Page 101 of Bad at Love

“Then what is?”

His smile falls, and he lets out a sigh. “What are we getting for lunch?”

I consider changing the subject back, but it’s obvious he doesn’t want to talk about it. And though every part of me wantsto squeeze it out of him, that’s not fair of me. I’d hate it if he did it to me.

“Whatever you want,” is what I say.

“Let’s go out somewhere.” I glance down between us, raising a brow. “After we go home and clean up.”

“Thank you,” I breathe out. “I was worried.”

He chuckles, taking my hand and leading me out of the house. He locks up and we get into the car and head home, where we shower and change into something nicer, and then he treats me to lunch at a nice restaurant by the bay.

“How are you doing?” Storm asks as I get comfortable on the lounger. It’s dark and the sky is clear. It’s a beautiful night.

“In general or…”

“With Tara,” he says carefully, almost as if he didn’t want to say her name.

“Oh, that.” I cross my legs at the ankles and lean back. “Fine, I guess. It’s strange to think about. Seeing her was… just really weird. I mean, I was supposed to marry her and I don’t know a thing about her. I was so close to doing it, too. She left me at the altar, and I think that’s the closest you can get to marrying someone, you know? It’s a relief, if I’m honest.”

“But what about your family?”

My family…

“That’s… something that will probably take me a really long time to process. My issues with them didn’t start when you came along, Storm. They’ve been there since the day I was born.”

“Do you need me to be your therapist?” I glance at him and find him giving me a suggestive look. “We can role play.”

I chuckle. “You want me to tell you all my problems and then, what?”

“I’ll make you feel better by sucking them out of you—through your dick.”

I bark out a laugh. “That’s absurd.”

“Porn always is.”

“Speaking of… how is our video doing?”

“Better than I thought. People want more. They’re suggesting things we should do.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. A lot of creators do it, actually. I was doing it for a while, but put all that stuff on hold.”

“All that stuff?”

“Yeah…” He laughs nervously. “Remember that merch I was telling you about?”

“Yes,” I answer carefully.

“That was part of it.”

“How so?”

“I took orders from people who wanted personalized items. Like shirts and underwear.”

“Oh,” I say, shocked. “That’s cool. Normal. I thought you were going to say something like—”

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