Chapter 20
GABRIEL
The diner wasthree blocks from the Plaza, a place Gabriel had never set foot in. Cracked vinyl booths. Laminated menus. A waitress who called everyone sweetie and didn’t blink at his rumpled appearance.
The sign came with them. Tessa had insisted, for reasons Gabriel didn’t entirely understand. It sat propped against the booth, hot pink and glittering, announcing to the entire restaurant that he was WILLING TO STARVE FOR LOVE.
The waitress paused when she saw it. “Hon, we only feed for money here. If you ain’t got cash, you’re gonna have to starve somewhere else.”
“He’s got cash,” Tessa said. “He’s just dramatic.”
“Ain’t they all.” The waitress pulled out her notepad. “What can I get you?”
“Coffee for me. Two cheeseburgers, extra fries, and a chocolate milkshake for him.”
The waitress jotted down the order and disappeared.
He looked at her. “Two?”
“You haven’t eaten in five days. You’re getting two.”
The food arrived in under fifteen minutes. Gabriel ate the first burger so fast he barely tasted it. The second one, he slowed down enough to actually appreciate.
Tessa watched him from across the booth, her own coffee untouched. “Better?”
“Getting there.” He wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. “Thank you. For this. For not leaving me on the sidewalk.”
“I almost did.”
“I know.”
She studied him as he finished the last of his fries. Then, quieter, she said, “Why didn’t you eat?”
He set down his napkin. “I wanted to understand you. You told me once I’d never know what it was like growing up the way you did. You were right. A rich man choosing not to eat for a few days isn’t anywhere close to what a child feels going to bed hungry. The desperation, the fear, the way it doesn’t leave you even after you’re safe. I won’t pretend to understand that.” His gaze dropped. “But I needed to try. Even if it was inadequate. Even if all it did was give me the smallest glimpse into what shaped you. Because if I’m going to love you, I need to at least try to understand the parts of you that were forged by things I never had to face.”
He set down his coffee cup.
“I went to your building,” he said. “Avenue C. Three nights ago, while you weren’t answering my calls. I stood outside on the sidewalk for close to an hour. I couldn’t make myself go up.”
There was a silence between them.
“That’s the stupidest, most self-destructive thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I get it.”
“It’s also—“ she stopped and shook her head. “—kind of sweet. In a concerning way.”
“I’ll take sweet.”
He studied her. The way her fingers stayed wrapped around her coffee cup. The way she wasn’t quite meeting his eyes but wasn’t looking away either.
“Lucy says you need to grovel.”
“Grovel. How?”
“Extensively. Flowers. Apologies. The whole thing.” She finally met his gaze. “Those were her exact words on Monday morning. She also offered to assault you with a rolling pin.”
“That’s concerning.”
