Page 49 of Somewhere We Belong

I walked their way, still trying to figure out how I wanted to play this when fate decided for me. A waitress I didn’t see lost balance of the tray she was carrying and I caught the tray, but a plate of spaghetti landed right on my chest.

“Oh my god!” The girl yelled.

“I got you,” I groaned, as the hot spaghetti hit my chest, I stepped back right into Theo.

“I’m so sorry,” she gasped, when she saw that I was covered in sauce and pasta.

“It’s ok,” I said, as awareness made my neck tingle.

Jackpot.

“Lacy!” A woman came over, helping me with the tray as Theo helped me with the plate of spaghetti missing a meatball that rolled to the table that Nova was at.

“I got it,” Atlas said.

I couldn’t help the smile that surfaced at how perfect this was turning out to be.

“Atlas?” Nova’s voice was just loud enough for me to hear.

“I am so sorry for all of this.” A woman, who looked like she could be the manager, gave me paper towels to clean my gray shirt.

“It happens,” I said, trying to hear what Atlas was saying.

“Your meal is on the house,” she said, picking up the spaghetti off the floor.

“You don’t have to,” I said, seeing Atlas shaking hands with Nova’s date.

Was he blushing? Dammit, why do I have to do all the dirty work myself?

“I insist, please, I feel awful.” She took the dirty paper towels away from me. “Our bathroom is in the back left corner. We might have a shirt you can have.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” I said, as she left.

Theo looked nervous before he turned around to Atlas.

“What are you guys doing here?” Nova looked at all of us.

“I like Amore,” Theo said. “Hello, Nova, and I’m Theo.”

Nova’s cheeks grew pink. Her date looked between us.

“This is… is—” Nova stuttered.

“Clark, her date,” he said, holding out his hand suspiciously at us.

“Hey, man. We are Nova’s Neighbors.” I nodded back at him. “Hello, Nova. You look gorgeous. Sorry to disturb you, we will let you get back to your date.”

“Enjoy, Nova,” Atlas said following.

“You do look beautiful, Nova,” Theo said, and I could probably bet he had a blush on his face too.

“T-thank you,” she said.

I picked a table within her line of sight before I cleaned up in the bathroom. We enjoyed a meal with her glancing at us every so often. They left before we did and when we paid, Nova came storming back in.

“What the fuck was that?” she glared at us.

“What was what?” Atlas asked innocently, and he had that innocent look down to a T.

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