Page 46 of Outside The Wire

She opened the door wider and let me in, taking the bag from me. “So, what made you think of chicken?” she asked as she made her way into the kitchen.

I kicked off my boots and hung up my coat, still waiting for her to lose it on me. There had to be more to it. Maybe she would pounce when we were eating, when I was already sitting at the table and I couldn’t get away.

“Uh…I didn’t want fast food.”

“Isn’t fried chicken fast food?”

I headed into the kitchen, grabbing the plates from her as she took them from the cabinet. She was looking at me expectantly, but I was lost.

“What?”

“I said, isn’t chicken fast food?”

Crap, I needed to pull it together. “I guess.”

She thrust her hip to the side, resting her hand on it as she smiled at me. “Why are you so nervous? You’re never nervous. That’s my job.”

“I’m not nervous,” I clarified.

“You’re acting weird.”

Okay, I was acting weird. “Listen…”

“Oh, boy. Here we go,” she chuckled.

“What?”

“We’re about to have the talk, right?”

Man, I was all over the place tonight. I had no idea what she was talking about. Maybe it was just because my head was so screwed up, but now she looked like she was about to beat me over the head, and I didn’t even know why. I really sucked at thiswhole groveling thing and I hadn’t even started yet. All I’d done was bring the chicken.

I scratched my jaw, wondering how I should answer that. “Is this another trick question?”

She burst into a short laugh that let me know I was in trouble.

“Okay, that definitely wasn’t a good laugh.”

“I can’t believe this. You brought chicken over as some kind of…of…why did you bring it over?” she asked, throwing her hands in the air as she spun around angrily.

My eyes widened as I took a step back. I really had no idea where to go from here. “I just wanted to share a meal with you and…”

“And what? Seriously, Asher, if you’re going to do it, you don’t need to bring a bucket of chicken along to make it easier.”

Well, she had me there. I guess food really didn’t make an apology any easier. Was I that obvious? “Look?—”

“There’s that word again!”

I frowned in confusion. I was pretty sure last time I had said listen. But I was pretty sure if I said that, it would only anger her further, so I kept my mouth shut.

“I’m sorry, okay. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

“Then you shouldn’t have been so damn charming,” she huffed, spinning away from me.

“Wait, what are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you coming over here with your bucket of breakup chicken. Although, I’m not sure you can even break up with me. Are we even together?”

Surprise rippled through me, but I wasn’t sure which caught me more off guard—the fact that she thought I was breaking things off with her or the burst of happiness that shot through me when she said we were together.

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