Page 12 of Taste of Addiction

“I sure loveyourmeat.” I smile a closed-mouth smile.

His eyes wiggle with humor. “It loves you too, sweetheart. Now quit stalling and eat.”

“Fine,” I huff. I take the packed steak knife and start cutting up my meat into little chunks. I arrange the dipping sauces onto the lid of my box and test out all of them until I settle on the chimichurri as my final decision.

When I take more than just a test bite, Graham opens up his carton of food and begins to join me in eating. We talk about nothing important in between bites, waiting for the end of the meal for the more complex topics.

“So, why did you think it was a good idea to tell the world you are engaged to Sophia?”

I watch his demeanor change from lighthearted to serious in a matter of seconds. “I needed to take the focus away from you entirely. Make it seem like we are not together anymore. That I ditched you. Dumped you. Ended everything we had together.”

“So it was your idea? And Sophia thinks you two are back in love?”

“I was never in love with her, Angela. And yes, it was my idea to try to convince the world we aren’t together, but I had the marketing manager at Jealousy spin the story to Sophia and me as if I was hearing it for the first time, when in fact—”

“It was your stupid idea!” I complete his statement.

“I’ll do anything to protect you, even if it means pretending to be with someone I have no interest in being with.”

“I bet she is eating this shit up. You’re like a snack for an attention-starved whore like Sophia.”

“Watch your mouth.”

“No. I don’t owe her any respect. None. I’m so over this and it has barely begun. You expect me to just sit back and learn about all of these grand ideas you are spinning in your head from the media? You know how that makes me feel, Graham? Well, I’ll tell you. It makes me feel like shit.”

He puts his fork down, covering his face with his hands. When he looks back at the screen, I can see the visible stress lines on his forehead. He isn’t getting enough sleep. “I’m sorry. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. Everything I’m doing is for you. For us. Please just trust me to make these decisions.”

“And how long do you think you can keep this up?”

“As long as it takes until the drug ring is brought down.”

“That could take months, Graham. Years. This isn’t an eleven-day thing. And you can’t keep me here forever. I have a life to live. Friends. Classes. A job.”

“I know this, Angela! Do you really think I take all of my decisions lightly? None of this is easy for me, either. But right now, it was my only viable choice to keep you out of harm’s way—even if just for a week and a half.”

“So why Sophia? Why not anyone else?”

“Because I had to make it believable. Sophia and I already have a past. We have already been documented in pictures throughout the past year. And there were rumors that started long before you came into my life. So, it was a natural choice. We work together. She is my model for my company. It won’t be hard for anyone watching to see we are—”

“In love,” I bite out.

“It’s fake. I'm acting.”

I huff. “She’s not acting!”

“She knows the score.”

He is delusional. “Isn’t her life at risk?”

“Not like yours is.”

“Why not?”

“Because she’s a model. She is not involving herself in any affairs other than furthering her own modeling career.”

“But I thought anyone close to you would be in danger.”

“I have my men on her too. But there is no intel hinting that she is in any added danger.”

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