Page 75 of The System

Carina met her eyes and said, “This is incredibly sweet. Thank you. Will you have some with me?”

“I probably shouldn’t. You’re here on a date.”

“But you’re only my new sort-of-weird friend. I think we can share a glass of wine together.”

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

“Drink wine?”

“Tell you,” she said, looking down at the floor as her cheeks began to flush in embarrassment.

“Tell me what, Kieran?”

“You’re on a date.”

“It’s only a second date. And she’s nice, but if you have something to tell me, I’ll take her home tonight, and–”

“Do you have to kiss her goodnight?” Kieran interrupted and looked back up.

Carina smiled at her and said, “No, I don’t.”

“Do you want to kiss her goodnight?”

Carina shook her head slowly and then asked, “But do you want to kiss me at all?”

Kieran licked her lips, tasting the strawberry lip balm, and very quietly said, “Yes.”

“Okay. Then, I’ll take her home, and I won’t kiss her goodnight.”

“No?”

“Kieran, you know what’s happening right now, right?”

“Yes.”

“You and I are going to go on a date and see if anything’s here.”

“Yeah.”

“And you want that? Because I don’t want to pressure you into–”

“I missed you,” Kieran admitted, interrupting her. “I just missed you. And I worried that I’d messed this all up. I know you’re in trouble because Frank Richard complained that we were sleeping together. And we haven’t done that yet, but if we go out on a real date, that could get you back in trouble, and I–”

“You said yet,” Carina interrupted her this time.

“Huh?”

“You said that we haven’t slept together yet.”

“Oh, shit.” Kieran covered her mouth with her hand. “I did, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did.” Carina laughed a little and moved a step closer to her. “And you are being so fucking cute right now. I wish I didn’t have Amalia outside because I don’t want to be rude to her, but I really, really want to touch you. Even to just hold your hand or hug you. Literally anywhere. But I can’t until I take care of this.” She nodded back toward the door. “So, I’ll take her home, and you and I will go out.”

“On a date,” Kieran said as if to confirm. “You’re not worried about getting in trouble at work?”

“If I need to, I’ll tell my boss when this really started and that it was after I recused myself, but let’s just take it one step at a time, okay?”

“So, you’ll take Amalia home now? That’s the first step?”

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