I nodded. “That’s why I came back. To give this to you. I didn’t like how we left things earlier.”
“You mean how you pitched my creamer out of the cab and didn’t even look back?”
Guess that meant he was still mad about it. Valid. I inhaled through my nose. Let it be known that I despise creamer packets.Loathe them entirely. Everything they represented was shit I wanted to forget.
With that being said, I realized they represented something else altogether to Pip.
“What was it you called them again?” I said quietly. “Hugs?”
He nodded. “Liquid hugs.”
You see why I hate them, right? His life was so terrible that he likened little plastic cups filled with oil and chemicals to comforting hugs.
Despicable.
Deplorable.
I might go burn down a creamer factory.
And as abysmal as it was, it made me worse because he’d offered me something he viewed as his only source of comfort, and I tossed it into the street.
Even for a villainous man like me, it was too much.
Clearing my throat, I looked into his eyes. “It was wrong of me to throw your creamer out the window.” Things I never thought I’d say for a thousand.Focus!“It was all you had, and you handed it over like it was no big deal. I was just frustrated you carry them. I wish you didn’t have to.”
His lips rolled in and then popped back out. “Thank you, Hiro.”
“So here,” I said, pulling out the two boxes from behind my back and thrusting them between us. “I got you these to try and make up for my… bad behavior.”
Honestly, if this were anyone else, I’d be shoveling in the popcorn and enjoying the show. Amused as hell. But right now, I wasn’t amused. My heart was caged in my throat and struggling to beat as I waited on pins and needles for his response. For forgiveness.
Something I never thought I’d ever want or ask for.
“You got me creamer?” Rett asked, staring down at the two boxes.
“Mm.” I agreed and lifted the one in my right hand. “Hazelnut because that seems to be your go-to,” I explained, then held up my left hand. “And vanilla caramel because I know you don’t even like the hazelnut, and I wanted you to have something bougie.”
If coffee creamer could even be bougie.
This is what my life had become.
“There’s fifty in each box,” he said, still staring. But then his attention shifted, pinning me in place and making me think,Life has never been better.
“You got mefiftyhugs.”
Yep. I was down bad.Bad.That cotton candy that made up my heart? It was princess pink.
“I can get you more.” I started, realizing fifty was nowhere near enough.
He plowed into me, the air knocked from my lungs.He squeezed hard, molding himself around me while burying his face in my chest. “Thank you, Hiro. Thank you so much.”
Something inside me loosened, no longer on pins and needles.
Before I could do much, he grabbed both boxes and hugged them into his chest with luminous eyes. “I’ve never had vanilla caramel before. That’s the fancy kind.”
“Only the best for you, baby.”
It had come to my attention that I was going to continue calling him by the B-word. A word I’d totally refused to use until now. Calling someone baby made me vulnerable and gave the recipient a certain type of power. In case you hadn’t noticed, I was a total powermonger. Must have all the power at all times. Giving up even a little in my world was basically committing suicide.
