Love Without Rules (Contemporary Romance) (5 page)

“What?!” Sydney exclaimed. “No, I can’t accept a gift so expensive! I… I can’t accept this.” She handed the bag back to him, but he wouldn’t take it.

“It’s yours. Don’t worry about it.” Drew said. “But… I do want one thing in exchange for it.”

“What?”

“A hug.” Drew pulled her in and hugged her tightly. It didn’t occur to her at all that this was an odd action, since they had only met the day before. His scent surrounded her, and somehow made her feel safe. It was an interesting smell, one that she couldn’t place, and she found herself longing to smell more of him. Sydney sank into his embrace. “I know you’re going through a tough time right now.”

“Thank you,” she whispered into his ear.

He continued to hold her, until his phone rang. “Oh, no, I completely forgot, I have a meeting with a potential client in fifteen minutes. I… have to run.” He pulled away with an air of sadness. “Will you be alright?”

“I’ll be fine. Thank you, Drew.” She felt much better. Though he had made a terrible first impression, she was beginning to realize that Drew was actually a very thoughtful and considerate man. And he was still pretty attractive.

Drew smiled warmly. “Can I have your number? This is mine..” He dug in his pocket for a little bit and out came a business card. “Here you go.” Then he handed her his phone, which she took and saved her cell number into. Drew winked, as he promised to call. “Stay strong, Sydney.”

“Thank you,” she said again, as she took the little card. He waved as he walked away. She waited until he was out of sight to look at the card.
Drew Young,
it read,
the best publicist there is.
It was a confident slogan, which made her laugh a little. She saved the number into her phone, and made a mental note to herself that she would buy something to thank him for the blanket.

Sydney felt her phone vibrate, and pulled it out to find a text from Anna.
How was shopping?! ;)
. “A winky face?” Sydney thought that was weird. Why would Anna add a smiley that indicated flirting?
Shopping was okay.
Sydney’s fingers flew across the small screen as she texted back.

Nothing out of the blue happened?
Anna texted back quickly. It was starting to get suspicious, for it seemed like Anna knew something was going to happen.

Not really… Was something supposed to?

Drew asked me where you were going to be today. He really likes you! Hehe…

Sydney smiled as she put her phone into her pocket. It gave her a warm fuzzy feeling to know that someone was interested in her, and she felt excited. She pondered what to do next. There was always the option to go back to her apartment, and now, after several days, she finally felt that she had the courage to return there, and truly make it her own.

Sydney got into her car, and drove back to the building. She opened the door tentatively, as if she was the main character in a horror movie. The lights flicked off, and she was once again thrust into the apartment full of memories. But this time it was different. “Stay strong, Sydney,” she repeated Drew’s comforting parting words from earlier.

First things first, she had to get rid of everything that reminded her of Scott. He had left a few stuffed animals and various other memorabilia behindu. Sydney grabbed a large cardboard box and started throwing all the items into it. It took longer than she had originally thought to finish it, but it was worth it. Sydney thought that the room looked incredibly bare without all the toys but it was better they didn’t remain out in the open. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

Sydney opened the cabinet underneath the kitchen sink, and stuffed the box into it. “And that takes care of that!” she exclaimed with a sense of finality. She was feeling much better already. Sydney had a sudden desire to speak to Drew, and remembered that she still had his number in her pocket.

She pulled the card out and typed the number into her phone.
Hey, this is Sydney.
It was a simple message, but it was enough. She wondered if he was still in his meeting.

Hey Sydney. Staying strong?
He replied back so quickly she thought it was an error message.

She didn’t realize it, but she had a smile on her face when she replied. But before she could even press send, her phone began to ring because of an incoming call. From Drew. “Hello, Drew?” she answered breathlessly.
Oh God, did that sound really weird? I think so. Darn. I hope he didn’t notice.

“Hi, beauty.” He was so effortlessly smooth. “You sound breathless, is it because you’ve been running through my mind all day?” He had noticed after all.

Sydney laughed in a flirtatious manner, something she had not done in a very long time.
Is he really flirting with me right now? What do I say back?
“Um… Maybe?” She groaned silently at how lame that sounded.
It’s been too long since I’ve flirted.

