Chapter Seven
Rayne
They had been sitting there for almost an hour, and Rayne had quickly deduced that Chelsea had ordered enough food for the both of them. She was eating but more like picking.
“I guess your eyes were bigger than your stomach,” Rayne said, biting into another avocado egg roll. Man, he missed eating out. It seemed like such a small thing when he’d been out there in the world; now he understood the luxury.
“I always order like this. It used to drive Frankie crazy.” Chelsea barely got the words past her quivering lips. “She called it wasteful and would always try to eat all the food I left on my multiple plates. I tried to explain to her that I did it for fun because I just love ordering.”
Rayne smiled. “I get that.” Once he’d gone to the Byrd & Baldwin Bros Steakhouse and dared his date to order him one of each of the four entrees. There had been no prices on the menu, and the CEO of Parker and Company hadn’t even blinked at the fourteen-hundred-dollar tab. Thinking about that night now, Rayne wondered if the Wagyu rib eye had been worth what he’d done to the executive in his hotel room that evening.
Had Rayne been nothing but a high-priced escort?
“Hey.” Chelsea tapped his knee again. “Come back to the present. I’m sorry I said that. I shouldn’t be reminiscing about the past either. My Frankie is gone, and she’s never coming back. Not after this…”
“I’m not gonna judge you either, Chels,” Rayne said in a gentle tone as tears built in her pretty green eyes.
Chelsea sniffled, then let go a whimpering laugh, waving off his concerned expression as if she was being silly. “I’m fine. You just reminded me of her when you mentioned all the plates.”
He didn’t need to ask her why she’d done it. Why she’d cheated on someone she loved so much. It was difficult to understand this addiction when the spectrum was so vast. He barely understood it. And it wasn’t his place to question her on it. Instead, Rayne began to eat a bit more food despite being full as they tried to clean the plates and not waste a drop, in honor of her Frankie.
After Chelsea finished her rib eye, she reclined in the booth and rubbed the small pudge above her belt buckle. “I’m gonna be working off this meal in the gym for the next two weeks. It’ll take me five minutes to get into my bridge pose.”
Rayne sat up taller. “You do yoga?”
Her smile was bright and real this time. “Yes. My counselor recommended it to me a while ago, but I never really got into it until Frankie left.”
Rayne understood. It was common to seek an outlet in the midst of pain. And yoga was a great way to manage stress. It was peaceful to exhale all the defiant feelings into the strong poses. By the time Rayne finished, he always felt calmer and more settled. He would love to go to a real class.
“I try to go every other day, but work is demanding, so it’s hard to stay consistent,” Chelsea said, wiping her mouth with her napkin.
“What do you do?”
“I’m an anesthesiologist at Beach General Hospital.”
Rayne eyed Chelsea’s long fingernails.
As if she was used to that response, she waved her hand in his direction. “Oh, these are just press-on nails. I can pop them off like stickers and do my shift.”
“I’m not employed right now, so I have a lot of time to study mind wellness. Yoga is my favorite by far. I love it,” he confessed. “I’m just getting started myself. I learn from books and magazines to help me with the poses.”
“There’s tons of YouTube videos, but we both know the rules on that.”
Rayne held up his cheap flip phone that only made and received calls. He had no data plan and a limited four contacts in total. Maybe after today, he’d have five. But it was safer if he had no access to the internet. It equaled fewer temptations. Rayne wished he could get more personal instruction on his new passion, but the books would have to do for now.
“Maybe you can join a studio. There’s so many in the area that do intro and beginners classes for like a hundred bucks a month.”
Rayne pfft’d. “For one month. Yeah, I’m tight on funds right now, and I’m kinda running out of things to pawn.”
“I get it.”
They were quiet for a moment, and he knew she was waiting on his story. And he wanted to share it so badly. He groaned out loud as she laughed around her glass of water. “Oh, come on. It can’t be that bad. I know I’m a complete stranger, but you can totally spill all of your deepest secrets to me. Trust me when I—”
“I use sex as a weapon,” he blurted like an idiot.
Chelsea blinked her thick false lashes and cocked her head to the side. “Care to elaborate?”
Rayne took a deep breath as he ran his hand through his hair. He turned his gaze upward to pray for strength, his eyes wandering over the beautiful pastel murals decorating the towering ceiling. He could do this; he could tell her. And maybe if he could start with one person, he could open up to others too.