Page 68 of Getting Over You

She rubs sleep from her eyes, blinking slowly. “Huh?”

“The diner. You don’t work today?”

“I don’t,” Rory confirms. “Why are you waking me up before the sun?”

“Gigi works today. What do I have to do to get you to take her shift for me?”

Turns out, all I have to do is offer to do the laundry that Rory piled on EJ’s bedroom floor. And to do the dishes on a regular basis.

As Rory prepares to walk out the door, she says, “You do this for all the girls you want to be with, or is Gigi special?”

I wave her off. “Give me a break.”

“Gigi’s special. You’re not admitting it to yourself.”

My jaw clenches. “Don’t you have a shift to go to?”

Rory flips me off, then makes her way out of the apartment.

Chapter twenty-three

I’m greeted not by Rory’s Jeep in the driveway for my morning shift, but Cade’s truck. It’s a welcome surprise, even if he engulfs me and my stupid, stupid heart in flames every time we see each other lately.

“Why are you here?” I ask him as I get in. “You have today off.”

“And now,” Cade says, putting the truck in reverse and backing down the driveway, “you do, too.”

“How?”

He clears his throat. “I may have offered to do the dishes in the apartment.”

I clutch my chest, looking at him doe-eyed. I’m playing it up for Cade’s sake, but my heart squeezes at the thought of him doing something so grandiose. And for my benefit, at that.“Cade.Mr. Deans,I think you’ve outdone yourself.”

“It’s not for you,” Cade says, jaw ticking. My chest tugs. “It’s for your stress levels.”

“And to you, those are two entirely separate things?” I clarify.

He nods once.Oh-kay.“You got a tattoo to prove to me you’re a badass. I’m going to take you on a date day to prove that your advice is working.”

Cade Deans, taking me on a date.

Never thought I’d see the day.

“A date day? That’s not very Cade Deans.”

“It’s not,” he agrees. “But a tattoo isn’t very Gigi Knox, now is it?”

Checkmate. “I didn’t get the tattoo to prove anything to you,” I bite back, the heat from my chest floating up to my hairline, then back down right between my legs. “But I think you kissed me on the Ferris wheel to prove something to me.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. Like you needed to prove you’re capable of doing something soft and sweet to a woman while she’s still clothed,” I joke.

He winces as I softly shove him. “Ah.”

“Am I wrong?”

Cade’s jaw pulses. “We’re starting at Brew,” he says, “for our usual.” My brain repeatsour usualover and over and over.Our.“Then once we’re bored with that and get hungry, we’ll go to our other usual spot. Then I was thinking we’d spend some time at the boardwalk, maybe the beach if you feel like it.”

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