Drew laughed, and Sydney had no response except to laugh awkwardly with him. Her face was burning with embarrassment. “Oh, Sydney, you’re so adorable. So what are you up to?”

The conversation flowed naturally from there, and Sydney tried her utmost best to be normal. He was flirty, but she knew better than to take that very seriously. She had known many men like him, and was not about to be sucked into his words. They talked long into the night, and after they finally said goodnight in the wee hours of the morning, Sydney fell asleep with a smile on her face.

Love Doctor Tip #58:
Sometimes flirting is just that. But sometimes, just sometimes, it’s something more.

Sydney woke up in the morning feeling motivated. It had been a while since her last blog post, and she was finally feeling brave enough to post something new, and face the haters. Sydney logged onto her website, determined to make some progress. She couldn’t remember what she was going to write next, so Sydney decided to read some of her old posts to see if they would stir up any memories. One of them caught her eye.

She remembered writing this particular one, which was about the first few dates and what to expect from the man. “Number one,” she read aloud. “Most men will be nervous. Almost all of them will speak quietly and be rather shy.” Sydney snorted. Drew had been the complete opposite yesterday during their “dinner date.”

She continued to read, and discovered that well, to be honest, most of her facts were proven completely wrong in one afternoon with Drew. “Crap, and people actually follow my advice…” Sydney groaned. She was thinking about what she should do about the old inaccurate blog posts when her phone rang. It was Drew.

“Hey, are you free today?” he asked. He sounded like he was in a good mood. “I want to see you.”

“Men usually wait a couple days before calling to keep the girl on her toes. Beware!”
was tip number five in the thread.
Well, that one is wrong too, I guess since he called yesterday,
Sydney thought before replying, “I am, I just have to finish some stuff.”

“How’s a movie and then dinner, at eight then? I’ll pick you up.” It sounded like he had this all planned out.

“
Tip number eight. Don’t expect a man to plan a date. He usually won’t.”
Sydney rolled her eyes at how effortlessly he broke all her rules. It had taken her months to come up with all of these tips and endless researching. She had even called up all her friends and written down their advice too. But it looked like all of that was in vain. “That sounds good. I’ll see you tonight.” Sydney hung up with a smile.

“Alright, Sydney, looks like it’s time to get cracking on a new post. One that’s really
accurate
this time.” She stretched her fingers out. The next hour or so was filled with sounds of her typing, making sure that her readers would be satisfied with this post, her first in a while.

***

Time flew by and soon it was only an hour before eight.

“I still haven’t decided what to wear!” Sydney complained loudly to Anna over the phone. “I literally cannot find anything that looks good on me.”

“Honey,
everything
looks good on you.” Anna laughed. “Wear that sparkly black top! It shows off that cleavage!”

Sydney scoffed. “I don’t want to come off like a crazy, desperate woman, An!” Sydney pulled out a dress from her closet and held it over her body, trying to see if it would look good. She swapped it for another, and another, before finally deciding on a cute black dress. It was simple, yet looked gorgeous on her. “I’m going with the little black dress!”

“Gosh, Sydney, fine. The one with the cut-out back, right? Perfect. Oh, I gotta run, I’ll talk to you later! Tell me all the details!” Anna hung up, leaving Sydney to daydream about the date.

Sydney was almost completely prepared. This had been her first date in a while, she just had to put on makeup. The natural look or the smoky eye? It had been so long since Sydney had felt the excitement of getting ready for a date, and she was really feeling it now. She settled on the natural.

She only had five minutes left after applying everything, and adding the finishing touches. She looked amazing. Sydney still felt that she looked kind of silly all dressed up, but there was no doubt about it, when Drew saw her, he would definitely be impressed. Sydney smiled, her teeth gleaming against her dark red lipstick.

The buzzer for the apartment rang, and Sydney pressed the button to accept the call. “Hello?”

“Hey, Sydney, all ready to go? I’m downstairs. Can’t wait to see you.” Always so smooth.

Sydney grinned at the sound of his voice. “Yes, I am! I’ll be down in a second.”

“I’ll be patiently waiting.” Drew laughed as Sydney switched off the telecom. She grabbed her bag, and slipped into a pair of sexy red heels. Sydney found herself becoming incredibly anxious about the outcome of the date as she walked to the elevator. What if she said something awkward? What if a piece of food flew out of her mouth? What if murderers came in and shot him? These thoughts were completely wild and made Sydney laugh a little as she stared at herself in the mirror on the elevator wall.

