A smile spread across his face, soft but bright. Something twisted up in my heart. “I could use a friend, and… I get the feeling you could too?”
Goddammit.
I looked away. Stared down at my hands clenched on the steering wheel praying they could anchor me.
He wasn’t wrong. But… I didn’t know how to let him be right.
So I said nothing. Just let the silence stretch between us, taut and buzzing and full of all the things I didn’t trust myself to say.
He didn’t push. Didn’t plead.
Just waited.
And that — somehow — made it worse.
I blew out a breath. Loud. Sharp. Groaned again. My fingers tightened on the steering wheel.
“This doesn’t mean anything,” I said, mostly to myself. Then, cracked the window a little more. “There’s a café down the street. Corner booth in the back. I’ll be there for fifteen minutes.”
He blinked as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard me right.
I kept my eyes forward. “If you show up, we’re talking as friends. That’s it. No weird looks. No… reminiscing. No sad, soulful gazes.”
He had the audacity to laugh. “Understood.”
“I’m not kidding, Ansel.”
“I know.”
“I’ll leave if you get all — whatever. Romantic.”
“God forbid.”
“I mean it.”
He lifted his hands, stepping back from the window as if he was surrendering. “Fifteen minutes. Corner booth. Totally normal, totally platonic breakfast.”
I threw the car into reverse.
“And bring your own coffee,” I added, rolling the window back up. “I’m not paying for it.”
His smile didn’t fade as I pulled away, but I didn’t look at it. Couldn’t.
This wasn’t a yes.
It was a boundary.
It was a test I was sure he’d fail. Maybe one that I would too.
But still — I turned toward the café.
CHAPTER 14
Ihadn’t even finished brushing my teeth.
The door had barely shut behind her — behindJuniper— and I was in motion.
“Shit,” I muttered, half-tripping over the fancy slippers the costume team had gifted me last week. I shoved them aside, found my Crocs under the kitchen island, and jammed them on — were Crocs still cool? I didn’t care. Icouldn’tcare.
