Page 54 of Getting Down to Business

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Gray missed the call from the doctor on Friday, but he got the message that everything was clear. With a little fist pump he tucked his phone back in his pocket.

“Good news?” Doug asked as he walked in Gray’s office and flopped in a chair.

“Yep.”

“You’re not the father?” he guessed.

“Something like that,” Gray said with a laugh.

“Going out tonight?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. I haven’t checked with Liss yet.”

“I thought she wasn’t your girlfriend.”

“She isn’t.”

“Then you can go out without her.”

“I could, but I don’t want to. I like to go out with her.”

Doug shook his head.

“I’m not one to define a relationship. Lord knows I have no idea what to call the thing I have going on right now. But I’m pretty sure when you live with someone, have sex with them and enjoy going out with them, that is a girlfriend.”

“She’s a roommate, coworker, and friend.” That was what Alyssa was comfortable with and he was fine with that. It was obvious to him by this point that someone had hurt her. He didn’t know who or what that someone did, but she admitted she had trust issues.

The last thing she needed was for him to agree to a friends-only arrangement and then change the rules on her. She wouldn’t appreciate that.

Besides, he was learning a lot about himself. He’d jumped from one relationship to the next without ever taking the time to build a friendship first. Now that he was friends with Alyssa, he realized how important that step was.

Not that they were going to be in the relationship.

“Then can we go out tonight? There’s someone I’d like you to meet,” Doug asked.

“Can Liss come too?”

“See? That right there is a girlfriend,” Doug protested.

“No. It’s not.”

“Say it with me…girrrrl friennnnd.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Fine. You can bring your girlfriend who isn’t a girlfriend.”

Doug rolled his eyes and left Gray’s office mumbling about how much he hated Gray.

Liss stopped in before lunch.

“You hungry?” she asked. He raised his brows and tilted his head. “For food.” Damn.

“Yeah. I have time to grab something quick.” Though he wished it was her he was grabbing. And not quick.

“Doug wants us to go out with him tonight,” he said when they were out of the building, where it was safe to speak like regular people.