His Naughty Lessons
Chapter 81: Not a Date

Chapter 81: Not a Date

** Eli **

The trousers were still damp when Eli put them back on, but he didn’t mind. He even liked it, for the scent and the warmth of Harper’s touch lingering on the fabric. When he called the concierge on Sunday to pick it up for cleaning, he was even a bit disappointed that he couldn’t keep it the way it was.

Yep, he got it bad.

The realization was beyond clear when he reluctantly put on a different set of suits in the evening, for the other "not a date" with Vanessa Jones.

The temptation to call Justin and cancel the reservation again was too strong. Eli clutched his phone tight and forced down the thought multiple times. Backing out at the last minute would be a bad idea — a deal was a deal, and he knew how much worse things would get when his father found out about his change of mind. Unpalatable as it was, he had chosen to do this, and he had to follow through.

Should he be thankful that Harper hadn’t probed too much at dinner last night when their conversation touched upon his dating life? If she had asked whether these dates were still an ongoing process, he would’ve told her the truth. But he dreaded that conversation. For some reason he couldn’t quite put it to words, he didn’t want her to think that he was going on these dates with any real interest, even though he knew she was unlikely to care either way ... Because whatever this thing was between the two of them, they had made it ample clear that it wasn’t dating, so why would she concern herself with it even if he was truly seeing someone else?

No matter, though. Eli shook his head in an effort to clear it. Just a few hours, and then he’d be free. It wasn’t a terribly bad deal after all.

He combed his hair and stared at the obnoxiously sleek style in the mirror. He had chosen quite a look today — black suits with no accessories, black shoes in the most old-fashioned style that he typically saved for conservative meetings, slicked-back hair with a bit too much gel that probably put an extra ten years on his apparent age. Honestly, he looked ridiculous, but the request was for him to take this date seriously, so he took the message to heart. No one could argue that such a funeral-fitting look wasn’t "serious".

He left his apartment feeling slightly better about the prospect of the evening.

~ ~

Some couple of hours later, Eli was sipping his wine while half-heartedly listening to his dinner companion chattering about ... something that he was losing track of.

He resisted the urge to pick up his phone and check the time, finding it harder and harder to keep a smile on his face. Admittedly, his father had been right — Vanessa Jones did seem to be a sensible person. She was courteous, outgoing, and probably even pleasant to talk to if he gave her a chance. But whenever he actually tried to follow her conversations—

"Don’t you think that would be a great opportunity for our companies to catch on to?" She concluded whatever she was saying with that. "I think it’ll bring invaluable assets and open up lots of possibilities for future connections."

She liked to talk about the economy and politics of the finance market. It should’ve been something that interested him, given that he did love this part of his job. But he couldn’t help but find the conversation ... boring, like he was sitting in a business meeting.

Did every conversation about work have to feel like a business meeting? Absolutely not. It was never that way whenever Harper talked about her latest project ideas or novel plot twists. Those were work too, but her conversations were always so enthralling that Eli would find his jaw literally dropping, which would only encourage her to keep going on and on. She was so fueled by enthusiasm that her whole person would practically light up as she talked, and her eyes would gleam, and her—

Wait. Why was he thinking about Harper right now? She had nothing to do with the present company he was in.

"Right," he replied absent-mindedly, ready to end that present company’s boring chatters. "Do you have an idea which dessert you’d like to try?" He nodded at the dessert menu on the table, trying his best not to look too obviously impatient with a shut-up-and-eat-your-last-course-and-go-home face.

If Vanessa had picked up his half-assed attitude this evening, she didn’t show it. All too comfortably, she leaned forward into the table. "Anything you’d like to recommend," she cooed with a suggestive smile. "I’m sure there are plenty of sweet things you can show me, hmm?"

... Great. Now she was taking it a step further and flirting with him. This woman surely was confident, not thwarted or disappointed at all by any of his signals so far.

Eli almost winced. To be brutally honest, he didn’t even find her physically attractive. Which was ... a bit odd. She would’ve been a hundred percent his type a few years ago — tall, curvy, wavy blonde hair with sharply lined eyes. He had always been into blondes with a mature, polished look like this. But now, even as he looked at her, all he was thinking in his head was a slender frame, warm auburn curls, dark emerald green eyes with only the lightest dusting of eyeshadow. Height just enough to reach his shoulders, breasts the perfect size to fit in the cup of his hands—

... What the fucking hell was he thinking?

"Um ... Sure, how about" — he snapped his eyes to the menu in front of him, clearing his stupid mind — "the house special? Chocolate cake. I heard it’s good here."

"Aww, you are such a traditional romantic." Vanessa was batting her lashes now. "You know that chocolate is an aphrodisiac, right? I think that’s the secret behind why it tastes so good."

"..."

Eli couldn’t be more thankful when their waiter appeared, saving him the trouble of coming up with a clever response. As he placed the order for desserts, he wondered if it’d really be so bad to just skip straight to the bill and run.