Page 29 of Forbidden Hearts

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I don’t understand what you’re saying. I don’t speak Spanish.”

“If you’re just friends, then why did he bring you here? You’re the first woman he ever brings here, so youmust bemore than just friends.”

“We’ll, we’re not,” I say, suddenly feeling defensive. I don’t have to explain myself to a teenager, but I feel like I do for some reason. “We’re not,” I repeat.

I toss the paper towel into the trash bin and leave the restroom without saying another word.

As soon as I walk out of the restroom, I notice that something feels different. The entire mood of the restaurant changed while I was in the restroom. The silence stops me in my tracks.

On the way back to my table, a few people at the other tables look up at me from their plates before continuing to eat. Even the men sitting at the table behind me are strangely quiet. It feels like I entered the Twilight Zone or something.

I slide my chair out to sit, and the guy who bumped into me twitches. He turns his head and looks up at me. “I’m sorry,” he says softly.

He turns his head further to look at Alonzo, who is staring him dead in the eyes. Then he turns to me again.

“I’m sorry for spilling the drink on you. It won’t happen again,” he says before turning around and eating his meal in silence.

I sit and look at Alonzo. He eats his food as if nothing happened and asks for my weekend plans.

“What happened?” I whisper. Something happened while I was gone. “Did you do something?”

Alonzo sips his coffee and shakes his head. But I know he’s lying. Something must have happened in the five minutes that I was in the restroom. The mood turned tense.

It feels uncomfortable.

Somehow, we make it through the rest of dinner without another hiccup. When we stand from the table, the man behind me flinches again.

What did Alonzo do?

We walk to the counter, where Alonzo pays for dinner. Mrs. Agustina hugs him goodbye and nods at me in acknowledgment. “Come again soon,” she smiles.

Emilio, who is waiting tables at the back of the restaurant, waves at Alonzo from afar. Alonzo smiles and reciprocates.

“Goodbye, Aurora!” Alonzo yells towards a corner of the restaurant. Aurora lifts her face from her phone. She gives me a cold glance before returning to her phone.

“Don’t take it personally,” Mrs. Agustina tells me. “She’ll get used to it.”

Used to what?

Before I can ask her what she means, she leaves the counter and retreats to the kitchen, letting another person take over the register.

On our drive back to San Marquez, I can’t help but think about how strange the night had turned out. I saw a part of Alonzo I hadn’t seen before. I saw a man who is well liked and who uses his money to help others.

Despite acquiring a new teenage arch-enemy and the awkward mood shift after I returned from the restroom, I enjoyed dinner with Alonzo.

He drops me off at my apartment and asks if I’ll still come by his office tomorrow.

“Yes,” I say, feeling butterflies in my stomach. “I’ll be there.”

Chapter 14

Alonzo

I look out the car window and watch Alex head into her apartment. Her perfect ass sways side to side as she runs up the stairs and into her apartment.

Fuck.

If it had been any other night, I would have forced myself into her apartment and into her bed to make her mine all night. But I have somewhere to be.

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