“That seems fair.” He glanced over at her. “I know you don’t like to make waves.”
With a small frown, she sighed. “Yup. That’s me. Boring, unwilling to rock the boat, Skylar.”
“What?”
“Never mind. It’s nothing.” Then she straightened and pasted a smile on her face that didn’t quite meet her eyes. “So, what was the special event that had you taking time off to go to lunch with Josie?”
Before he replied, he made a mental note to come back to the whole unwilling-to-rock-the-boat thing because he felt like there was a story there.
“You know my sister and I are very close and even though we see each other for Sunday dinners with our folks whenever she’s not at an event, there are times when it’s nice for it to just be the two of us.” He shrugged. “I get the feeling she’s not comfortable talking about anything deep or personal when we’re with them, so I wanted to check on her and make sure she’s okay.” Then he paused. “Do you think anything’s going on with her?”
“Elliott, even if I knew something, I wouldn’t tell you. Josie’s one of my best friends and if she didn’t want to tell you something, then I wouldn’t betray a confidence.”
And that brought them right back to her not making waves.
The rest of the drive was made in relative silence except for the random comment about the weather and traffic.
Normally, it would make Elliott crazy – the lack of conversation–but it wasn’t like that with Skylar. He was comfortable with her and didn’t feel the need to always be ‘on’ or entertaining her.
It was kind of freeing…
At the restaurant, they were seated and heard the lunch specials and even though he was fairly certain she was going to order the lobster salad and he was going to order the beef tenderloin with truffle fries, they went through the motion of looking through the menu.
And five minutes later, they ordered exactly what he thought and they were finally forced to talk.
“Other than dealing with difficult clients, how’s business been?” he asked, hoping to break the ice and get Skye to talk.
“Well…we had an event this past weekend that we didn’t think was ever going to end,” she began, and talking about her job seemed to put her at ease. Within minutes she had visibly relaxed and returned to her usual animated self. Elliott realized he enjoyed listening to her talk and really liked hearing her laugh.
Something she did a lot of when talking about the crazy things she’d witnessed at recent weddings.
“I don’t know how you do it,” he said when she was done with her story. “I’m not the kind of person who can multitask like that while dealing with so many different personalities.”
“You get used to it,” she explained. “In the beginning, we were all a little too nervous to stand up to a difficult bride or her parents, but we’ve done so many weddings and parties now that we have more confidence and it shows. It’s just mentally exhausting. The weekends where we have back-to-back events are the hardest. Sometimes we trade off and Josie will do one and I’ll handle the other, but poor Leanna ends up at both because she’s very particular about who handles her cakes and desserts.”
“I can understand that. But, to be fair, she’s not handling things on the same level as you and Josie, right? She’s not as hands-on with the entire event.”
“That’s true, but she puts a lot of pressure on herself over the cakes because they are one of the main attractions of a reception or any party, really.”
“She’s definitely got a gift. We’re hoping she’ll do the cake for my grandparents' anniversary party.”
“Josie mentioned that to us.” She paused and then gave him a sympathetic smile. “Are you going to be okay with that?”
He looked at her oddly. “About Leanna doing the cake? Um…yeah.”
Rolling her eyes, she gave him a more meaningful look. “I mean about the party. From what Josie told us, it sounds so…you know…wildly romantic. Sixty-five years of marriage and she’s wearing her original wedding gown? Come on, those are some serious relationship goals and I know how you are about things like that.”
Elliott let out a long breath and leaned back in his chair and frowned. “Used to be. I used to be like that, but…” He held up his hands and shrugged. “I’m fine with it and I’m happy for them. They’re my grandparents and I love them so of course I’m going to be there and celebrate with them.”
“Oh, I knew you were going to go to the party; I guess I was just curious about how you were feeling about it.”
“I’ll admit that I’m a little self-conscious about seeing everyone again and not being able to bring a date, but…that’s against the rules.” He let out a mirthless laugh. “It’s crazy, right? I’m a grown man and my parents are telling me I can’t date. Like I’m supposed to be celibate for a year because they think it will teach me a lesson or something.”
“Wow, I didn’t know they were demanding celibacy too…”
“They’re not, but it’s kind of implied.”
Wasn’t it?
“I guess they figure you’d only sleep with someone you were dating. But I’d bet good money that no one was thinking about…you know…sex when the whole embargo thing came up.”
That got him thinking…
“I would hope not, but now that it’s out there…I can’t help but wonder.”
“Oh God, Elliott. I’m sorry. We can change the subject. We really don’t need to sit here and talk about your sex life.”
“More like lack of a sex life,” he murmured.
“Either way, let’s talk about something else.” Then she looked around frantically. “I wonder where the waitress is with our bread and butter.”
He was hungry too, but he couldn’t get his mind off of the fact that his entire family had essentially cock-blocked him.
“Can I ask you something?” he asked when Skye finally faced him again.
“Of course.”
“Would you agree to go for a year without sex?”
Her cheeks turned red and she immediately averted her gaze. “Elliott…that’s a very personal question!”
“I know but…”
Then she seemed to compose herself. Clearing her throat, she primly folded her hands on the table. “Okay, personally, I would not agree to go for a year without sex. Sex is a personal thing and no one–especially not your parents and the rest of your family–have the right to impose that sort of restriction on you. I want to believe that they weren’t thinking of that when they came up with the idea of you taking a break from dating.” Then she paused. “But the bigger question here is how do you feel about casual sex?”
Elliott knew he wanted to talk about this, but now that they were doing it so bluntly, he was feeling more than a little awkward.
“Um…”
She studied him while he tried to find the right words. “You never used to strike me as the casual sex kind of guy. But with your newfound attitude toward relationships, who’s to say? However, everyone makes it sound like you’ve had a ton of failed relationships when, in fact, it’s only been four. And that’s in twelve years, so…” She held up her hands. “Did you only ever have sex with those four women?”