“Okay, fine, I won’t use any biblical stories.” Unless he could find a subtle way to work one in...
Leah narrowed her gaze at him. “Don’t use any, like, science equations either.”
“Excuse me?”
She waved her hand in a circle. “Don’t be like, ‘When the mass of my affection encountered the catalyst of alcohol intoxication, the stimuli of our proximity caused a reaction in my—’” She stopped at the look on his face. “Get it, ’cause you love science? Aw, come on, that was funny.”
“I’m gonna go talk to Morey about this.”
“I forgot how high-strung you are.” Leah offered him a hand and helped him to his feet. “This isn’t complicated. Just tell her the truth. You got scared because she’s extremely hot, and you didn’t wanna mess up the relationship you have with her, but if she’s open to it, you’d like to take her to dinner sometime.”
Ethan stared at the ceiling. “That actually sounds reasonable.”
“Ah yes. Well, Iamthe smart one. Everyone says so.”
“Wait. Then which one am I?”
“Hmm.” Leah tapped a finger against her mouth. “The hairy one?”
“When do you go back to Maui again?” Ethan started on the next row of boxes with a frown.
Leah tossed his cell phone on top of the box he was carrying. “Call her.”
“Did you go through my stuff?” He changed his mind. Free labor wasn’t worth it.
“Oh, relax, prom king.”
He lowered the box carefully so his phone wouldn’t slide off the top. “Even if I was going to call her, I’m not doing it now in front of you.”
“Oh, okay. Yeah, that makes sense.” Leah grabbed his cell while he was still holding the box.
He really needed one of those lock codes. “Don’t—”
“Oops. It’s ringing.” She shoved the phone at his chest.
“Are you kidding me?” Ethan scrambled to check the number on the screen. Sure enough...
“Hello?”
“Uh, hi. This is Ethan.” Of course Naomi knew that. They’d exchanged numbers. Ugh.
Leah covered her mouth and shook her head.
He mouthed something unbecoming of a rabbi at her.
“Hey there. How’s your face?” Naomi’s voice on the other end of the line was unusually light.
“It’s okay.” It definitely didn’t hurt as much as his pride right now.Just go for it. Rip off the Band-Aid.“I was wondering if I could, um, speak to you after the next seminar.”
“Oh.” A long pause on the line. “Sure. I mean, do you wanna just talk now?”
“Er... no.” Ethan scrambled for rationale. “I can’t because I’m... on a boat.”
“On a boat?”
Leah threw her arms in the air like he was a lost cause.
Ethan covered the mouthpiece of the phone. “You caused this. Help me.”