“Cinnamon. I swear, I am addicted to it.” He ran his hand through my hair on the other side of my face and I felt him fiddling behind my head. My hair fell out of its bun in waves. “Come to dinner with me tonight. I’ll take you anywhere you want.”
That snapped me back to reality.
Anywhere? He couldn’t take me anywhere.
We went to the library just to stay secluded enough from the local media and paparazzi.
Beyond that, he’d had the chance to take me to dinner years ago, to go anywhere with me years ago, and he hadn’t even picked up the phone.
Now, we were two very different people, getting along for the sake of me passing my class and for Jay.
I shook my head and shoved him back to stand up. “I don’t want to go to dinner with you, Jax. I’m busy.”
“Busy doing what? Working on the assignment you’re supposedly working on now?” he said, stepping toward me again. My anger slipped as his eyes twinkled. "Just dinner, Brey."
"Don’t you have a girl to go to dinner with in the city?" I hated that I’d whispered it, like I should feel guilty for finally pushing us past the small talk we’d done for weeks now.
I’d seen the magazines though. I’d seen the life he lived back home, the woman he was with back home. The one in magazines, the woman at his concerts on TV too.
Isabel. Beautiful. Smart. Perfect.
"You want me to dump her?” He drawled the questions as if it was all a joke. “So, you want this to be a date? Not just working through things and being friends anymore?"
Maybe he was joking with me. Maybe this was all a joke to him and a way to pass the time.
Maybe none of this meant anything to him. And how could I be sure, really? He’d left me once like I’d been nothing. The only other proof I had o the contrary was a stupid little voice mail clanging around in my head every so often.
"No," I said maybe a little too loudly as I leaned back to create a little distance between us. "I just mean, I don't think she would like you going to dinner with anyone other than her. You guys can't see a lot of each other with you being here, and I don’t trust the media to not spin something ludicrous about us."
“Launch is almost over. She won't mind if the media spins it that we went on a date."
I didn’t care whether she would mind or not.
Because I did. That was the real problem.
I was starting to care about a lot of things when it came to him. Or maybe I’d never stopped caring.
I brushed past him and let out a breath.
I bustled around a little, grabbing silverware and went to set the dining room table. He followed silently, bringing in the food.
We moved around each other, comfortable enough to know where the other would go, careful enough to not get in one another’s way. We needed space, we needed to get ourselves in check before something we couldn’t take back happened.
Jay waltzed back in. “Why the hell do we have to eat at the dining room table?” he whined.
“Seriously, Jay, we spent forever picking this table out.” The man wanted to avoid eating like an adult at all costs.
“You might have spent forever picking it out. I spent forever flirting with that nice little lady selling it,” he mumbled around a bite of the burger.
I leaned over to grab some salad that Jax must have found in the fridge.
“You’re serious?” I already knew the answer.
“She was worth it, I promise,” he snickered.
“Ew.”
Jay’s chuckle turned into a full belly laugh when he saw my face.