I shake my head, winking at her as I pull open the door. “I would never.” I tug on her arm, guiding her into the diner. “We still have time to change that before someone else does, though.”
Jade smirks. “Well, you’re the only one who knows my secret.”
“It’s safe with me.”
The diner’s relatively empty, since most people who come at night are probably still at the bar. One of the servers from behind the counter waves at the two of us.
“Pick whichever table you’d like!”
Jade is the one who leads, pulling me to an empty booth in the back corner. She unthreads her arm from mine and slides into one of the bench seats. I slide into the one across from her.
“I already know what I want,” she announces, a smile pulling across her lips as she shrugs off her coat.
I arch a brow as I slip off my own jacket. “Is that so?”
“Yes.” My eyes are drawn to her lips and the way they roll as she releases the syllable. My throat bobs as I swallow hard, forcing my gaze away from her mouth.
I don’t know what the hell my problem is.
“Hi!” The server from behind the counter steps up next to our table, almost as if she was summoned by Jade’s words. “I brought you both menus, if you want to look over them.”
“I think we both know what we want, don’t we, Sunny?” My voice is low and thick with tension as my eyes bounce to Jade’s.
Her nostrils widen, her pupils dilating as she stares back at me for a beat. Her tongue darts out to wet her perfect plump lips and I wish my tongue was hers. I close my eyes, the muscle in my jaw tightening.
“I’ll take a water, a black coffee, and whatever he’s having for food.”
I open my eyes, arching a brow at her before looking at our server. “I’ll have the same to drink, but my coffee with cream and sugar. We’ll both have the stuffed nutella waffles with strawberries and bananas.”
She jots it down on her notepad, smiling at the two of us before she excuses herself from the table.
“Those waffles sound like a sugar overload.”
“It is, but you won’t regret it, I promise,” I say, smiling at her. “Plus, you need something to counteract all the alcohol you drank.”
She blows out a breath, pushing her hair from her face as she quickly shakes her head. “I swear I didn’t drink that much.” She purses her lips. “I have a low tolerance and needed something to take the edge off.”
The edge from what?
The words die on her lips as our server comes back with our waters and pours us each a mug of piping hot coffee. She leaves some cream and sugar in the center of the table for me.
Jade slowly lifts the hot liquid to her lips, not even flinching as she takes a sip of it. I overload mine with cream and sugar, slowly stirring it as I meet her gaze once more.
“Is everything okay?”
Her chest rises as she sucks in a deep breath. She swaps her coffee for her water, taking a long sip before setting it back down on the table. “I don’t know. I’m just stressed and out of time and probably fucked.”
My eyebrows cinch together. I have no idea what she’s talking about as she speaks the words in a rushed exhale. “What’s going on? Is there anything I can do to help you?”
She lets out a harsh laugh. “Unless you can come up with the best story idea ever, then no.” She opens her mouth, then closes it, her face scrunching up before she sighs. “I’m an author and the publisher I’ve been working with asked for a new idea and I’m supposed to have something by Monday but I have nothing.”
My curiosity is piqued and I tilt my head to the side. “You’re an author? What do you write?”
“Romance,” she admits after a beat, almost as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to say it aloud.
“No shit,” I breathe, a soft laugh following. A grin tugs on my lips. “That’s really cool. I’ve never met a real-life author before.”
Jade arches a brow. “Do you even read?”
