“You look good,” he tells me. “Classy business attire suits you. The heels are sexy.”

“Why are you here, Dash?” I ask, getting to the point. I know he didn’t come here to check out what I wear to work.

I open my office door and walk inside with him following me. He shuts the door behind himself and takes a seat.

“We need to talk,” he says, resting back against the chair and studying me. “About a shitload of things. Let me take you out for lunch today.”

“Why can’t you just say what you have to say now?” I ask, scanning his features. He has sexy stubble on his cheeks that I want to run my fingers over.

“Still difficult, I see,” he grumbles before his expression softens. “I don’t think your office on a Monday morning is the best place to discuss us, or our history, or why the fuck we lost contact in the first place, and what we’re meant to do, now that we’re back in each other’s life.”

My mouth makes the shape of an O.

“Fuck, Vi, it’s you. I still can’t believe it. I just want to spend some time with you to catch up. Let me buy you lunch, or dinner, if that’s better for you.”

I watch him. The fact he’s not mentioning Vanessa has me feeling confused. Does he want us to just be friends? Wouldn’t that get in the way of his relationship with his clearly possessive girlfriend? And if he says he doesn’t care about what she thinks, then why is he with her in the first place?

New Dash confuses me.

Is it my responsibility to worry about his girlfriend though? I mean, I’m no one’s side chick, and I’m not a home wrecker, but she isn’t my girlfriend.

“Okay, we can go to dinner,” I give in, glancing over my schedule. “Does seven work for you?”

He nods quickly and says, “I’ll pick you up from your house.”

My eyes narrow. “I can just meet you there, Dash.”

The less this seems like a date, the better. I don’t need any more disappointment in my life.

“Just let me pick you up, Vi. Stop being so damn stubborn,” he says then smiles. “You know, now that you’re back in my life, I’m never letting you leave it again.”

My expression softens, and I stand up and step to him, opening my arms.

It’s Dash, after all.

He wraps me in his arms, and I bury my face in his chest and close my eyes.

“I missed you,” I admit softly, loving the feeling of being in his arms again.

“I missed you too,” he says, running his hand down my back. “I was so fucking shocked when I saw you standing there next to Summer. I thought I was seeing things.”

“I was shocked too,” I tell him. “You smell good.”

He chuckles, chest shaking. “So do you, Vi. So do you. I’ll see you tonight at seven. Message me your address.” He slides his phone out of his pocket. “What’s your number?”

I tell him my number and he saves it in his phone.

“I still have the same number from high school,” he says, our gazes connected.

“You do?” I ask, eyes widening.

“Yeah,” he says, shrugging a little sheepishly. “Just in case you ever needed me, I wanted to make sure you could contact me.”

“Dash,” I whisper, jumping back into his arms.

That was the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. He kept his number just in case I wanted to get a hold of him one day?

He kisses my forehead, flashes me his dimples, and then leaves my office.

All I want to do is chase after him and spend the day with him, to talk everything out, but unfortunately, I have to work.  I spend the day thinking about how I’m going to see him tonight and wondering what to wear. Then I tell myself we’re just friends, so it doesn’t matter what I wear.

Why does everything in life have to be so difficult?

*****

I figure jeans is the best option, so I wear blue skinny jeans with a black top. He arrives ten minutes early, and I open the door to his dimpled smile.

“You look beautiful,” he says, offering me his hand. I take it, and he leads me to his expensive-looking black car and opens the passenger side door for me.

“Thank you,” I say before sliding in.

He gets in the driver’s seat and grins at me. “Your house is amazing.”

“Your car is amazing.”

“I didn’t know where you’d want to eat,” he says as we reverse out of my driveway. “The Vi I know would have said ‘fries, lots of fries,’ but I’d think your tastes would be a little different now.”

“Oh, I still love fries,” I tell him. “But maybe as a side, next to a steak or something.”

“Excellent,” he says then reaches over and touches my thigh. “Tell me everything about your life, from the moment your car drove away to right now.”

“Why don’t we first address the two elephants in the room, one named Vanessa,” I say, looking down at his hand on my thigh. “Because I’m really fucking confused right now. And the second, being the whole losing contact thing.

He removes his hand and winces. “I broke up with her on Saturday night. She cried, a lot, which is why I didn’t come back. She cried on Sunday too, and was making a big deal about it, so I was trying to calm her down.”

My eyes widen at that. “Why did you tell her you wanted to break up with her?”

I don’t really know how to take this information. Am I happy he’s single? Yes. Do I necessarily like that he saw me then dumped his girlfriend that same night and possibly broke her heart? No. Can Dash win in this situation? No.

“We weren’t serious or anything,” he explains, fingers tightening on the steering wheel. “That was the first night she’d even met any of my friends, and we’d only been seeing each other a few months. What are the chances the one night I decide to let her meet my friends, you show up?”

“Pretty low,” I reply, cringing. “What a clusterfuck.”

“I don’t care, Vi. What’s the point of me being with her, when as soon as I saw you, I knew I had to be with you? No one compares. Staying with her would have just hurt her more in the long run,” he says, returning his hand to my thigh. “And as for the losing contact thing, yeah, I guess I’m slightly fucking pissed, because it felt like you didn’t give a shit.”

“Of course I gave a shit,” I say quickly. “I’ve never stopped caring about you, Dash.”

He looks straight ahead and says, “After we lost Max, you let me go as well. Almost like you wanted a fresh start, and I was just a reminder of what life was like when we had Max with us. You just fucking let go, Vi. I get Max was everything to you, but I should have meant something to you too.”

Is that what I did?

I consider his words and realise there might be an ounce of truth to them, even if that’s not what I set out to do. Maybe subconsciously I made the decision to do that as a coping mechanism?

“I didn’t mean to hurt you, Dash, and I’m sorry. I didn’t even realise that’s what I did until you just said it.” I pause, swallowing hard. “You always meant something to me. You still do, and you always will.”

“You need to tell me what’s going on in that head of yours. I know we’re both different people now, but at the same time, I feel like I still know you, like not that much time has passed. I just know you, Vi. And I want you.”

“I want you too,” I admit, putting my hand over his. “Everything else is just details.”

He glances at me before looking back to the road. “I think that’s the best thing you could have said.”

“We don’t have to rush into anything,” I say quickly. “I mean, maybe we could go on a few dates and see—”

“I won’t push you, Vi. We can take things slowly. I’m just happy to have you back in my life; you have no idea,” he says, jaw tightening. “It’s just me, you know? The guy you thought was yelling at his girlfriend on the first day back at school for wearing a short dress.”

I laugh at that, remembering that day like it was yesterday. “It was a short skirt, not a short dress. You were an asshole to me at the start.”

“I’d never met anyone like you,” he says, shaking his head. “I didn’t know how to handle it. You were getting to me so much, but I had no idea why. It took me a little while to figure out it was because I liked you.”