Page 16 of Finally Loved

“No need to be shy.” She turned back to Charlie. “I am, indeed, the knight in shining armor.”

“Good god,” Zainab muttered, looking down at her menu.

Alba waved her away. “Ignore her.”

“Do not,” Zainab shot back instantly.

Charlie shook her head. “You’re the one going around picking up crying women at the mall?”

Neve’s blood ran cold. Why did she have to say it like that? It sounded creepy and callous and weird.

Alba simply laughed. “Nothing quite as sinister as you make it sound, and I definitely wasn’t picking anyone up, but it’s nice to help a person in need.”

“Right.” Charlie didn’t sound convinced and Neve wondered what the hell had gotten into her. “Just… helping for no reason.”

Alba seemed undeterred, even as Zainab gave Charlie a cautious once over. She simply shrugged. “Do you generally abandon people who run into you in tears?”

Charlie hesitated and Neve watched her fingers flex around Alice’s waist. “I don’t know,” she said eventually. “It’s never actually happened to me.”

“Well, I’m not the kind of person who abandons those in need, and better that Neve ran into me than some weirdo who might have hurt her.”

“She didn’t actually know—”

Neve cleared her throat, having had enough of being spoken over like a child who couldn’t understand or speak for herself. “Well, as lovely as this is. We should really be going and let you get back to your date.”

Zainab scoffed as Alba looked around, puzzled.

Neve was even more confused.

“It was really lovely meeting you,” Alice said, somehow entirely genuine despite Charlie’s tension. “And thank you, Alba, for helping Neve last week. We all really appreciate it.”

Alba laughed, shooting Neve a conspiratorial glance she didn’t fully understand. “I’ll be sure to run it past your guardian angels if you need help again in future.”

Now, Neve got it.

She felt her face go up in flames again. She wasn’t a child and she hated being made to feel like one. Even if Charlie was only trying to look out for her, it still felt uncomfortable. She was a perfectly capable, grown adult. Even if things went wrong sometimes, and even if she made the slightly ill-advised decision to get into a stranger’s car, she wasn’t entirely foolish. She’d known Alba wasn’t going to hurt her. Couldn’t Charlie just trust that?

Neve shook her head. “That really isn’t necessary.”

“Maybe you should take my number just in case it is,” Charlie said, still watching Alba critically.

“Thatabsolutely isn’t necessary,” Neve insisted, shooting Charlie a furious look.

She shrugged in response, mouthing, “What?”

Neve shook her head as the others simply waited in silence, the tension weird and tumbling around them.

Zainab laughed, breaking the moment. “Tell you what. I’ll write Alba’s number on this napkin,” she said, pulling a pen from her bag. “I’ll hand it to Neve, and then you can all decide on the best thing to do with it… in your own time.”

“Zainab…” Alba said, her voice low. Neve wasn’t sure whether it was a warning or a question, but she could hardly spend too much energy attempting to figure those two out when Charlie was acting so bizarrely.

Zainab looked up at her innocently, and a million unsaid words passed between her and Alba as Neve watched, that burning pang inside of her starting up again. All of these people just knew each other so well. They didn’t need words, they didn’t need anything from anyone else.

She ached to be known like that.

Eventually, Alba rolled her eyes and sighed. Clearly, she was letting Zainab win because the woman clicked her pen with a flourish, scribbled down a number from memory, and turned to Neve.

Neve stared. “I barely know my own number by heart…”

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