By 7:15 p.m. I’d changed clothes twice and was doing way too much for what should have just been dinner with a colleague. I’d turned it into a thing, and was currently standing in front of the mirror in my room tugging at my dark brown curls, which had become completely unruly in the last few weeks. I’d also gotten a hell of a tan from so many days in the sun. The deeper brown tone of my skin made my hazel eyes look weirdly lighter, like some kind of wild cat. Which, given my current mood, was probably appropriate.

I looked good. Not that it mattered, because this was not a date.

Sick of myself and my fretting, I grabbed the black leather bomber jacket I’d brought, and was tugging it on over a green sweater when I heard a knock. I rushed to the door, my heart almost pounding out of my chest. As soon as I opened it, I realized I had not been ready for what was waiting on the other side.

Elias looked fucking edible.

I actually had to lean on the doorframe to keep from coming too close. I tried to discreetly take in what was in front of me, and knew I was failing miserably. He was wearing a white linen shirt under a brown leather blazer, with extremely well-fitting dark blue jeans and red Chucks on his feet. His curls sprung high on his head, held back by his usual thin elastic band. Tonight he was also wearing a few silver bracelets on his wrists, and a wide silver ring on his right hand.

He was such a fine man. His perfectly shaped lips were incredibly distracting, made for kissing, and God, I wanted to.

I realized I’d only opened the door to stare at him, and let out a flustered, “Hi.”

The smile he gave me was radiant, like he was so damn glad to see me. I was reading too much into it, I knew that. But when he stared me up and down and kept his eyes on the general area of my mouth for a few seconds longer than warranted, my head, once again, started going places it shouldn’t.

“Eshi, Desta, are you ready to go?” Maybe I was imagining things, but it sounded to me like he was a little flustered too.

“I am. I took a nap, and now I’m starving.”

He grunted in approval, which made my belly flip and the skin on my face tighten. But when he spoke, that’s when all the blood in my brain went south all at once. “We have to get you what you need, then.”