Page 26 of Shattered

“Try what again?” I ask, my voice leaking nervousness from the way his eyes are taking me in and darkening with their journey.

“Trying to convince yourself that you have no claim to me.”

“Whatever,” is my great reply.

I’m not ready to admit anything yet. I can’t be having feelings for him of all people. I mean, yes, he’s sexy as fuck and knows how to manipulate my body like no one ever has, but he also annoys the shit out of me.

I pick up my burger and take a bite, immediately regretting it. I grab a napkin and spit the bite into it.

“What’s wrong?”

I toss the napkin I just spit into down on the table. “It has mustard on it.” My eyes automatically look around for the waitress who didn’t get my order right because she was too busy checking out my— River.

“That’s great!” His sexy smile makes me forget about my food while my stomach does flips.

I shake the tingles from my body. “How is that great? I’m hungry!”

“Number forty-seven on the list says, ‘send back food’.”

“Oh, no.” I shake my head. “I can’t do that one right now.”

“What? Why?” His eyes narrow on me as his forehead wrinkles.

“Did you happen to see the looks that waitress was giving me? She will spit in it.”

This has always been my fear. I mean, damn, I saw that movie about the food service workers. I haven’t sent food back since, and I always get an uneasy feeling in my stomach when I think about how many times I had sent food back and just how much spit I must have consumed over the years.

“That’s just part of dealing with the repercussions, remember?”

I look nervously around the outdated restaurant, a knot forms in my stomach.

“What do you have to lose? I mean, you won’t eat it now anyway? You can at least cross it off the list.”

I twist my fingers together in my lap. I guess he’s right. I can at least eat my fries that are probably cold now.

“Okay.” I take a deep breath and raise my hand.

River bursts out laughing. “What are you doing? You’re not trying to answer a question in grade school.” He grabs my arm and lowers it.

I shrug. “I don’t know how to do this.”

He spots our waitress and waves her over. She comes to a stop at our table with a beaming smile, until he motions towards me.

Her smile instantly drops as she turns her whole body to look at me.

I look at River and he nods me on. I swallow the excess slobber that’s now pooling in my mouth at an alarming rate. “I ordered this with no mustard and there is mustard on it.”

She rolls her eyes and lets out a dramatic sigh. “I’ll have them make you a new one.” She walks away without saying another word.

I feel my smile form on its own.

“See that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

I shrug. “I guess not. But I’m still not eating it.”

He quirks an eyebrow at me. “You have to eat at least one bite.”

“Who made you the list police?” I grab a fry and bite it angrily.

---