Page 7 of Loving Her

“Staten Island,” Ruby replied. “How about you?”

“Brooklyn. Public or Catholic high school?”

Ruby rolled her eyes and groaned. “Catholic.”

Frankie’s eyes twinkled. “With the little skirts?”

“Made me who I am today.” Ruby giggled and blushed. Then she reached for one of the skewers of tiny mozzarella balls,olives, and mushrooms. “But you’re avoiding my curiosity. Howdoyou and Cam know eachother?”

“And look there, I have a pair of sandwiches to go finish.” As quickly as she’d sat down, Frankie was back up on her feet. “Sash, always great to see you. Ruby, nice to meet you, let me know how you like your lunch today.” And she scurried off.

Ruby raised an eyebrow at Sasha. “Something I said?”

“Frankie, like Cam, is allergic to talking about anything that might resemble feelings.” Sasha chuckled and picked up her own skewer. “Try your skewer. Frankie won’t tell me what all she puts in the marinade, I can’t even get her to cough up the brand of olive oil.”

Her mouth went dry as she watched Ruby slowly slide a plump, glistening Baby Bella mushroom off of the little wooden skewer and pop it into her mouth. Some of the oily marinade clung to her full bottom lip, making it shine in the sunlight that filled the café. Her eyes closed in blissful delight, and a moan so sweetly filthy it made Sasha squirm in her chair emerged from Ruby’s mouth. “Oh, my God. This is amazing. So simple, but it’s the most delicious thing I’ve had today.”

“Well, you started your day with a Pop Tart, things could only go up from there,” Sasha managed to get out. She couldn’t recall Ruby ever looking or sounding like this over anything she’d made for her. Jealousy made her stomach churn. She looked down and toyed with the skewer she was holding, her appetite gone. Had coming here been a mistake? Sasha was feeling more inadequate by the minute.

Maybe it had been dumb to agree to this silly wedding date scheme. It was exposing her as a weird, insecure, stalkery mess and she didn’t feel like she could do anything right. And it was only their first knowledge swapping session!

The more Ruby got to know her, the less likely Sasha felt it was that she’d ever be able to confess her affections becausethere was no way Ruby would ever see her as anything but a big snoop who needed to be kept at a very long arms’ length.

It was a relief when the far too smoldery Frankie scampered off back to her kitchen. Ruby had never liked being come onto so strong. Even Cam, the single time she’d tried, hadn’t been so intense.

At heart—and she wore that heart on her sleeve—Ruby Margarita Fierelli was a huge, swoony romantic. That was why she wrote the books that she wrote, one paean to the love she sought after another. Even in Declan and Nicola’s consensually questionable and deeply heterosexual love story, she’d managed to weave in threads of real feeling and intense yearning.

Casual dalliances had never been her thing. Ruby needed connection, a spiritual tie on some level, before she’d even so much as think of kissing anyone. Flirts like Frankie just made her uncomfortable.

Frankie’s culinary skills, though, were certainly on par with Sasha’s, and Ruby was grateful to her friend for recommending Villa Primavera. Just these simple little marinated skewers of deliciousness alone were dreamy, an explosion of complex flavors in her mouth. An instant pick-me-up.

She’d picked all of the mushrooms, olives, and tiny cheese balls off of two skewers and consumed them in a fit of blind gustatory bliss before realizing that Sasha hadn’t moved or eaten a bite. “Sash, what’s up? Don’t leave me to eat all of these alone, because I will.”

Sasha shook her head like she was snapping out of something. “Oh. Yeah. Sure.” She picked up one of the skewersand seemed to examine it with a slightly sour expression on her face.

Ruby blinked. “I know it’s nothing like what you’d have made, Sash, but it’s still really good food, andyourecommended this place and even placed our order! Why do you look like it’s personally offended you all of a sudden?”

Quick as a flash, the sourness fled Sasha’s face, and she stuck the skewer into her mouth, pulling a mushroom off with a grin. “You’re right, Rubes. I just had a weird moment. Listen, let’s get back to these lists. Now you know about my allergies. Do you have any?”

“Only to being aggressively flirted with,” Ruby mused, and when Sasha laughed, all of the peculiar awkward tension that had been hovering over them like a first date dissipated.

By the time their incredibly delicious sandwiches arrived, they were well on their way to being the best fake girlfriends in the world.

4

“Ifell down the steps at the Grand Colony Ballroom and broke my wrist on prom night,” Ruby said, nibbling on a sweet potato chip. Sasha jerked her head up from where she was sliding a bowl of Southwestern Black Bean Salad in front of Esme’s daughter, Holly. Both of them stared at Ruby.

Holly broke the silence first. “You went to prom?”

“That’s your takeaway?” Ruby shut her laptop and threw her hands in the air. “Just that I went to prom?”

“I went to school in the States,” Holly said. “Not to Catholic school, but I knew plenty of girls who did. They didn’t tend tohaveproms. I’m curious.”

Sasha was intrigued, herself. “I’ll tell you about my prom if you tell us about yours.”

Holly’s head swiveled, beachy blonde waves flying. “Youwent to prom?”

“You’re gonna love the story,” Sasha promised. “But Rubes, you first.”

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