Page 54 of After All This Time

To my surprise, Dani polishes off her burger first.

“Hungry, huh?”

She rolls her eyes. “No, you’re just fucking slow.”

“Hey, this isn’t a competition.”

“Everything’s always been a competition with us.”

“Maybe we can change that and…other things.”

Her lips shift to the side of her face. “What are you proposing, Kaplan?”

“I know I can be an asshole sometimes, but I want you to know I’m always here if you ever need to talk to someone. I know it’s hard to talk about this kind of shit. Trust me, I do. I didn’t listen in the past, but I’m listening now.” I take a deep breath, continuing my train of thought. “We can be human beings who have conversations without having screaming matches with each other. What do you say?”

Her face is full of contemplation and confusion. “I can try and get on board with that,” she says as a smile slowly appears on her face.

“Try really hard.”

“You’re making me change my mind.”

Marina comes over to us with a styrofoam box.

Dani and I look at each other.

“We don’t have any leftovers,” I say.

“I know,” Marina says, gesturing to Dani to open the box.

She opens it and Dani’s jaw drops. She’s practically salivating.

There’s a giant piece of chocolate fudge cake in there.

“Oh my God, I love you so much Mar,” Dani says.

She leans in closer to us, whispering. “Dinner and dessert are on the house tonight.”

I shake my head. “Marina, no.”

“In honor of your dad. You have no idea how much he helped me when I started running this place on my own. Your mom, too. You’re pretty lucky, Noah. Not everybody has parents who would do anything for their children and serve their community. Your dad was special and so are you. Never forget that.” She gently pats me on the back and turns her attention to Dani. “And I know how much your dad loved this cake. You’d get it every single time you’d come in. You both deserve something sweet after all the chaos you’ve endured. Enjoy it.”

“Mar, you’re making me cry,” Dani says through her tears.

“Hope to see you more often, kiddo. I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Dani gets up to hug Marina. “Sorry if I got tears all over you,” she says as she laughs.

“It’s okay,” Marina winks at her and walks away from us.

“I can’t believe she just did that,” I say.

“I can,” Dani replies with a giant smile plastered on her face.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

dani

Noah can’t believe Marina gave us a free dinner and dessert, but I’m not surprised. That’s the kind of person she’s always been.

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