My Father's Best Friend novel Chapter 22

His doorbell rang as Lance was picking out neckties. He grabbed three of his neckties and walked to the door, deciding on making Andrea chose.

He opened the door and was about to say something about his neckties when the words forgot to roll out of his tongue, as he took in Andrea.

She was wearing a black dress that looks fantastic on her, her hair was set on soft curls and she was wearing minimal make-up though it still accentuated her eyes, nose and lips.

"Hey," Andrea broke the silence.

"Hey," he echoed and realizing he was blocking her way in, he stepped aside.

"Thank you," she said and walked in, her earthly yet feminine scent wafting their way to Lance's nose, making his heart accelerate.

Frowning to himself at such weird reaction, he closed the door and followed Andrea to his living room, pushing the unnecessary things aside.

"What do you think looks better with my suit, blue, silver or red?" he asked, holding up the tie in front of him.

Andrea gave him a half smile and walked closer to him, studying his black suit with dark blue dress shirt.

"Hmmm... Silver will do," she said, taking the tie from his hand and putting it around his neck, tying up his necktie for him.

His eyes widened in surprise, but Andrea seemed oblivious, with her eyes focused on his necktie. He gulped as he felt his shaft rise up in salute. A mutter of profanity escaped his mouth, stopping Andrea midway and then as if realizing what she was doing just now, she moved away and turned towards Lance's balcony.

Sighing in relief and frustration at the sudden loss of contact, he made his way to the bathroom in embarrassment, his manhood seemed to be mocking him.

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Andrea heard Lance's footsteps fade from behind her and exhaled the breath she did not even realize she was holding and kept her gaze straight at the nearly dark sky, her thoughts wandering back to the little stunt she pulled seconds ago. She never offered Lance help with his necktie and doing it voluntarily never had happened and it freaked her out because she liked doing it and how it made her feel, and it was like all normal and right.

Fortunately, Lance's profane word dragged her out of her trance, realizing Lance was standing stiff, as if he did not like the contact and with that she moved away, turning around to hide her sudden sadness and hurt.

The doorbell rang knocking her out of her confusion.

"Can you get that?" Lance's voice asked.

"Sure," she said as she walked towards the door and opened it, revealing a middle-aged woman in a dark blue long sleeved cocktail dress that accentuated her almost youthful figure.

"Now, be the gentleman, Lance, and open the doors for the ladies," Holly said and Lance complied opening the back door for his aunt, waited for her to settle in and closed it. He did the same with Andrea, and out of habit, he buckled Andrea's seatbelt, making her heart accelerate even more and her head grow wild with Lance's cologne.

They caught each others’ eyes for a whole second and Andrea noticed that his eyes are darker, darker than his aunt's, which is kind of weird considering the fact that his eyes are the lightest she had ever seen and as Lance closed her door, she threw the thought away, telling herself that it was just the trick of the light.

The drive to the restaurant was a mere twenty minutes of Aunt Holly's tales about Spain that made Andrea feel the tension she was feeling with Lance fizzle out little by little. Lighthearted jokes were thrown around and as they arrived in front of the restaurant, they are well-fed of Holly's joyful presence.

The three of them got out of the car, Andrea unbuckled herself and got out by herself, then made their way to the place.

"Now, I do hope Simon and Pamela allow you to drink, because not getting tipsy with red wine is a no for me, except you're the driver," Holly said as they finished ordering, adding the last bit with a pointed look at Lance, eliciting a laugh from Andrea.

"I guess it will be quite fine as long as I don't get to drive myself home," I beamed at her.

"Very well, darling, let us celebrate!" she announced.

The dinner lasted for an hour and a half with Aunt Holly drinking three whole bottles of red wine by herself, almost drinking the third one on the rim. Andrea, too, drank more than she ever had in front of Lance, downing three full glasses of red wine and feeling quite tipsy as she reached for the bottle to pour herself a fourth glass but Lance, with a serious look, took the wine bottle and shook his head, making Andrea slouch a bit and pout.