"That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen!" I laughed looking at the chandelier made of antlers. "Put it down."

  Justin laughed but put it down. "What's wrong with it?" He eyed it. "It's different."

  "It's hideous." I rolled my eyes looking around.  "You said you wanted me to do this, so let me do this."

  "Fine, fine." He sighed following behind me.

  I've been working on getting pieces for his house for almost a month now and all we do is fight. He said he wanted me to do this for him, to help him out but he disagrees with everything I show him. It's either too old, too modern, too fancy, or not 'his style'. That's the point I keep telling him. We're not going for something his style.

  But I find myself enjoying his company more and more, even if all we do is disagree. He's a really funny guy and there's nothing more attractive than a funny guy. He'll do and say the most random things without realizing it until I laugh or give him a funny look. It's then he gets a little embarrassed grin on his face and he ducks his head mumbling 'nevermind'.

  "Hey! I like that." He pointed up at a black and white painting.

  I have to admit, it was the first thing he pointed out that I actually liked. This is a moment that needed to be marked down in history.

  "Yea, I like it too." I smiled at him.

  One hour later we left the store with the promise of that one black and white painting to be delivered to his house within the next twenty-four hours.

  I sat in the passanger seat of his car, silently looking out the window.

   "I'm starving." He announced. "You hungry?"

  I turned to look at him, his eyes still on the road. "Yea, I could eat."

  "Done." He shot me a grin. "The Ivy it is then."

  "So....where are you from orgiginally?" He asked once we had been seated and ordered our food.

  "What makes you think I'm not from around here?" I questione back.

  "You have accent that can only come from the south." 

  I had to smile at that. "North Carolina."

  "Home of the Tar Heels." He returned the smile.

  "I guess so. Never really got into college sports. I was more into the pros."

  "Come on! You're from the home of one of the greats in basketball." He looked at me wide eyed. "Michael Jordan."

  "I know that. I'm not saying he wasn't the best but I just never got into the college teams at home." I paused when he huffed. "But if I had to pick one it would be the Heels."

  "So we agree again?" He smirked.

  "Yea, I guess so." I laughed. 

  Spending time with him was really getting to me. Not only is he easy on the eyes, he's really a great guy and I'm having a hard time keeping my crush in check. I probably shouldn't have let him take me to lunch but he caught me off guard and couldn't say no. 

  "Shit." He mumbled, eyes locked on something across the street.

  "What?" I asked, turing my head. "What's wrong?"

  "Paparazzi." He rolled his eyes. "I really hate those fuckers."

  I had to smile at that. "It's no big deal." I turned around to face him again. "I mean, it's not like we're on a date or something."

  "Yea but they'll read into it." He signed. "Sorry."

  I shrugged. "No biggie."

  We sat in comfortable silence until our food came. 

  "I mean, if I was going to take you on a date, The Ivy would not be the place." He said without looking up from his plate of food.

  I paused, fork midway to my mouth. What did he just say? He has never given any indication he was interested in me. 

  He lifted his head and looked at me, a shy grin on his face.

  "What?" I asked, still confused.

  "You really think I'd take you on a date to The Ivy? I'd like to think I'm a little smoother than that. Our first date would be somewhere the paps wouldnt' find us." 

  I brought my fork back down to my plate. I'm so fucking confused right now. I can't tell if he's serious or if he's joking. Trust me, I've given plenty of thought to going out with him but I had just assumed it wasn't like that with us. Not when he could have any woman in the world.

  "Sloane? You ok?" He asked. 

  I'm sure I looked like some kind of idiot, mouth hanging open. I snapped my mouth close and shook my head.

  "I'm sorry but what?" 

   He chuckled. "You can't be that shocked. I mean, I've been dropping hints for weeks now."

  "What hints?" I raised an eyebrow.

  "Come on, who hires someone to redo their entire house without looking at their work?" He rolled his eyes. "And you think it's normal for me to have you come over so late? I mean, I'm pretty busy but I'm not that busy."

  I could only blink at him. Sure it was weird that before we did any actual looking at pieces, I only meet with him at night and usually it was at his house. He always had food ready just in case I was hungry he said. I just didn't read into it. He was always the perfect gentleman. Polite. Friendly.

  "Did you hear me?" He questioned brining me out of my thoughts.

  "Sloane, really, get with it." He laughed again. "I'm asking if you'd like to have dinner with me. Not like a work thing."

  "Oh, wow. Um, I just...." I could feel a blush spread across my cheeks. He was looking at me, eyes focused on me. "You...." I couldn't get my mouth to stop making stupid words. "Yes, that'd be nice."

  He flashed me a smile. "Good."

~~

  "So...hot date tonight?" Maggie asked flopping across my bed.

  I laughed and looked at her over my shoulder. "It's not a hot date."  She quirked an eyebrow at me. "Ok, so maybe it's a hot date."

   "I knew it." She laughed. "I just can't believe it, you know?"

  "Me either. I mean, he said he was dropping hints but I must be completely out of it cause I didn't pick up on a single one."

  "Trace told me that he was interested after he met you at the party." 

  I turned to look at her, again shocked. "Why didn't you say anything."

  She shrugged. "I figured you knew."

  "You could have said something." I laughed at her. "I've been crushing on this guy for weeks."

  "Well, you could have said something too."

  "And get my heart stomped on?" I turned back to the closet full of clothes. "I don't think so."

  "He's a good guy Sloane."

   "I know that."

  "Do you know where he's taking you?" She asked.

  "No, he hasn't said anything." This was making finding something to wear difficult. The only thing he said was to wear something comfortable. But does that mean jeans comfortable or a dress comfortable? "I have no clue what to wear."

  "Throw on some jeans and a cute top. I'm sure it'll be low key."  She paused. "You worried about the paps?"

  I stopped searching through my clothes. I was a little worried but he told me not to worry about them tonight. Wheverever we were going, they wouldn't bother us he had said.

  "Not really." I answered her.

  "Well, I'm out." She said and I could hear her feet hit the floor.  "I don't want to be here when he gets here."

  "I'll call you tomorrow!"

  "Have fun!" She said with a slight giggle. A minute later I heard the front door close.

~

  I'm still in shock. I can't believe he was able to do this for me. I had mentioned once that I was a huge Beatles fan and he managed to get tickets for the Paul McCartney show.

  "Justin, that was amazing." I turned to look at him as he maneuvered his way through the highway traffic. "Thank you so much."

  He turned and smiled at me. "You're welcome. I'm glad you had a good time."

  "I had a great time." I returned the smile.

  "Good."

  It took us almost an hour to get back to my condo but the ride was nice. It gave us a chance to talk about things that weren't related to patterns or paint colors or light fixtures.

  "Thanks again." I turned to him once we reached my front door. "That was one of the most amazing things I've ever done."

  "It was nothing." He rocked on his heels. "I'm just glad you said yes."

  I blushed, eyes glancing down. "Yea, well, I can't really say no to Paul."

  He laughed. "I'll keep that in mind for future date."

   "What makes you think there's going to be future dates?"

  He smirked. "Me."

  There it was. That cocky, self confident attitude that I secretly loved.

   "Is that so?" I looked up at him, getting a little lost in his eyes. They really were the prettiest blue I've ever seen on a person.

  He leaned in towards me. "Yea."

  I held my breath as his hand came towards my face. It took everything I had in me not to close my eyes as his fingertips traced across my jaw and up towards my ear. He trailed his hand down my neck and across my shoulder.

  Before I could get a thought to process he pressed his lips to mine.