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took the seat next to Natalie and slid her stool closer to mine. “So tell me how life has been treating you lately.”
    She gave me a rigid glare. “You seriously want to know or am I going to be your conquest for the night.”
    “I’m positive that was already your goal.”
    Her look of disgust was completely staged, but she gave me shit anyway. “Wow, someone is full of himself.”
    The barkeep silently questioned me for another drink, so I confirmed with a nod. Why not? I’d worked my ass off all week and deserved to chill out for a bit. I also knew it would put Natalie on my good side because she was a total nurturer and would take care of me. Sounds a bit selfish, right? But she wasn’t much of a drinker and liked to take on that role of guardian over me.
    And…it always brought us cozier with each other. I’ll admit I’m a bit of a reserved guy. I wasn’t afraid of rejection in a general sense, but I valued Nat’s approval of me. When she wanted to be close to me, it always seemed like a good thing. And that only happened when we were in a setting like this. Maybe that sounds ridiculous, but we seemed to be a bit more cautious of each other out in the real world.
    “Life has been fine,” she finally answered. “I’m still working at Collier Graphics. I like it. Quite a lot, actually. It’s sort of like your firm—laid back. I’m sooo accepted there,” she added in a dramatic tearful voice. “They like me. They really like me!”
    I laughed. “Okay, Sally Field. And yeah, Becker & Lewis have been good to me. It sure beats working for Stackman.”
    “Oh God, he was a shit-talking douchebag. I’m so happy you’re not working for him either.”
    “It was a job, end of story. And I think it worked in my favor because Clive hates him.”
    “Yes, Clive loves you . And you deserve it, Dane. You work hard and you love what you do. You belong somewhere that appreciates you.”
    In business and in life , I wanted to say. But I kept my mouth shut except to down the second shot that was slid my way.
    Natalie went on to update me on her family, her new apartment, and the other designer at work who keeps asking her out. I told her she could use me as a fake boyfriend if she needed to and she promised she’d probably have to go to that extent. However, I knew Nat, and I knew if she didn’t want a guy hitting on her she’d let him know. Maybe she wanted this guy to ask her out or maybe she just hadn’t gotten around to turning him down cold, but she seemed indifferent to it all.
    “So tell me about you, hot stuff. Whatcha been up to?”
    I did a boring summary of a few houses I was designing. She seemed genuinely interested, but when I brought up my weird neighbor, she had a good laugh about that.
    “Oh God, it sounds like he thinks you’re selling drugs out of your briefcase. What a fucking nut.”
    “What?” I asked, taking that information in for a second. “Why the hell would he think that?”
    “He’s probably watched too many movies.”
    “I doubt he’d watch anything that involved drugs and crime. Or harsh language, for that matter.”
    “Ha! I bet he’s a closet porn addict.”
    Ew. I didn’t want to have that image in my head. Peter was weird, and I’m sure he had his own secrets and shit, but I certainly didn’t need to know them.
    “Let’s have sex out on your lawn when he’s outside,” Nat said.
    Laughing, I shook my head. “As much fun as that would be, I’d rather not give my neighbors a show.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “Unless you get me extremely drunk tonight.”
    She gave me a sassy smile and pointed a finger my way. “You be careful what you wish for, tiger.”
    I ordered myself a beer.
     
    An hour later, I was a little drunk. I played a game of billiards with the guys, lost, and had two more beers. Natalie stuck close by, dividing her time with girlfriends and us, but mostly with us. And by us I mean me. I’m not so dense I can’t realize she has a thing