“Your knight in shining armor has arrived,” she announced, and I rolled my eyes.

“If only,” I mumbled in response. Joseph was not my knight.

I held on to the railing as I walked down the five flights of stairs. Our apartment didn’t have an elevator, and walking in heels definitely wasn’t my strong suit. When I reached the bottom, I could see Joseph standing outside of the glass doors, looking inside. His eyes widened when he caught sight of me, and my heart sped up at his reaction.

Down, girl. We’re not involved in this, remember? Plus, we still hate him.

I opened the door, and he held out a single red rose for me to take.

“You look beautiful,” he said before planting a kiss on the side of my cheek.

He made it hard to continue holding a grudge. He looked gorgeous, too, decked out in a charcoal-gray suit, no tie, and the top button undone on his shirt. The man had no right being that sexy.

The sound of clicking grabbed my attention, and I spotted someone holding a camera not too far away from us. So, that was why Joseph was being all gentlemanly and kind. We were being watched. I forced a smile, took his hand when he offered it, and headed toward the back of a black town car.

“Did you see that guy taking pictures?” I asked, assuming that he had.

“No.” Joseph suddenly looked shocked. “Are you sure?” he asked. He looked around at the neighborhood as the car pulled away.

Now, he had me questioning my own judgment. Maybe the man hadn’t taken pictures of us at all. Maybe I’d imagined things because Kayla had planted the seed in my head.

“I could be wrong,” was all I managed to say in response.

“You probably aren’t.” He shifted in the seat next to me, angling his body toward me. “Are you ready for this?”

I swatted the butterflies flapping in my stomach. “For what exactly?”

“People paying attention. Watching what we eat. How we eat. How we act with one another. If we laugh. If we don’t. Everything about this date is about to be under the microscope.” His eyes pulled together, as if he was worried about me. Maybe he was.

“Can you ever be ready for all that?” I asked because if I overthought it, I wouldn’t get out of the back of this car.

He laughed, and I enjoyed the sound far more than I had any right. There were only a few paparazzi hanging outside of the restaurant, but their attention was focused on us—more specifically me when they realized who I was with. The sound of Joseph’s name being yelled was all I heard until he reached for my hand and navigated us inside. The maître d’ was clearly expecting our arrival and escorted us toward the back, menus in hand.

Some heads turned to follow our movements, their eyes wide as Joseph continued to hold my hand for everyone to see. Other people couldn’t have cared less who we were or what we were doing there. I liked that much better than all the attention.