Page 43

“Bet. Come sit down and eat.”

She didn’t say anything else. She walked over, took the seat beside me, and said her grace before picking up her fork.

For a few minutes, neither one of us said shit.

I looked over at her while she ate.

She caught me staring and cut her eyes at me. “What? Why you staring at me?”

I ignored the attitude. “What do you do?”

Her brows pulled together. “What?”

“For work. You was finna tell me yesterday before my phone went off.”

“Oh.” She looked back down at her plate. “I work at a dental office. I’m a dental hygienist.”

“Hmm.” I nodded slowly. “So you gotta deal with stank ass breath all day?”

She looked over at me before a small laugh slipped out. “Unfortunately.”

I laughed. “Hell nah.”

“It’s really not that bad. You get used to it.”

“Ain’t no getting used to somebody breathing hot shit in your face.”

That made her laugh again, this time a little harder.

“There’s more to the job than smelling people’s breath, Cassian.”

“I would hope the fuck so.”

She shook her head, but I caught the smile she was trying to hide before she went back to eating.

I took another bite of my food, watching her for a second before speaking again.

“You like doing it?”

“Yeah, I actually do.”

I nodded. “That’s what’s up.”

For the first time since shorty had stepped in my house, we were sitting next to each other without her threatening to call police, cussing me out, or trying to figure out how to get the fuck away from me.

I wasn’t dumb enough to think that meant we were good. But shit was progress.

“Yup.”

After a few more bites, I looked back at her.

“So is this something you plan on doing forever? Or do you have other goals?”

“Yeah, and eventually I wanna open up my own office,” she replied.

“That’s what’s up.” I nodded. “You been saving for it?”

“Yeah. For a while now.”