Date Shark (12 page)

On their date, Leila had been very critical of her own artistic abilities. Either she had been lying—which he doubted—or she didn’t consider what filled the notebook to be art. Eli stared at the page. Pictures of what looked to be one of her nieces’ birthday parties were expertly arranged on the page. Party themed paper lay beneath the pictures with accents of birthday cakes, party hats, and streamers decorating the pages. The edges of each element had no trace of being stamped out by a machine. Leila had crafted each one by hand.

As much as he wanted to, Eli didn’t look through the rest of the scrapbook. He did, however, open the other scrapbooks just to make sure that was what they all were. He had looked at two others, picked up a third one, and realized it was different from the first three. There were no photographs in this binder, only clothes. Different types of papers with a variety of textures and patterns had been cut up into pieces and fit together to make fascinating clothing designs. They were beautiful.

“What are you doing?” Leila demanded.

The binder slapped against the coffee table when Eli dropped it. He stared back at her, fumbling for something to say. “Sorry, I … I didn’t mean … I just noticed …”

His complete inability to speak softened Leila’s irritation. Somewhat. His blundering surprised Eli completely. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been so off balance. He couldn’t come up with a single time he had gotten so flustered by a woman. All he could do was stare at her, knowing his face was slowly going red. Even worse was that she seemed to be enjoying his discomfort.

Blue sequin flew at his chest. Only reflex brought his hands up in time to keep it from falling to the floor. It was enough to let him break eye contact with Leila. He sighed in relief.

“That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? Not to snoop through my things?” Leila’s voice had an edge to it that finally broke through Eli’s muddled brain. He stood up and faced her.

“Leila, I’m sorry. I was curious why you had so many binders under your coffee table. I picked on up just to see what they were. I promise I didn’t snoop through them.”

Leila eyed the one on the coffee that he had dropped. It was clearly open to the middle of the notebook. Eli cringed. “Except that one. I couldn’t help looking through it.”

“Why? Those are private, Eli. I didn’t think I’d have to worry about that with you, given all your oaths to secrecy with your work and patients. Why did you even pick one up? You had no right to look through my things.” The pink in her cheeks rose with every sentence.

Eli was itching to pull her into his arms, hold her until she forgave him. He shoved his hands in his pockets instead and stared at his feet. “I’m so sorry, Leila. I wasn’t trying to be a creep. I’m just so curious about you. I can’t figure you out.”

Leila took a step back, turning away as she did. When she spoke, Eli had never heard such a bitter edge to her voice before. “You mean you can’t figure out what’s wrong with me.”

She turned toward him, but not enough to actually face him. “Is that why you’ve let me call you, why you want to hang out with me? It bugs you that you couldn’t pinpoint my problem and you want to keep poking at me until you figure it out?”

“What?”

“It’s okay if it is,” Leila said quietly. Her sudden change in tone startled him, but she didn’t give him a chance to jump in.

“I get like that about things sometimes,” she said. “I always have. But I don’t appreciate being your science project, Eli. I’m sorry if I’ve thrown a wrench in your batting average, but if that’s the only reason you’ve been hanging around, I don’t think we should be … whatever we are, anymore. You should probably just leave.”

Her hand moved—most of the gesture was blocked because she was facing away from him—but Eli recognized wiping away tears when he saw it. The purse slipped out of his hand. Where it landed, he had no idea. When his fingers lighted on her shoulder, she flinched. That simple movement killed him. He removed his hand slowly and sank down to her couch.

For once I felt like I was the reason instead of the excuse
.

That was what Leila had said to him, the reason she enjoyed her date with Luke so much. The other men she had dated had only used her as a means to an end. That was exactly how she saw Eli now. He was just another man too self-absorbed to see her real worth in her eyes. Eli had his reasons for wanting to be with Leila, but using her wasn’t one of them. That had never once been motivation for him to see her. Eli had never felt like a bigger jerk in his life.

“Leila,” he said softly, “can I admit something to you?”

She didn’t answer. She didn’t tell him to get out again, either, though. Eli took a chance and kept talking.

