwind for two days in a row.”She laughed. “I can’t even imagine what that would be like.”“It’s going to be