Page 86 of Wreck Me

“Extraordinary?” I pushed, full-on grinning.

“Yes. Jeez. It rocked my world. Happy now?”

“Very.” I reached out and took her hand. “Come now, eat before your breakfast gets cold.” When she resisted my little tug to bring her further into the kitchen, I kissed the back of her hand and told her, “I’m done being a shit now, I promise.”

“Okay,” she said, letting me guide her over to the breakfast bar and to the stool in front of the breakfast I’d set up for her. As she hopped on, I pushed it in and I caught a smile from her.

I took a seat beside her and watched as she took a sip of her coffee first.

And then she choked.

“You don’t like it?”

“I didn’t look before I drank it, didn’t see there wasn’t any milk. And there’s no sugar either.”

“I thought this is how you liked your coffee?”

She thought for a moment and then I saw the realization hit her. “Right, your stalking. You saw me order this at the campus café. That was a once-in-a-while thing, when I really need a jolt. Usually I take heavy milk and like, four sugars.”

“I see. Four? Got a hell of a sweet tooth, do you? Those pink cupcakes in the fridge are yours then?”

She pushed off the stool and took her coffee with her and I watched as she opened the cupboard and took out a sugar bowl and started scooping a whole lot into her mug. As she opened the fridge and pulled out some milk, she told me, “Raspberry cupcakes are my favorite dessert food. My mom ordered them in for a special meal to celebrate me starting at Luxe, then she’s kept it up every few days since.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s some low-tier bribe, I think. Or encouragement, from a more optimistic perspective. Her way of pushing me to stay there and stick with what she’s always wanted me to do… the whole Architecture thing. Without actually voicing it and coming across as heavy-handed, you know?”

Cupcakes? Hmm. Caspian would be all over that. They were his favorite too. Given who he was and how classy and refined he came across to the outside world, people always assumed he’d settle for nothing less than top-tier fine dining. But, really, he was quite simple when it came to his real food preferences, down-to-earth with it in a way. He just didn’t show that often. He stayed within the carefully-crafted image for the most part.

As she came back and settled on her stool again, she looked at my coffee. “Milk? And what else in yours?”

“One sugar, half-full with milk. Tampers down the bitterness of the coffee for me. I don’t really like it that much, but Cal’s dependence on the whole coffee and caffeine thing kind of made it a staple in my life, part of my routine, so it’s a go-to now.”

She chuckled at that. “I see.”

We fell into an easy silence as we then dug into our breakfast and she had me smiling as sounds of contentment emanated from her every now and then, along with compliments here and there too, making my first attempt in a long while at making a meal a rousing success.

“So, the whole Architecture thing? Does your mom know it’s you trying to distance yourself from the Onyx thing and how that spiraled out of control during your time at Vista Ridge?”

“She has no idea.” Her eyes hardened. “Neither will she ever.”

I held up my hands. “Message received. I’m not threatening you, though.”

“I’m just making sure, given how things started off with us.”

“What about your dad?”

“He suspects something happened, but he doesn’t know.”

“I get you not wanting to go back, but there are art and design schools here in Rossun too.”

“I know,” she murmured. “This is best for now.”

“I beg to differ.”

She swung her head at me. “What?”

“Can you honestly tell me that you’re happy doing this, being at Luxe? That what you’re studying is jiving with who you are and the way you operate, the way you think, your whole edgy and creative personality?”

“Is this because you saw me struggling and getting frustrated with that floor plan?”

“No, it’s because there was no excitement, no spark whatsoever when we worked on it. It was just a chore to you, unlike for me. I enjoy it and I excel at it. I’ve wanted to become an architect since I was a kid, first to follow in my dad’s footsteps, then to make my mark on my own.”

---