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She peers over the menu. “I spent twenty thousand dollars on you, rode into the mountains on the back of your motorcycle, lied about you being my boyfriend, made out with you at a wedding in front of my ex and nearly slept with you while he was staying down the hall.” She lowers the menu. “I think my membership is under review.”

My dick reacts to nearly slept with you.

My head reacts to everything else.

I lean closer. “Keep talking about what almost happened in that hotel room and Sally’s going to get considerably better gossip.”

Clara’s lips twitch. “What would that be?”

“Bathroom’s twenty feet away.”

Her eyes widen. “You wouldn’t.”

“Want to find out?”

“No.”

“Coward.”

She kicks me under the table and I laugh. Everything between us is so normal. Easy. That’s the problem. Everything with Clara has become too fucking easy.

Her hand in mine.

Her body behind me on the bike.

Knowing how she takes her coffee.

Knowing exactly how her face changes right before I kiss her.

I haven’t had this in years.

I haven’t wanted it.

That’s what I’ve been telling myself.

Then Clara Bennett spends twenty grand on me, and suddenly I’m sitting in a diner imagining what she’d look like across my kitchen table every morning.

Dangerous.

A group of women from the library walks past.

One smiles at Clara.

Another looks at me like she caught the town librarian buying cocaine.

Clara waves.

I look away.

“You’re doing it again,” she says.

“Doing what?”

“Getting weird.”

“I’m not weird.”

“You’ve barely insulted me in ten minutes.”