Page 62 of Ella Gets the D
Every night.
For hours.
“I’ll be right back.” I’m on my feet, headed to the restroom. And not for theshits.
Get to a bathroom. Now.
Ella
Okay…
I take the stairs to the lower level two at a time and follow signs for the toilets. My stride lengthens, the echo of my cap-toe shoes picking up speed over the slate-colored flooring. I reach an oak door and close it behind me with a soft click.
Jealousy is a foreign emotion, one I dodge with ease for the simple fact I care, but not enough. My situation with acquaintances prevents me from developing the feelings necessary to stir such a reaction about the woman I’m with.
Until her.
My fingers fly to dial Ella’s number on video call. She picks up on the third ring and rips the air from my lungs.
Curly black tendrils cascade down the sides of her face from a loose updo. Light pink dusts her cheekbones. It’s the same color brushed with soft gold over her eyes. Plump lips seared in every fantasy hold a frown modeled in a lickable gloss.
Thick eyebrows dip in question. “Are you okay?”
Am I?
A slight growl in my throat catches us both off guard. I unclench my fist and jaw.Pull yourself together. “I should ask you the same question. With your…date.” She squirms under my stare, and the flush in her cheeks deepens.
Ella short-circuits all sense of logic. Hence why I’m next to a public toilet. To do what, I don’t know. Flush it in anger?
I let out a slow breath and reel in the impulse to claim her and command her body. I’m pretty laid-back, but this woman brings out a possessiveness I didn’t know was there.
My eyes search hers; my voice lowers to extinguish the heat. “You good, sweetheart?”
She pulls her lower lip between her teeth and nods. El is feisty, quick with her wit, and sharp with her tongue. But tonight, she’s nervous.
I stare in silence until she sighs. Her bare shoulders soften in her black crisscross top. A glimpse of a smile cracks. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
There she is.
“Why are you on a double date?” I lean against the pedestal sink. “Finally trying out hump day?”
She chuckles. “You’re so nasty.”Only for you. “Erica asked me to come, and I agreed out of frustration. I wanted to dress up for a night, for a change of pace from making chicken nuggets and answering to ‘Mom’ every two seconds.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that if you feel ready.”I’d grab the stars and pull down the moon for you.
“Not for a double date,” she says with an exhausted sigh. “It hasn’t been two months since I left my ex, and I’m on my way to meet a man I don’t know whose face I’ve never seen.”
“So why did you agree?”
Her lip quirks. “I never turn down food.”
That makes me laugh. Ella eats as much as the rugby team after back-to-back games. She says it all goes to her ass andthighs, and I say, keep eating. Her love of food and willingness to consume more than tiny salads and appetizers is refreshing. She doesn’t hide herself, and it’s one of the things I love about her.
No—one of the things I like.
I shake off the thought and smile. “How is the food?”
Her eyes widen. “Thirty-six dollars for a watercress salad. The weeds outside taste better for less.”
