“This works for you, doesn’t it?” she asked, waving a hand up and down between us. “The charm and the smile and the honesty. It’s your thing.”

“Full disclosure, Sarai? I haven’t asked any woman out in a long-ass time, and I haven’t even been interested in anyone but you since we met.”

She looked at me for a long time without replying. When she finally spoke, I wanted to punch the air in celebration.

“Breakfast,” she said, tilting her chin up.

“Breakfast it is,” I said, smiling happily. “What time should I pick you up?”

“Ten,” she said as she unlocked her door. She opened it and stepped inside, then turned back to me.

“You’re not invited in,” she said, her lips tipped up in a small grin.

“I didn’t think I was,” I replied, my own lips curving upward.

“Good night, Alex.”

“Good night, Sarai.”

She closed the door, and I couldn’t help myself. I spun in a circle, fist pumped a couple of times, and punched the air as if I were hitting a speed bag. A knocking sound interrupted me, and I froze, then slowly turned my head toward Sarai’s apartment. She was standing in the window next to the door, laughing hysterically.

I ran a hand over my face and shrugged in embarrassment. Then, since I loved the look on her face, I punched the air a couple of times more, waved one arm like Arsenio Hall, and moonwalked out of her sight.

As soon as I reached the parking lot again, I pulled out my phone.

“I will kill you,” Ani answered.

“I have a date tomorrow,” I said before she went into detail about exactly how she planned on killing me. “Breakfast.”

“Friend zone,” she said flatly. “You called me at ten o’clock to tell me you’d been friend zoned.”

“I’m not friend zoned,” I argued, climbing into my truck.

“You’re totally friend zoned.”

“She agreed to a date,” I said, pausing with my keys in the ignition.

“She agreed to breakfast.”

“So?”

“Breakfast isn’t an actual date unless she slept over,” Ani said drily. Bram said something in the background that I couldn’t hear.

“What did he say?” I asked.

“He said even he knew that breakfast isn’t a date.”

“It’s a date,” I ground out.

“It really isn’t.”

“Shit.” I turned the truck on and dropped my phone on the passenger seat as the Bluetooth clicked on. “Are you sure?”

“Jesus, Alex,” Ani said with a snicker. “Breakfast is even worse than lunch. At least with lunch, it could turn into dinner. Breakfast is like, Let me get this out of the way before I get on with my plans for the day.”

“She likes me,” I replied stubbornly.

“She may like you, but she’s not interested.”

“You’re wrong.”

“We’ll see,” Ani joked.