“She made it at Nik’s house.”
“What? Is this true?”
“Yes, Granny. It’s true. I helped him assemble it. That’s it.”
Granny turned toward Bea and told her about the blanket she was knitting. She ignored me the rest of the time at Palm Vista and on the way home.
When we pulled up to the house, she got out of the car and said she was taking a nap. It was what she usually did after visiting Bea. But this time, I knew she wanted to get away from me, and it cut me deep.
“Okay, I’ve got some errands to do.”
“Bye.” She waved me off.
I left the house and ran across the street to Nik’s. I was furious with him. How could he tell Bea I made the lasagna when he knew I was hiding us from Granny?
I knocked on the door and it opened seconds later.
“Hey, beautiful.” He leaned down to kiss me, but I pushed him away and went inside the house.
He closed the door. “What’s wrong?”
“Why did you tell Bea I made the lasagna?”
He furrowed his brow and scratched the scruff on his jaw. “She knew I didn’t make it and wanted to know who did.”
“And you told her I did. Why, Nik? Now Granny is angry with me. She’s ignoring me.”
“Rita, I didn’t want to lie to Nana. I mean, come on. I can’t cook worth shit. She knows this.”
“Then you could have told her your girlfriend made it!”
He grabbed me and hugged me tightly. “Stop talking like that.” His lips were on my neck. “I don’t have a girlfriend. If I did, it would be you.”
Hearing him say he didn’t have a girlfriend should’ve hurt my feelings, but it didn’t. Even if I wanted to be his girlfriend, we were too new. And to be real, Nik was a bad boy who would never commit to anyone. Again, I didn’t care. As long as he didn’t sleep with anyone else, that was good enough for me. For now, anyway. Eventually, it wouldn’t be enough, but I didn’t want to think about that right now.
“She’s furious with me.” I buried my face in his firm chest and inhaled his cologne, which I had found out was called Bad Boy. Fitting, right? Its peppery, spicy notes mixed with Nik’s natural scent soothed me.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you any problems. Maybe we should just tell Lucia we’re dating.”
I lifted my head so I could see his eyes. “Are we dating?” My heart swelled with hope in my chest.
“If you want that, yeah, we are.”
“What do you want?”
“You, Rita. I only want you. I just never dated before. Like, I’m not sure what’s different about it from what we’re doing.”
“Not a lot of difference, I guess. I mean, there’s dating others or dating exclusively.”
He tugged me with him and dropped onto the sofa, pulling me on to his lap. Clasping my face between his large hands, he pressed a firm kiss on my lips.
“I don’t want you dating anyone else.”
“And what about you?” I arched my brow. “No leggy blondes with big tits. No other women, period.” This felt like we were agreeing to be in a relationship.
“Done. I haven’t touched anyone since last Saturday.”
“But, you had a woman on your bike Tuesday night.”