Page 20 of Meet Me at the Metro

“That’s for me to know and you to find out when we get there. Just enjoy the scenery and keep up this time.”

He steers us onto a barren and dark street, and I laugh,“What scenery?”

Unlike the one we were just on, it’s quiet and isolated from any city-goers besides the two of us. I peer up at the tall, terraced buildings planking both sides of the street, wishing there was at least one lit window to illuminate the blackness all around. Unfortunately, I can’t find a single one.

A glass bottle clanks against the ground somewhere ahead of us, and I instinctively speed up my pace and close some of the distance between us.

“We’re safe, Nora,” he chuckles, motioning his head to an orange, furry cat swatting an empty beer bottle ahead. “Just stay close.”

“I could if you would slow down!”

Theo glances over, and I don’t miss the way his gaze trails down the length of my legs. “For how fast you run your mouth, you sure are slow as hell.”

“Yeah, well, not all of us were graced with the legs of a freaking granddaddy long leg.”

He grins roguishly. “Is that supposed to be an insult?”

“No,” I cut back, feeling my cheeks grow hot. “It’s an observation.”

We both go silent for a few beats, and from the corner of my eye, I watch Theo pull something out of his back pocket. He plucks out a cigarette from the cardboard case now in his hands, gripping it between his lips as he lights the end of it and draws back a long inhale.

Blowing the smoke away from me, he asks, “You smoke?”

“Do I smoke?”I can’t help but scrunch my nose at the question. “Hell no.”

“Ahhh,” he nods in what he thinks is understanding. “Anti-smoke shtick, huh?”

“No,” I shake my head. “No, it isn’t like that; I just—I think the concept of smoking is pointless. I mean, you’re basically paying to keep up a bad habit for yourself.”

He raises an eyebrow and nods. “Mmm. And have you ever even tried it yourself?”

“Well, no, but I—”

“Alright then,” he says smugly, cutting me off. “I don’t think your opinion holds much sway in this debate then, does it?”

“Debate? Is that what this has turned into?” I chuckle. He shrugs, so I insist, “Well, go on then. Give me your argument. What do you smoke those cancer sticks for?”

“They relax me.”

I make sure to maintain a straight face as I retort, “So could yoga.”

“Yoga?!Are you fucking mental?”

“Kidding,” I laugh. “I’m kidding.”

Theo looks amused now as he proposes a new question. “Is that what you like to do to relax,miss congeniality?”

“Absolutely not.” I shake my head. “I’m not that flexible.”

“No?”He cocks his head to the side like he doesn’t believe that, and there’s a glint in his eyes that has my legs going weak. “So what do you do to relax then, Nora?”

“Well, Iumm—” I fight to come up with something that doesn’t include the termsvibratorormasturbate,but he keeps looking at me with this snide expression, and my head can’t seem to formulate any words.

Quit looking at me like that.

“I like to listen to music.”

“Music?”

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