CHAPTER41
TANNER
Acouple weeks after our date, I still wasn’t quite sure what had happened that night. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it, though. When we’d fallen asleep together, I’d been so damn sure that we were finally on the right track and on the same page.
After what had been the most intense, meaningful sexual experience I’d ever had, I’d fully planned on talking to her about what was going on between us the next morning. I’d even already decided where I was going to order us breakfast from so we could just relax and spend a lazy Sunday morning together after our talk.
The only reason I’d forced myself to leave the bed was because I’d wanted to get us both a glass of water. I’d never really wanted to take care of anyone after having sex with them before, but I’d wanted to try. Water had seemed like a logical place to start.
As I’d left the room, my phone had started vibrating and I’d run back to get it before it woke her up. Jeremiah had called to tell me that he’d noticed a certain someone had come home with me and hadn’t left, and he and Steph had wanted to get the scoop.
She’d taken the phone from him to tease me, telling me that she expected me to come clean to “mom and dad” about what I was doing with Larisa and that they wanted me to come over as soon as possible so she could threaten my balls if I ever hurt that girl. We’d joked around a little, and then I’d heard movement, so I’d ended the call to go tell Larisa that I was just getting us some water.
When I got there to find her getting dressed, I’d been confused as all hell. I’d thought we’d had a good time together and that we were going to keep at it. Hell, she’d even said she’d had a “lovely” evening, which had been a severe understatement in my opinion, but it wasn’t like she’d have said that if she’d had such a shitty time that it justified leaving in the middle of the night.
Since then, we’d chatted over texts every day and a few times on the phone, but we hadn’t seen each other again yet and all our talks seemed much more guarded than before. We were back to mostly, if not only, talking about the house and her giving me updates and feedback on the progress.
Whenever I tried to talk about anything else, she shut me down. It was weird, but on the other hand, maybe she was just busy with the house. I knew she’d been out there every day, supervising the work being done on it and doing her thing once the other team cleared out of a room.
Knowing how passionate she was about her work, it was entirely possible that she’d just gotten caught up in it. Her passion was one of the things I found most attractive about her. I just wished I could support her more.
Maybe if I did, it would show her that I was serious and that I really was invested in what we could be together. I’d thought I’d made some headway on that front, but her midnight dash illustrated that she might need more convincing.
So how do I convince her?
The only thing that I knew for sure wouldn’t help was doing what I was doing right now, which was sitting on my ass on my sofa, staring absently out the window while I turned it all over in my head. It was Friday afternoon and I’d gotten back from yet another meeting with Frank, my financial advisor, about an hour ago.
Once again, he’d given me plenty of options for investment, but there was nothing I was particularly attracted to that would also provide the sense of purpose I was searching for. After giving him the go-ahead on certain promising moves he wanted to make in the stock market, I’d come home and planned on talking to Larisa before I went over to Jeremiah’s to watch the game.
The phone eventually rang through to her voicemail, though. I’d wanted to ask her if she’d be interested in coming to watch the game with us even though I knew she wasn’t crazy about sports. Steph wasn’t either and the rest of us watched the game but not so seriously that it wasn’t usually fun anyway.
Despite not having much experience with long-term romantic relationships, even I knew that spending time together and with each other’s friends was a good sign. She’d already met my friends, and since they kept asking about her, I figured they wouldn’t mind if she joined us and that she might like the opportunity to get to know them better.
Damn it. I’m really fucking trying here. I didn’t really know what else to do to prove to her that I’d changed—or was changing, at least—but in the back of my mind, I was worried that she didn’t believe it.
As I mulled over everything, I thought more about her, her work and passion, the house, and how I wished I had anything else to focus on day in and day out. I needed to find something worthwhile to do with my time while simultaneously showing her that I was long-term material.
There had to be something I could do.
Then it hit me.
There was something I could do. Something that would both give me the chance to support Larisa in her passion and that would give me more of a purpose.
If I bought houses, investing in real estate like everyone kept telling me to do, she could renovate and modernize them. Once they were ready, we could rent them out—at a fair price, of course. I knew she would insist on that last bit.
Sure, it was just an idea, but it was one that could work. All I needed was to run it by someone who knew a bit about real estate and money management. Luckily for me, a person like that lived right across the hall and I was due at his place any minute now.
Excitement coursed through me as I jumped up and raced through a quick shower, eager to get Jeremiah’s take on my plan. Considering that he’d had that auction fundraiser for the provision of adequate housing for low-income families just a few months ago, I knew he was up to speed with supply, demand, pricing, and the present situation in the city.
I was still pulling the shirt over my head when I opened my front door, going over there barefoot in my haste to talk to him. Jeremiah frowned when I barged in and he noticed I wasn’t wearing any shoes. “What’s with you? I know we’re comfortable in each other’s places, but this is a first. Everything okay? You kind of look like someone took some kind of electrical device to your balls.”
“It looks like I’m in pain?” I asked disbelievingly.
He laughed. “No, it looks like you’re shocked, but in a good way, so I’ll ask again. What’s going on?”
“Not much. I just think I might’ve come up with something to do with my life, so nothing big. Just something I might want to devote my immediate future to.”
He sat up a little straighter on the sofa, grabbed the remote from the coffee table, and hit the power button to switch off the news that had been playing on the TV. His gaze tracked me as I walked around the sofa he was on and took a seat across from him.