Although she’d missed being intimate with someone. And while she got herself off just fine, thank you very much, she did crave being close to a warm body again.

“I’m prepped to also be your wingwoman if needed.” Reba gave an enthusiastic thumbs up.

“Just don’t make it weird.”

“When do I ever make anything weird?”

Cherisse gave Reba a pointed look, and she rolled her eyes. “What do I do with my hair?”

Reba didn’t look up from her phone. “Wear it up. Show a lil’ neck. People are always about legs and cleavage, but the neck is for real a sexy part of the body.” She placed her phone on the bed and came over to scan Cherisse’s open closet. “What you wearing?”

Cherisse pulled out the one she was considering, and Reba clapped her hands, mouth stretching in a happy grin. “Yes, good. I approve. Looks easy to remove, in case you change your mind about Tyler.”

“Reba, seriously.” But she found herself wondering if Tyler had a distracting set of abs like Keiran. Then she chided herself for even going there, shut that down before her brain conjured up Keiran in that towel, again. No good would come of those wayward thoughts.

Focus on the date. Maybe Tyler would surprise her.

#

CHERISSE’S MOUTH DROPPED open as they strolled up the stairs. The Building An Appetite Project displays were outside the Regency Ballroom and were so much more than she’d expected. It turned out to be an ambitious undertaking between culinary, art, and architecture students, an experiment to mesh all three subjects and display the results. It was also an event sponsored by the architectural design firm where Devon King worked.

Devon, a broader, older, more serious-looking version of Keiran, shook Tyler’s hand as they perused the desserts. Tyler was related to one of the executives at Devon’s firm. “Thanks for supporting,” he said to Tyler before turning to her. “Hi, Cherisse.”

“Hi, Devon.” Cherisse gaped down at the desserts inspired by geometrical shapes. “Holy shit. This is amazing.” She loved coming up with unique creations for her desserts, but these were just mind-blowing, and she was in awe.

“Yes. We’ve been working on this since last year. Conceptualizing et cetera. Didn’t think we’d pull it off. Hopefully, now my boss will stop looking at me like I’ve lost my mind.”

“Wait, this was your idea?” Cherisse checked out a dessert that looked like a chocolate geometric abstract art piece, the grooves of the cube-like shape filled with some sort of red jelly. It looked like a design you’d find displayed on someone’s desk, rather than something edible. She was beyond impressed, and obviously not the only one. Guests were oohing and ahhing over everything on display.

“Well, no, not really. We have an intern who also studies the culinary arts. The idea was hers. I just ran with it and helped get it in the door to the company’s higher-ups. Other firms will definitely try to snap her up after this, but they better back off.” The steely glint in his eyes made Cherisse raise a brow. So, Devon did have feelings under that cool façade.