Page 8 of All That She Needs

I laughed at that, and he shrugged. "They're fucking hilarious. Your turn."

"That's not enough information." I shook my head, giving him a serious face. "Give me more."

"What else do you want to know?" He asked.

"Where are you from?" I asked.

"A little town about two hours from here called Dawson Hill. My parents still live there, in my childhood home. They refuse to leave, no matter how much I try to persuade them."

"I thought you were younger, though," I admitted. "Like somewhere in your twenties."

"I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or an offense. I'd like to think of myself as a mature man." He flashed me another blinding smile. "How old are you?"

I balked, caught off guard. "That's kind of rude, asking that."

"It's only rude if you're not confident about your age."

"Well, I'm older than you."

"How much older?"

I took a moment to consider if I wanted to answer him. "I just turned thirty-nine last month."

"Oh, I thought you were older than that!" He feigned an exaggerated surprise, and I shot him a glare before tossing one of my fries at him. He laughed out loud. "No, I'm joking. I asked because I couldn't guess your age. You look young, but you're a CEO of a big company, so you couldn't be that young."

Huffing, I leaned back in my chair. "As I mentioned, I am old."

"And you are the most beautiful thirty-nine-year-old woman I have ever seen."

I narrowed my eyes to him. "I don't know how you compliment and offend so perfectly in one sentence."

"I just said you're beautiful. How was that offensive?" He bawled, both hands flew in the air, but his grin was getting wider and wider. He seemed to love teasing me. "Now stop stalling. Your turn now. Tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"Everything about you."

I was probably imagining things, but that sentence seemed to be loaded with something that I didn't dare to think about.

"Okay." I wiped my hands with the towel napkin, leaving only tiny remnants of the burger on my plate. I finished the burger, and now my stomach felt like it was about to burst. "First name: Madeline. Middle name: Asha. Last name: Blackthorne. That's my husband's last name." I paused as Liam mouthed the word "ouch," but I ignored it. "Aiden and I have been together for twenty years. I married him when I was nineteen, and Aiden was twenty-two. We dated for two years before that. Met in college. We have two children that we completely adore—a boy, sixteen, and a girl, fourteen. I love gardening, and I'm very good at it. Plants come alive in my hands. I'm shit at cooking, except for simple breakfasts, which mostly comprise pancakes, scrambled eggs and toast. When I was a teenager, my goal in life was to be a homemaker, but knowing that I would never excel in cooking, I decided to pursue a career in an office. Never thought, not in a million years, I'd be sitting in the position I'm in now. I'm a triplet, and the other two are boys. I was lucky to graduate high school at fifteen, same as my brothers, and I was raised by a single mom who was a science teacher at a secondary school. Never knew my dad."

I waited for his response, but he just stared at me in silence. Finally, he broke the stillness. "Triplet?" He looked stunned.

"Yeah. There are two more humans looking exactly like me, wandering around in this world."

"Wow. I can't even imagine how the three of you would look if I ever got the chance to see it. It must be mind-blowing."

"Why?" I asked, confused.

"Because you look like elves," he said, observing my puzzled expression. When I continued to stare at him blankly, he added, "Elves, you know, those angelic, beautiful creatures fromThe Lord of the Rings?"

When my confusion lingered, he bellowed in utter disbelief, "Oh my God. You've never seen the movie?"

I shook my head. "No, I've heard about it, but I never had the time to watch it."

"One of these days, Asha, I'll take you to my movie room—I have one here in the office—and we'll watch it together."

I thought about it for a moment; the idea growing on me. It sounded like fun. It's been so long since I had fun. "I'd like that," I said with a smile.

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