“I
have
treated you differently than my other clients. I never give the women who hire me my personal phone number. I never have coffee with them after our final meeting or ask them to come and hang out with me and my friends. I give them the best advice I can, and I send them on their way.”

Eli took a deep breath. He wanted some indication from Leila that she was listening, that she didn’t hate him, or did. He begged for something from her, but she stood perfectly still. Not a muscle moved. He couldn’t even tell if she was breathing. Eli scrubbed his hand through his hair. He knew telling her how he really felt wasn’t an option, but he had to tell her something that would make her forgive him. He couldn’t bear the thought of her shutting him out of her life.

“You’re different,” he said, “but not in the way you think. I’m not here because I think there’s something wrong with you. It’s the opposite, Leila. There is nothing at all wrong with you. I don’t want to figure out your problem because there isn’t one, but I do want to get to know you.”

Finally, Leila moved. She didn’t face him, but her shoulders softened and her arms, which were wrapped around her body, stopped trying to squeeze herself in two. Eli stood and slowly walked up behind her. He stood close, too close. The heat of her body, her anger and hurt, radiated off her perfect skin. Eli wanted to press his lips against her bare shoulder. He wanted Leila more than he had wanted anything in a very long time. It was almost physically painful not to kiss her.

He leaned forward.

Leila started to turn and Eli took a quick step back. He held his breath when Leila paused halfway through her turn and stared at him. He could see the red in her eyes. If there had been even one tear on her face he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from brushing it away and giving away everything.

“Why are you really here, Eli?” Leila asked.

Because I’m falling in love with you?
Part of him wanted to scream the words. Medical school had been an excellent lesson in patience and keeping his mouth shut. Eli settled for the closest thing to the truth he dared let pass his lips.

“Because you are the most interesting person I’ve met in a long time, Leila. I’ve never met anyone who could see the world as such a dark place, yet have bright yellow walls and more flowers in her apartment than a florist. I have fun talking to you, and being with you. I want …” There were so many things he wanted right then. “I want to be your friend, Leila.”

A bitter taste rose in Eli’s mouth. Never before had he found the word
friend
so distasteful.

Turning to face him squarely, Leila eyed Eli. “My friend?”

“Is that so strange?”

“Um, kind of.”

“Well it shouldn’t be.”

Leila bit at her bottom lip. “What do you get out of being my friend?”

“A friend in return,” Eli answered. “What more would I want?”

Eli almost kicked himself for saying it. He meant that he wasn’t trying to get anything from her, but one look at Leila’s expression told him that wasn’t how she took it. What more would Eli ever want from her than to be friends? The words almost jumped out of his mouth, a mistake telling her that friendship was the least of what he wished they could share. Eli knew he had no right to intrude on her life like that. She had met Luke, needed time to build her confidence when it came to dating, and deserved the chance to find out how amazing she was for herself. She didn’t need him to screw that up for her.

“You really want to be friends?” Leila asked, shrugging off the pain Eli had inadvertently doled out. She seemed to accept what he had said and put any emotions attached to it on a shelf somewhere in the back of her mind. Eli forced himself to do the same.

“Yeah. I want to be friends. I think the only thing you need in your life is a little more happiness.”

“And you can help me find that?” She looked doubtful. Given what Eli had just put her through, he didn’t blame her.

He smiled as genuinely as he could manage. “If running until you’re ready to puke and eating food you hate doesn’t improve your outlook on life, I don’t know what will.”

“You’re not making a very good case for yourself, you know?”

“You’ll look back and laugh one day.”

Leila crinkled her nose at him. “You’re insane.”

Eli thought she might be on to something there, but he kept his opinion to himself. “I really am sorry, Leila,” he said. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I know.” The corner of her mouth twitched, like she was trying to keep herself from crying again. “I know you wouldn’t try to hurt me, Eli. You’ve done nothing but try to help me since we met, but those books really are private. I don’t like people looking at them.”

“Why not? There great.”

“It’s embarrassing, for one, and I’m not very good at it. And …”

“And what?”

“Oh, never mind. The first two reasons are good enough.”

