Page 72 of All Her Broken Pieces

Fuck no, they’d think it was a handout or him buying me off.

So I take it they don’t know that he paid for your year in Italy?

Nope, and we’re gonna keep it that way.

Feel free to stop by whenever. I’m working a double today. The moms and Nyomi wanted a spa day

Shit, if I had known that I’d have come in to help with lunch too

It’s a Wednesday, it’ll be slow. Finishing prep now. I’m glad you’re doing more dinner services again.

The dynamic duo is back, baby!

Hell yeah!

See you tonight

The thoughtof picking up more dinner services should sound appealing. Cooking is all I’ve ever wanted to do, but lately, there’s only one person I’m interested in feeding.

With Bridget’s regular nine-to-five hours and my usual late-night shifts, seeing each other has become increasingly difficult. While I’m grateful that Mina and Dre were so accommodating during her recovery, it’s been two months, and I don’t want to make life difficult and fuck up everyone’s schedule more than I have.

It makes me wonder if Bridget knew we’d see so little of each other after things went back to normal, and that’s why she’s been so agreeable to me staying with her. I’m lucky to see her on my way out the door to the restaurant. Though she’s come in to eat a few times when I’ve led service, we don’t get to eat together.

The restaurant is busiest on the weekends, so we don’t get a whole day off together; we usually only get Monday and Tuesday nights to ourselves.

Most nights, she’s asleep when I get home, shower, and crawl into bed with her. Occasionally, it wakes her and we fuck, and more than once, I’ve woken up to her mouth or pussy on my cock. It’s starting to feel like my dick is just another way for her to work out her frustrations, though my dick is the only one she’s doing that with, so I’ll take it. And sometimes, after a middle-of-the-night fuck, she lets me hold her until she falls back asleep. While I may have gotten out of the friend zone for now, the emotional intimacy we built over the past two months is hard to maintain when we don’t spend as much time together.

Glancing at the time on my phone, I text Bridget to see what her lunch plans are.

Lunch? My place?

I’ll cook your favorite

Bridget

How close is it to my office?

I only get an hour

Why your place?

It’s about a 10 min drive

I need to grab a few things

Don’t worry, I’m not moving in

Three dots appear and disappear. I was going for playful, but now I’m worried I triggered her anxiety into thinking that I’m trying to move in with her permanently.

I plan to make you come at least twice before we eat lunch

Text me the address

When I get to my apartment, I’m pleasantly surprised that it isn’t a disaster. After I tidy up the living room and clean all of Alyx’s dishes, I head to my room to fill my bag with more clothes. I throw in a few sweaters, hoping I’ll still be at her place once the weather starts cooling down.

Things are great between us now. We’ve come a long way from me begging for a second date. Bridget has opened up to me in ways I never expected. But it often feels like one step forward and two back with her.

I choose to focus on the positive, on the things I can control. I cannot control her decisions, emotions, or how she reacts to me, but I can be there for her and support her through it. I can control the way I react to it.

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