Page 19 of Allured By Her

“I figured you might want a snack,” she said, taking a seat beside me.

“Thank you,” I said, genuinely surprised. This was quite the spread.

I made up a cup of tea and spread butter and blackberry jam on one of the croissants.

“This is the fanciest drunk food I’ve ever had,” I said, shoving almost the entire croissant into my mouth in one go.

“It’s not that fancy,” Tenley said, stirring her tea and then sipping.

“Still,” I said. “I didn’t expect tea and croissants.”

“What did you expect?” she asked, turning to look at me.

“I…” I said, trailing off. “I don’t even know. I guess I didn’t really picture actually hanging out with you. Not like this anyway.” Definitely not sitting and sipping tea on her vintage couch after a party.

“There’s more to me than meets the eye, Mia,” she said, carefully slicing a croissant in half.

“I’m beginning to see that,” I said.

Tenley buttered her croissant and added a layer of jam before taking a dainty bite. Something about the way she did it made me laugh.

“What?” she said, her hand going to her face.

“Nothing,” I said, looking away. “Are we going to talk about your massive book collection or no?”

Tenley shrugged. “We can, if you want.”

“Are they decorative, or have you actually read them?” I asked.

“That’s a patronizing question,” Tenley said, bristling. “Does it matter?”

I shrugged. “I guess not. But if you’d read a lot of them, then I’d ask which ones were your favorite and if I could borrow one.” Some people were too precious about books, in my opinion. If someone wanted to have rainbow bookshelves of books they’d never read, it didn’t really affect me. I mean, I didn’t even own a ton of physical books since my apartment was small and they were a bitch to move. But I had endless ebooks on my phone, and that was fucking great.

“Yes, Mia, I’ve read them. Well, almost all of them. My TBR is around,” she said, gesturing.

“I’m assuming you’ve been to Mainely Books then,” I said, and Tenley glared at me.

“Yes. Kendra and I are on good terms,” she said.

“You’re not in the book club, though?” I asked. “I mean, I know the books we mostly read are sapphic romance so maybe you’re not into that.”

Just a quick glance of the book spines showed me more than a few sapphic romances that I recognized, which was interesting. She also had a ton of other books, so I couldn’t say anything for sure, but I still made note of it. Not that you had to be sapphic to read those books, but it made more sense on why she’d be fine with fake dating me, and not choosing a guy instead. I mean, fake coming out to your whole social circle was kind of a big deal for someone like Tenley. They weren’t the most progressive bunch, which was one of the main reasons I never wanted to hang out with them. Tonight had been more than enough.

“I’m not really a book club person,” she said, selecting another croissant.

“You should try it,” I said, and then wanted to reel those words back in. I didn’t need to invite Tenley into another part of my life. I saw her at work enough as it was.

“Maybe,” she said, but her voice wasn’t enthusiastic, which was a relief.

“Since we’re sitting here, recommend a book to me,” I said. If she owned this many books, she must want to show off a little. Brag on her collection.

“That’s not something I can just do without knowing your tastes,” she said.

“Okay, fine. How about a really steamy romantasy?” I asked. I hadn’t specified sapphic, so I wanted to see what she’d grab.

Tenley thought for a few seconds before getting up and pulling several books off her shelves and then setting them in my lap. One was a bestseller that I’d read years ago, so I set that aside, and then read the back of a second, but it didn’t call to me. The third, though, that one was sapphic and pushed all my buttons.

“What happens to me if I don’t return it?” I asked. Not that I planned on doing that. I respected people’s books.

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