In the soft restaurant light, Alexander is dangerously beautiful. All sharp lines and those impossibly blue eyes that pin me where I sit. His expression is unreadable, but it feels like it’s consuming me whole. Just his presence alone is too much.
I swallow hard, forcing myself to keep going.
“I don’t know why you did this,” I whisper. “But I will pay you back. Just… tell me how much.”
He exhales, shaking his head like I’ve just told him the most ridiculous thing.
“No.”
I stiffen. My nails dig into my palms.
“No?”
“I don’t want your money, Lucas.”
“Then what do you want?” My voice cracks at the end.
He leans forward, resting his forearms on the table. The shift pulls me closer without him even touching me. His voice is smooth, deliberate.
“You know what I want.”
My pulse spikes. “I don’t.”
He only raises a brow, and the weight of it presses down on me harder than words. My lips part, useless, until the thought clicks into place.
“You want me to… teach you sign language?”
He nods once.
“That’s how you can repay me.”
I shake my head, voice scraping, throat burning from the strain. I haven’t spoken this much in years.
“That’s not the same. The hearing aids are expensive. Teaching you sign language doesn’t—”
“It does to me.”
I glare at him, grip tightening around the napkin until it wrinkles. My chest is tight, my breath too fast.
“I’m serious—”
“So am I.”
His tone doesn’t waver. Calm. Certain. Like he owns the conversation, owns the ground beneath us. It makes me want to scream. Instead, I grab my water, gulp it down in one messy swallow, and snatch my book and pen. Enough. Talking to him feels like bleeding.
My hand shakes as I scrawl across the page:
I don’t want to owe you anything. I don’t want to feel like I—
I stop. The words blur, threatening to betray me.
He reaches out and takes the notebook before I can stop him. His eyes flick down, then back up.
“Like you what?”
My gaze snaps to his. He’s watching me carefully, patiently, like he knows the answer and is only waiting for me to admit it.
My chest caves, air snagging in my lungs.
