He was too quick for that. He rose swiftly and cleared the distance just as quickly. He pulled out one of the two empty chairs remaining at the table where Callie sat. She looked nice, dressed in a tight-fitting black dress again. Lord, she was the queen of those things. If there was a woman who looked better in one, Matt had yet to meet her.
“Hey, there.” He sunk down in the chair. He flashed a grin at Chantara and saved a soft smile for Callie. She glared back at him.
“No. No hey there. You don’t get to just pretend that you just happened to be in this very same pub at the very same time as us.” She stabbed an angry finger in Chantara’s face. “And you! You had to have been in on this. Wear that dress, you said. Go out, you said. Yeah right! You had this whole thing planned!”
Chantara just shrugged innocently. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do!”
“Nope. Maybe Matt just happened to overhear me say something about how great this pub is and decided to check it out for himself. I was just talking about it over lunch break.”
“You were not,” Callie ground out. She stared Chantara down, who slipped easily from her seat. She didn’t manage to keep the guilt off the twist of her lips that passed as a smile.
“I’m going to the washroom- for like- you know- thirty minutes. So- uh- enjoy.”
“What! No, you’re not!” Callie made a frantic grab for Chantara’s arm, but her friend danced away. Callie watched her retreating back helplessly. She finally turned her eyes his way.
Matt had to say he was impressed at Chantara. She said she’d get Callie to the pub for seven and she had. Callie looked- god, she looked good. Her hair gleamed gold, shiny and lustrous. She had on a dash of makeup and if she looked slightly pale, as she had the other afternoon when he’d seen her last, he couldn’t tell. She was wearing red lipstick. Like she had on the night of the Christmas party. He breathed in and it wasn’t just his imagination. She smelled good too.
He felt himself go hard under the table and he was glad the thing was there to block Callie’s view. The last thing she needed to see was how tight his jeans were strained over his damn groin. He didn’t like the instant reaction, but he could do nothing about it. It felt wrong, given that he was there to apologize.
“Chantara and I might have set this up,” he confessed.
“No, really?” Callie rolled her pretty blue cornflower eyes.
“Yeah, I know. Hard to believe.” He had a laugh at himself before he studied her. She shrank back an inch from the sudden intensity. “All joking aside, I needed her to help me. I knew there was probably no way that you’d agree to see me again. I needed her to get you here so that hopefully I could do the rest.”
“The rest?”
“Yeah. The rest. I- I want to apologize to you, Callie. For the other day, and really, for everything. I pursued you when you said that it wasn’t right for us to have a relationship since we worked together. I couldn’t let it go. I couldn’t let you go.”
Callie blinked. “Why not?”
“Why not?” It wasn’t the response he expected.
“Yeah. Why couldn’t you let it go?”
And there it was. The shocking truth that he was hardly even able to admit to himself. “I- I- don’t know why.” It was lame and he knew it. A cop out. Callie pursed her lips and he could tell that he’d made her angry. She wasn’t going to be honest with him if he couldn’t be honest with her. “I honestly don’t know,” he rushed on. What the hell am I doing? “You’re just- different. I can’t put my finger on what it is, but ever since that night at the Christmas party, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”
“What about before that? You never realized I was even alive.”
“Because you worked for the company! And directly under me. Contrary to what the entire world thinks, I’m not someone who likes to make conquests or take people down just for the sake of it. I do want it to mean something. I- I really- it wasn’t that I didn’t see you. I was trying to be professional, but you woke me up at the Christmas party. Big time.”
“I was drunk. I didn’t even know who I was kissing!”
“I know. Believe me, I know all about how alcohol can lower the inhibitions.”
“Then you know that I wasn’t- well- that I never tried to-”
“Yeah. I’m not coming here to split hairs or discuss what happened that night or who wanted to kiss who or who drank too much or how it happened. I’m coming here tonight because what happened that night started this whole thing. I did notice you. In a big way. That might not have been your intention, but it happened. I’m glad it did.”