Page 57 of Mafia Wedding

"Were you trying to sound like someone from Psychology Today—-to avoid hurting my feelings?"

"Possibly?"

I roll my eyes, he grins at me, and I think...this is us flirting?

"Why would you even bother?" It's unexpectedly sweet, especially for a party boy moonlighting as a vigilante like him, but also ridiculously misguided. "I literally just told you earlier I'm emotionally challenged—-"

"I know."

"Then why try to spare my feelings?"

"Why indeed?" He rubs his jaw pensively, and the word 'sexy' pops in my mind for the first time in my life. "I guess it's because I like you?"

He...likes me?

I can't help looking at him suspiciously, and his lips twitch. "Do you know how you're looking at me right now?"

"Like I can't understand you?" Because it's true.

"Like you can't make up your mind whether you prefer me alive or dead."

The thought did cross my mind, since I am what I am, but I don't think he needs to know that.

"Obviously not a good thing no matter how you look at it," he continues, "but on the other hand..."

The sardonic note that suddenly underscores his voice startles me.

"If I have to choose between you contemplating the pros and cons of killing me...or you entertaining thoughts of another man?"

Well, duh. Even I'm not crazy enough to think he'd pick the latter—-

"Stare away, darling."

—-and yet that's exactly what he's done.

Huh.

I take another sip of my drink as I try to make sense of what he's saying.

Brenda used to warn me all the time about being too guarded, not just with other people but even with myself.

You have a good heart, but they won't know that if you don't allow them to get close, and you won't see it either if you're too close to it.

I used to think she was being worryingly optimistic, but maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe.

I study the man in front of me, and it's like seeing an archangel in real life.

Handsome. Strong. Noble.

Someone that has everything going for him, and so—-

"Are you really okay with someone like me? Even after everything I've told you?"

The similarities we share are superficial at best. He can never be different like me, and that's why everything this guy says and does just feels too good to be true.

He suddenly leans forward, and I tense up without meaning to.

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