Chapter 8

Edward glanced at the calendar on his desk and winced. Damn. How the hell had it gotten to be November? The deadline on the Fitzgerald job was just over three weeks away, and everything was going wrong.

Alec, one of the other architects, poked his head into the office. "Don't you ever go home?"

"You're still here," Edward pointed out.

"Yeah, but I have three screaming kids. It's more peaceful here. But you're young and single. Shouldn't you be painting the town red or something?"

"Do people still say that?"

Alec sat down in the chair across from him. "Tanya in accounting was asking about you today. Wanted to know if you were seeing anyone."

"I'm not interested," Edward replied automatically.

"Why not? She's hot and she likes you."

"Just not my type, I guess."

The other man looked at him carefully. "This is about that woman—Bella, isn't it?"

"Bella's just a friend. And my brother's ex."

"A friend." His tone was skeptical. "You sure see her a lot for just being friends."

"It's not like that."

"Yeah, well…maybe it should be."

~FF~

Edward couldn't sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about what Alec had said. The whole thing was ridiculous. So what if he and Bella spent time together? Isn't that what friends did?

And, okay, maybe he hadn't been on a date for a while, but that didn't mean he wanted to date Bella. She and Emmett had only been broken up for two months. Hell, they could have been broken up for two years and it wouldn't matter. She was Emmett's ex.

So why couldn't he sleep?

~FF~

"Are we still on for Saturday night?" Edward asked when Bella called him the follow day.

"Actually, that's why I called. Can we make it Sunday instead?"

"Sure, no problem. Got a hot date or something?"

"Well…yeah, I do, actually."