Page 83 of House of Desire

My heart drops, but I try not to show my disappointment.

“No problem. It was super last minute anyway. Just thought I’d ask. Have a good night.”

I turn toward the front door, keeping my body relaxed. Unbothered. A friend wouldn’t have their heart fall into their stomach at a rejection.

“I was going to run to the store later,” she says, stopping me as I start to push the door open. I turn my head back to her, willing her to continue. “I didn’t order enough of a few things. I’m still trying to get a grip on the new demand, so I need to go to the grocery store. We could go now, if you want.”

“You want me to go grocery shopping with you?” I ask.

“Friends go shopping together. I just need to grab a few things. You don’t have to go, I just thought I’d ask.” I see doubt creep onto her face and want to squash it immediately.

“Yes, let’s go grocery shopping. Do you want me to drive?”

“That’d be great. Let me grab my purse.”

She goes into the back as I grab my keys from my pocket. I wish I had brought a change of clothes to the office so I wasn’t still in my uptight work clothes, but I can’t seem to care.

I’m with Anastasia and that’s all that matters.

The store is bustling with people stopping by before heading home from work. Everyone has a frenzied air about them, like they want to go in, grab what they need, and leave. But Anastasia takes her time. She lets people cut her off or anticipates their movements and stops short, allowing them an unimpeded path.

One of the wheels on the cart I’m pushing is spinning like a top and completely useless while another one randomly gets stuck, making an annoying noise as it drags across the floor.

“I think you picked the most messed up cart in the whole bunch,” I tell her as she reaches up for a thing of honey, her shirt riding up and letting me see an inch of her skin.

Only an inch, but an inch is enough to make my mouth water.

“You could have grabbed another one, but you were distracted by that balloon.”

“It looked like a penis and I was shocked they’d sell it.”

“It was obviously a mushroom.”

“A penis mushroom.”

“You’re ridiculous,” she says, putting the honey in the cart before making her way down the aisle. A woman passes us and her eyes widen as she does a double take, but luckily, she doesn’t say anything.

I should have considered people might recognize us. It happened a bit after the finale of House of Deceit.

No one else pays us any attention as we go through aisle after aisle. I’m surprised by the normalcy of the entire situation. I realize I haven’t been grocery shopping with another person since long before Brittany and I got divorced. We would go together on Sundays when we first got married, but eventually, she got tired of my impatience to leave and I got tired of her needing to read every single label.

After a particularly nasty fight in the middle of a store, we decided it would be best if she shopped on her own and I would make sure to bring everything in from the car and put it all away where it belonged. It worked for us, but I see now the casual intimacy we lost in not doing such a task together.

But Anya could read every label twice and I wouldn’t care.

“So Miles Lawson was at your shop today. That’s pretty cool,” I say with exactly zero preamble. She looks at me over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow.

“He’s my brother’s teammate. They come around every once in a while.”

“In silk shirts?” I mumble under my breath, feeling childish for being jealous.

She turns around, putting a hand out to stop the cart, making people break around us with scoffs.

“Go ahead and ask,” she says in an accusatory voice.

“Ask what?” I say, trying to feign ignorance, but I can tell she sees right through me. I know I’m going to regret this, but my jealousy won’t let me move off this path. “You’re going out with him, huh?”

“I haven’t decided. He broke up with his girlfriend while we were filming, but I’m not really sure about it.”

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