Eli picked the scrapbook back up, but he didn’t close it. He turned another page. “Leila, not only are you wrong about not being very good, but I have no idea why you would be embarrassed by these.”

“Oh, come on, have you met anyone else in Chicago who makes scrapbooks?” She waited for him to answer, and Eli had to shake his head. “It’s a silly hobby. Only bored woman from tiny towns in the middle of nowhere scrapbook. My roommate in college said it was like kindergarten arts and crafts for adults who never grew out of the cutting and pasting phase.”

“It is not. Look at these,” he said. “You said you weren’t artistic, but you obviously know color and design and clothes! Has Ana seen these?”

“No!” Leila gasped. “And don’t you dare think of telling her about them.”

“Why not?”

Leila looked absolutely horrified at the thought. “Why? Because she’d probably think I was secretly trying to become a designer like her! She’ll think I’m trying to cut into her business or tell her how to do her job better. Don’t even mention these to her, please.”

“Fine,” Eli said, surprised by her eruption.

“You promise?”

“Yeah, sure, I promise. I have no idea why you’re so worked up about this, but I’ll promise if it makes you feel better.”

Sighing in relief, Leila said, “It does.”

She grabbed the scrapbook out of his hands and flipped it shut. The snap of all the pages slapping against each other had an oddly final sound to it. Eli watched her carrying it off to her bedroom. His curiosity about where she was putting it was muted enough to keep him still. He’d already gotten himself into enough trouble with Leila for one day. She was back out quickly, shutting the bedroom door behind her. She stopped, then, looking decidedly unsure of what to do next. Eli supposed it was his responsibility to remedy that. He leaned down and picked up the sequin purse she had thrown at him and held it in his hand.

“You probably have stuff you need to do today,” he said. “I’ve already stolen most of your morning, so I’ll get going before I do anymore harm today.”

Relief flashed across her face, something Eli deserved, but there was some hesitation before she said, “Yeah, I guess. I kind of had fun today … earlier, I mean.”

Yeah, the last few minutes definitely had not been fun for her. Every second of the last fifteen minutes was going to haunt him either until he died, or he finally had Leila in his arms for real.

“So, what time do you want to run tomorrow?” Eli asked causally.

The sickened look that sprang onto Leila’s face made him laugh. “Tomorrow? Are you freaking kidding me?”

“You’re going to be really sore tomorrow if you don’t come running with me again.”

“I’m going to be sore regardless. Why would I want to make my pain worse?”

“If you run tomorrow, it will help loosen up your tight muscles. Eventually your body will get used to it and you’ll feel great about running,” Eli promised.

“I highly doubt that.”

Eli grinned. “Well, you won’t know if you don’t try. Besides, even you have to admit you need to work out, and doing it with a friend makes it more fun. What time?”

Leila’s arms folded across her chest. Actually, it looked more like she was hugging herself fiercely. Maybe she thought she could disappear if she folded in on herself tight enough. Eli wasn’t letting her go anywhere. He waited patiently, and she finally gave in.

“Seven?” she suggested. “I know it’s early, but if you’re really going to drag me out to run all the time it’ll have to be before I go to work. I’m usually too tired to do much of anything after work.”

“Seven sounds perfect. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Eli turned to leave before he could say or do anything stupid. Leila’s voice stopped him before he got very far.

“Are you really taking my purse home with you?”

“Hey, a deal is a deal.” He smiled when she smirked at him.

Eli was about to leave, but was again stopped. It wasn’t something he heard this time, but something he saw. He hadn’t noticed anything behind Leila before. She captured his attention too completely for him to notice the fireplace behind her while they were arguing. This time he saw the mantle, and the picture frame setting on it. He forgot everything else and walked over to it.

The rectangular frame held three pictures, all of them Leila. Judging by the clothes strewn all over the floor, the row of vanities off to one side, and the clothes racks, Eli guessed this was after Ana’s fashion show. In one picture, Leila sat on some steps looking beat, but satisfied. Another was a full view of her standing up looking like she was ready to throttle someone. The last picture was gorgeous, but when he looked at it, a strange heat started building in his chest. Jealousy.