It was things like this that made her misread his behavior. He actually sounded like he cared. “What’re we, friends now?” she asked with a bitter smirk. “We check in on each other. We call. We send texts.” She tapped her forehead as if she were the biggest idiot. “Oh, I forgot. The concept ofwedoesn’t exist.”
He immediately stood up and his elevated breathing told her he was raging now. “Don’t pull that shit on me, Jasmin. It’s common courtesy.”
She coughed out a laugh at the utter ridiculousness. “Let’s just take a second and break that down.It’s common courtesy. The statement as a whole implies an expectation and you should expectnothingfrom me. Now if we move on to the wordcommon, that means it’s a standard, it’s normal…and we both know that I’m not normal. If I were, I would be like other girls, falling into the category of the real women you fuck.” She was more angry than she was hurt now. Or maybe she was so angry because she was so hurt. Screw human emotion. “And lastly, let’s deal with the word courtesy.” She stared at him for a moment and his eyes and body language seemed to be a mirror image of hers. Tense and edgy. “Courtesy implies some type of social etiquette and once again, you shouldn’t expect that from me. I’m socially inept, remember?” With their eyes still locked, she gave him another smile and exhaled dramatically. “Whoo! Well, I’m glad I got that off my chest, Kevin. I feel so much better now. I don’t know if I can say the same for you, but in all honesty, if you don’t like it, there’s the door. I may just be alittle girl, but I assure you I am well accustomed to people not caring about me. And even more so, I’m used to them leaving me behind.”
He closed the gap between them and as he got closer, her breath caught. After a long, silent stare down, he lifted his hand to her face, gently tracing his thumb over her cheek. That small acknowledgement of pain. It was his fault and he seemed to acknowledge that as well. It took everything in her to keep the tears at bay. No matter what mask she put on, what mood she chose to fake, he saw through it every single time. What made it worse was that she saw a glimmer of the Kevin she liked, the one hidden behind the thick layer of asshole. But he was a liar and she wouldn’t misread the signs again.
“I’m not leaving you,” he whispered.
It was the only thing he said before he turned and walked out of her room.
November, 22
Amarillo, Texas
It was pretty much the same as the day before. She sat at a different table and ate breakfast alone. There was no point in forcing her company. She gave him the choice to leave and he hadn’t. But like everything else he did, it didn’t mean anything. She wasn’t going to analyze that decision. In all likelihood, she’d come to the wrong conclusion.
They drove for four hours to Amarillo and after a lonely lunch, they checked into an inn. She toured the town by foot, not going too far, though. To avoid another argument, she returned to the inn at a decent hour and had a forty-five minute catch-up with her cousins. She only talked about the details of the trip and didn’t bring up Kevin once. Today was the last day of wallowing in self-pity. She was done with that shit. Tomorrow she was going to go out there and have some fun.
November, 23
Amarillo, Texas
Jasmin maintained a brisk pace as she walked towards the restaurant, trying to stay a few feet in front of Kevin. She hadn’t wanted him to tag along, but she couldn’t really stop him from eating. The restaurant was within walking distance from the inn they were staying at, so as soon as she was done with lunch, she was going to tour the town by herself again. It was a little foggy today, but it seemed to be clearing.
The Little Texan was a quaint place, but had so much character. Very ranch style in its appearance. Long wooden tables with three-seater benches on each side. The benches were covered in white leather with big, brown blotches that resembled cow-hide. There were even lassos and bull horns attached to the walls.
She waited for Kevin to sit down, but before she could walk away, he grabbed her wrist.
“You can sit here. You don’t have to eat alone.”
“That’s kind of you, Kevin.” She gently tugged her hand out of his grasp. “But you don’t have to do anything for me out of pity anymore.”
“Jasmin—”
She didn’t spare him another glance as she walked away and found another seat on the other side of the restaurant. Little Texan was a bit of a contradictory name because the servings were meant to cater for people the size of Shaquille O’ Neil and not the average Joe.
She had just placed an order for a burger and fries when she heard someone clear his throat beside her. She looked up andsaw two guys and two girls, all appearing to be around the same age as her.
“This is our table,” one of the girls said flatly.
Jasmin made a show of looking around the table. “I don’t see your name on it.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’re regulars here, and wealwayssit at this table, so unless you want us to call management—”
“Fine,” Jasmin said, shifting along the long bench to get off. She really wasn’t in the mood to have a fight over a stupid table.
Before she even made it to the edge, one of the guys, the blonde one, was already sitting down and shifting towards her. “Stop being a bitch, Megan.” He looked over at Jasmin and smiled. “I can see you’re not from around here. Care to join us for lunch?”
She really didn’t have much of a choice. He had her blocked in. She moved back to her original spot on the other end and he shifted with her so that Megan could sit down beside him. The other guy, the dark-haired one, sat directly in front of her and the other girl sat beside him.
“I’m Brad,” the blonde said, giving her his hand. She shook it and he went on to introduce the others. “You’ve already met Megan. That’s April and that’s Antonio…but call him Tony. He’s in a phase where he thinks denying his entire Mexican heritage will help him land an acting job. I know. It’s dumb.”
Jasmin smiled as she looked around at all of them. There were very good looking people here in Texas. The two girls were nothing like theAndysfrom Vegas, but still very pretty in that girl next door kind of way. Brad was tall and built like a tank. She didn’t want to stereotype, but he looked like he played football. He had a warm look about him, caramel eyes with a playful grin.Verycute. Antonio, on the other hand, was thinner and shorter, and definitely had a face for TV. Girls would swoon over that one. So while Brad was sexier (body wise), Tony was by far betterlooking. It was strange, though. Neither of them had the same appeal as Kevin.
“What’s your name?” Brad asked.
“Jasmintha.” She remembered the trouble Kevin had with the pronunciation and decided to give them an alternative. “You can call me Jasmin.”
