Page 51 of Those Heartbreak Scars

I nod. “Are you hungry?”

Mann can be tomorrow’s problem.

“I was going to order a pizza.”

“Oh.” Her eyes light up and she rubs her hands together before pressing her fingertips to her lips. “Can we get kebabs? I know a place. It’s not far from here. They have the best garlic sauce. Oh and garlic potatoes.”

“You want garlic?” I tease. “What if I want to kiss you?”

“You’ll be as garlicky as me.” She sticks her tongue out before disappearing back into the bedroom. “And if you really don’t want to deal with my stinky garlic breath you can always get on your knees again.”

“Don’t tempt me, woman.” I prowl after her only to catch my shirt in the face.

“Should we order a ride?” she asks, wriggling into her dress.

I grab a fresh sweatshirt and hand it to her to put on over her dress. It’s gotten cooler since we were at the club earlier. “I only ended up having the one drink, so I’ll drive.”

“Okay.” She finds her heels while I dress. “I’m ready when you are.”

“I’ll grab my keys.” I follow her out.

In the elevator she wraps her arms around me and sinks against my chest. I hold onto her with a new sense of ease. We’re different now. Not just friends, but something more. Whatever more is I don’t want to run from it. I feel good around her, better. It feels like living again. I really like her. A lot.

I don’t want to hurt her at all, but especially just to keep my job.

There has to be some way to keep Mann while keeping America out of the fray.

Chapter Nineteen

America

Emmad is manning the counter when I enter, dragging Gray behind me. He beams when he sees me. “Meri, it’s good to see you again.”

His brother, Asaf, glances over his shoulder and gives me a little wave too. “Hungry, beautiful lady?”

“You know it.” I walk up to the counter. “It’s been a long evening.”

“Coming from the club?” Emmad checks out my outfit—that’s mostly Gray’s sweatshirt—and going out heels. “Fun night?”

“So much fun.” I smile up at Gray when he rests his hand on my ass possessively before scanning the boards on the back wall. “I need two mixed kebabs with extra garlic sauce. Oh, and some of your scrummy garlic potatoes. And a couple Fanta.”

“I got it.” Gray pulls his wallet out and pays for our meal.

“Your boyfriend?” Emmad asks as Asaf slices meat from the vertical spit.

Gray, my boyfriend? Wouldn’t that be something? But I can’t think about that without thinking about Indy, and it’s a quick spiral down from there that I’d rather not let ruin my night. “We’ll see.”

“You look good together. This one is much better than that other one.” Emmad scoops servings of potato to go with our kebabs.

“Other one?” Gray asks. “Mann?”

“My professor,” I say awkwardly.

“He was too old for you,” Emmad continues, oblivious to the fact that there’s a six year age difference between me and Gray.

It’s a lot less than I had with Alfie, who was in his forties. It’s not much at all, until you factor in that I’m still formulating who I want to be while Gray knows exactly who he is.

I roll my eyes. “I know.”

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