Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95173 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95173 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
“Well, well, well,” she says. “This is curbside service, Markos,” she says as she walks to me, and I immediately want to grab her by her waist and kiss her mouth. But I look around at the people on the street and stop myself. She stands in front of me, and she is the one who leans in and kisses my cheek. “Don’t you look all handsome.”
“Vivienne,” I say and inhale her smell. “Everything pales compared to you.”
She shakes her head, tucking her purse under her arm. “Very well done.” She smirks at me.
I laugh and lean in and kiss her neck now. Her breath hitches when I do that. I turn, taking her hand with mine. “Shall we?” My hand reaches out to open the door, and when she steps into the truck, I close the door after her and get in a second later. “Ready?” I say, starting the truck and putting on my seat belt.
“I mean, as ready as I think I am,” she says, looking at me, and I pull out into traffic. “Although I will say your invitation has me curious.”
“Does it?” I look over, smirking at her, and then turn back to look at the road. “Why is that?”
“Have dinner with me under the sea.” She repeats what was on the card. “What does that even mean?”
“So does that mean you thought about me all afternoon long?” I ask, grabbing her hand and bringing it to my lips. I have to touch her. Being this close to her and not touching her is torture.
“Not all afternoon,” she says. “Just for a couple of minutes here and there.”
I laugh at her. “What did you do today?” I ask her.
“Well, I slept longer than I thought I would,” she says. Looking outside, she tries to see if she knows where we are going. “I had a very hard workout yesterday, and my body had to recover.”
“Was it?” I ask her, taking the backroads so she doesn’t recognize the surroundings. I pull into the side entrance and spot Frederick there waiting. “Well, let’s hope your body is ready for round two,” I say, and then her door opens.
“Welcome,” Frederick says. “We are so pleased you could come.”
“Thank you,” she says, grabbing his hand and stepping out of the truck. I grab her other hand and pull her toward me, causing Fredrick’s hand to fall from hers.
“Is everything set?” I ask him, and he just nods at me. “Thank you,” I say, turning to walk toward the entrance.
“Are you going to tell me where we are?” she asks with a smile, her fingers linked with mine as we walk toward the doors.
“Coney Island,” I answer, the sound of our feet on the wooden bridge right at the entrance. “We are at the New York Aquarium,” I tell her, and her mouth opens when we stop at the blue and white sign right in front. I open the door, and she follows me in. “The whole place is closed for us. Where do you want to start?”
She looks around and then back at me. “What do you mean?”
I walk toward the underground aquarium. “Well, I wanted to have dinner with you under the sea,” I tell her and then enter the tunnel with the glass surrounding us. The lights illuminate, and you can see the fish all around us. A table with two chairs sits in the middle. “This,” I tell her, letting go of her hand, “is under the sea.” I shrug. “Well, as under the sea as I could get in short notice.”
She turns in a circle, her mouth hanging open as she takes in where we are. “You closed down the aquarium for us to have dinner here?”
“I did,” I tell her, and she walks to the glass now. Putting her hand on it, she watches fish swim by her. “This is …” she starts, turning around. “It’s incredible.”
“No,” I tell her, not moving from my spot. “You’re incredible.”
She turns and looks back at the fish. The whole time, she doesn’t sense the beating of my heart or the fact that I held my breath, hoping she didn’t laugh at this ridiculous plan.
Chapter Eleven
Vivienne
* * *
“No.” His voice comes out softly, his eyes staring straight into mine. “You’re incredible.” I don’t say anything to him. I just turn and look at the colors in the water.
When I answered his text, I picked up my phone about seventy times to cancel it. It was silly to go out on this date. The main reason was I don’t date. Ever. But every time I would draft up a “sorry, something came up” text, I would erase it and go in search of an outfit. Each time, I was thinking I was stupid to even do this because I was leading him on. But the next time I picked up my phone, instead of texting him, I googled what does one wear to a date when it’s under the sea. I got lots of floral advice, but then I went into my closet and the cheetah print shorts were the closest I came to flowers. So I went online and ordered five flower dresses.