Page 28 of Conner

He should leave, but he didn’t feel right leaving her. She seemed to be concerned about her safety. While he wouldn’t push her to share information she wasn’t ready to share, he didn’t want to leave her all alone, especially in a building that didn’t seem very protected.

“I’m not sure if you have plans, but if you were interested maybe we could order some dinner?”

“What?” she asked with a surprised look on her face.

“It's up to you, but I was just going to go home and order some food and watch a game, but I could do that here if you felt like company.”

She evaluated him, chewing on her bottom lip.

“You don’t have to do this,” she said quietly.

“Trust me ordering food and spending time with you is no trouble at all. It would make me feel better. You don’t have to tell me what it is, but something is clearly going on.”

“Okay, that would be okay,” she said, opening her apartment door and walking in. They walked into her kitchen, and he took it all in. Her kitchen was clean, and nothing really stood out about it giving him any insight into her. But as they turned the corner to her living room, he saw more of her there. There was a white overstuffed sofa with a soft green throw blanket and yellow pillows. On the wall were photos of her family.

“It looks like you’re from a pretty big family,” he said. There was a picture of them at a wedding that looked like her sister. Then there was one of what looked like that same sister and her mom. Along with some that looked like her and friends.

“Yeah, there are seven of us.”

“Wow, I thought my family was big,” he said.

“Are there a lot of McPhee’s running around?”

“Too many…” he said softly. “But yeah, in my family I have two brothers and a twin sister. I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many McPhees there are. My dad is one of eight and my mom is one of five.”

“Wow, that is a lot!” she said with the first genuine smile she’d seen since he found her in the parking lot. “My dad is one of five and my mom is one of six, I get big families. How did I not know you’re a twin?”

“There’s a lot about me you don’t know.”

He hadn’t meant that to come out quite the way it did, but the energy between them shifted. He wanted to kiss her. She was close enough that he could just reach out and pull her soft voluptuous body to his own. He could get lost in Sasha Maloof.

The moment was broken by a buzzing in his pocket. He got out his phone.

“Looks like they just got your car to the garage. They are going to run some tests and figure out the problem.”

She took a deep breath. “That sounds good. Thank you so much for helping me.”

“Don’t mention it. While we wait, there is a place that has grain bowls that are on my eating plan, but they have all kinds of other stuff too. Does that sound okay for dinner?”

“Yeah,”

He pulled up the restaurant on his phone and handed it to her. “Put your order in and I’ll get it taken care of.”

She took his phone and after a moment handed it back to him. “I’m going to change. Make yourself comfortable.”

He sat on her couch and pulled out his phone to check some stats. The first game of the night was about to start. The Magic had already clinched their playoff spot, but several other teams were still playing for wild card slots.

“Did you want to turn on a game?”

He looked up from his phone and there was Sasha. She was out of her classy work clothes and now in an oversized magic hoodie and leggings. He couldn’t help the smile that crept across his face. She pulled up the game on the tv and sat on the couch. If he had his way, she would be right next to him, but this was good enough for now. His phone buzzed on the coffee table in front of him.

“Looks like it was the starter. Should I tell them to go ahead and fix it?”

“I don’t really have a choice.”

“It looks like they’ll have it done tomorrow afternoon. I can run you there after work tomorrow.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

---