Page 6

“All right,” she sighs. “Go get your food and call me tomorrow. Remember, you got this.”

I fight back a smile at her encouraging words. Even when she’s mad at me, she can’t help but be the best sister and give me the pep talk I need.

“Love you, Ria,” I tell her and she laughs.

“Yeah, I love you, too. Talk to you tomorrow.”

After we say good-bye, I hang up and stand, shoving my phone back into my pocket as I turn toward the door of the restaurant. My stomach growls again, cramping and I sigh as I rub my belly.

“I hear you, baby. Let’s get some food.”

“Izzy?” someone calls from behind me.

For the love of God, what does a pregnant woman have to do to get some food around here?

I grit my teeth as I glance over my shoulder. A vaguely familiar man smiles when I make eye contact with him and I turn, trying to remember where I know him from but it’s not coming to me. He stops a few feet from me and an awkward silence stretches between us as I struggle to figure out where I know him from. He lets out a nervous laugh.

“Luca, remember?”

Oh, shit.

Luca is a guy I went out on a few dates with right after I first found out I was pregnant and I was trying to convince myself that my life didn’t have to change. God, I was so delusional. We went out a total of three times but none of them really stand out to me because all of my focus was on continuing with the same lifestyle I was used to. The same goes for Luca, I suppose. He could have been any guy as far as I was concerned because he wasn’t important which is probably why I didn’t recognize him at first.

“Right! Sorry, I’m a space cadet tonight.”

He smiles. “No worries. How have you been?”

What a loaded question.

Not that he knows that.

“Good,” I answer, forcing a smile to my face as my stomach growls loud enough for him to hear. He laughs, glancing down my mid-section and I offer a thanks to the pregnancy gods that despite being so far along, my stomach is still small enough to be hidden behind the loose shirt I wore for work tonight.

“You sound hungry so I won’t keep you but I’m glad I ran into you. I’d love to grab dinner some time and catch up.”

My smile falls away. “No offense, Luca, but I’m not really dating right now and I don’t ever double dip.”

“I remember you saying something about that in the talk you gave me on our first date,” he says with a laugh. The speech I used to give to every man I ever went out with pops into my head. It was straightforward and to the point, laying out the fact that any type of relationship between us would be short lived and casual, nothing more than sex and a good time before I moved onto the next. There were some men who thought it sounded harsh but it was essential to curb their expectations because I refuse to get attached. That shit only leads to pain and misery. “But I thought I’d ask.”

He stares at me, waiting for a response but I refuse to apologize for keeping my word or offer him any other platitude about how it was good seeing him because honestly, it wasn’t. Not only did he keep me from my dinner but he also tried to break the rules I laid out very clearly for him when we first met. As the silence stretches between us, he shuffles his weight from one foot to the next and runs his hand through his short dark hair with a nervous chuckle.

“Right. Well, like I said, I’ll let you get back to your dinner.”

I nod. “Thanks.”

“Frigid bitch,” he mutters under his breath as I turn toward the door of the restaurant and I arch a brow as I whip around, my blood boiling.

“What the fuck did you just call me?”

He blinks in shock and I swear I can see his pea-sized brain struggling to catch up to the most recent twist in our conversation. I’m sure he thought that he’d mutter the insult under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear, and that I’d go home, agonizing over him and what he thinks of me but I refuse to let him get away with that.

“Uh… I… you didn’t have to be so fucking rude. I was just offering to take you out again and show you a good time.”

Fuck this asshole.

“Yeah, guess what, dickweed, there wasn’t anything memorable enough about you to warrant another date so maybe you should develop more of a personality before you start acting like you’re God’s gift to women.”

He crosses his arms over his chest, trying to appear cocky but I can see the anger simmering just under the surface. “I was just trying to get the sex I was promised, Izzy, and if you had given me a real chance, I can assure you…”