I don’t know what to do with my warming insides each time she looks my way.
“Home sweet home,” I say, putting the car in park.
“Thank fuck,” she mumbles. “That new couch is really comfortable at the studio, but I love my bed.”
“I get that.”
She starts to open the door, and I grab her wrist before she can slip away.
“Hey—”
She twists her head fast, eyes staggering on my hand before then lifting to mine.
I have to lick the dryness from my lips before I can even speak.
“Dinner,” I manage. “Really.”
A hesitant smile rises at the corners of her lips, and I feel my chest cave at the desire in her eyes that’s so different from the pure lust she looked at me with just days ago. However, thebliss is short-lived as something like pain clouds it, and she looks toward the windshield instead.
“I…”
I wish I could see what she sees.
I wish I knew the torture holding her hostage.
“Bonnie?”
I’m about to burst out of my skin if she doesn’t say anything.
“I… Sorry, I don’t… I know I flirt, and I said it first, but… coming down to the actual question, I don’t know that I can,” she answers.
I’ve never hated and loved honesty all at once.
“Are you afraid of me?” I ask.
Bonnie scoffs as if she’s cursing herself inwardly. “I… yeah,” she admits, finally looking at me. “Yeah, you scare the shit out of me, Gemma.”
I’m tempted to laugh. “Really?”
“Yeah,” she breathes. “You’re real. You’re like healthy and shit, a good person—”
“Bonnie, I am not a good person,” I breathlessly interject.
I am a horrible person.
She sighs, reaches for my hand, and twists her entire body in the seat to face me. She turns my hand over, and in the center of my palm, she drawsIOUwith her nail.
I squint at her. “Why IOU?” I ask.
“Because I owe you a date when I’m ready,” she says. “And that IOU is my promise that I will be. I want to eventually give this a chance.”
I could fucking kiss her.
She kisses my hand then, and I’m stuck on the softness of her lips even as she opens the door for herself. She slides out of the passenger seat, and I lift her bag out of the back to give it to her.
“Text me later?” she asks.
“You know I will,” I reply, heart firing rapidly.