“Everything will be okay.” She said out loud, truly trying to convince herself that everything would be. “I can do this. Stay strong, Sydney.”

When the elevator doors slid open, Sydney’s footsteps were full of confidence as she walked towards the door. Right outside stood Drew, leaning against his very nice car like he was James Bond. He had sunglasses on, even though it was dark out.

Sydney laughed. “You know the sun’s not even out, right?”

“It makes me look cool.” Drew laughed as he took the glasses off. “But you are the exact opposite of me. Hot.” Drew opened the car door for her, and she made a mental note of how gentlemanly he was.

“So what movie are we watching?” Sydney asked as Drew hopped behind the wheel and began to drive.
I hope it’s not horror.
Sydney hated horror, yet Scott had always forced her to watch those movies with him.

Drew shrugged. “I don’t know. Anything you want to watch is fine by me. I heard that new romantic comedy starring Cyndi Lee is really good.”

“You like watching rom-coms?” Sydney was surprised.

“What’s that tone for?” Drew laughed. “I know some guys don’t like to watch that stuff, and even those who do seldom like to admit it. But I love it. And I’m proud.”

“Well, it sounds good.” Sydney settled into the car seat. “I’m excited. It’s actually been a while since I last went out to a movie.”

They reached the theater before long, and the two walked towards the entrance. It was relatively crowded, and Sydney almost crashed into a big man who wasn’t watching where he was going. Drew wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her into him, to make sure no one else bumped into her. He wanted to keep her safe.

Drew paid for their tickets and a large bag of popcorn. The theater was completely dark by the time they sat down. Sydney had all sorts of stereotypical “movie theater situations” running through her mind, and giggled wondering if any of them would happen.

It had been a while since she had been out on a date with anyone but Scott, and she was so excited for this. She knew next to nothing about Drew and how he would act, but that only made him more interesting.

The first funny thing to happen was when they both reached for popcorn. Their hands accidentally touched, and Sydney looked into Drew’s eyes, surprised. It was an incredibly comical moment, and they both knew it. Drew’s eyes were calm and humorous as he kept his hand close to hers and even moved it closer in a bold move. Sydney almost laughed out loud as Drew winked at her.

Sydney was painfully aware that during sappy scenes, she had a tendency to cry. Sure enough, one of those touching scenes came up on the big screen and tears leaked from her eyes.
Crap, this is so embarrassing.
Sydney tried to blink them back before Drew noticed. But too late.

Drew smiled as he put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close. “It’s very touching,” he whispered as she relaxed in his arms. He was so understanding and comforting that Sydney just felt at home in his arms. Suddenly, Sydney could see light at the end of the tunnel. There was hope.

This man… Though he was a bit childish and very unpredictable, that’s what she liked. She was beginning to see that in a relationship, unlike the first book she had written, rules and mind games were not important. Drew always said what was on his mind, and did what he wanted to do. It was refreshing to be with someone so straight minded. Drew kept his arm around her for the rest of the movie. All too soon, it was over.

Sydney couldn’t suppress the disappointment she felt when Drew moved his arm and the lights in the theater went on. “Well, that was a good movie.” Drew smiled as he turned towards Sydney. “Now to dinner?”

“Sounds good to me.” Sydney felt like whenever she was around him, she couldn’t stop smiling. “Where are we going?”

“Anywhere you want,” Drew said. “As long as it’s with you.”

Sydney thought about it for a while. “Surprise me.”

“No problem.” Drew grabbed Sydney’s hand and pulled her out of the theater. “You’re going to be impressed!” He laughed heartily as they piled back into his car. “What did you think about the movie?”

“It was pretty good. Definitely worth watching.” Sydney also wanted to tell him that she enjoyed the cuddling they had done, but she was much too shy. “You really know how to pick them.”

“I guess I’m just good at that stuff,” he said as he drove. He was a smooth driver. Sydney watched as a car rudely cut him off, but he didn’t react. He just shrugged and went on with the ride. She had known many who had road rage, and found it interesting that he was so passive about it. “So, tell me about yourself.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything.”