Page 38 of The Plus One
“Want to do Dalessandro’s?” Indira asked as she merged onto the highway. She and Jude hadn’t agreed on much growing up, but Dalessandro’s cheesesteak supremacy was an undisputed fact between them.
“Oh my God, yes,” Jude said, punctuating it with a groan that he probably meant to be funny, but made Indira’s belly swoop and cheeks heat instead.
She accidentally jerked the steering wheel a teeny-tiny bit, the entire vehicle swerving into the right lane and eliciting a few honks from other cars. Jude lurched with the sudden movement, one handslapping the dash, the other large palm landing directly on Indira’s leg, fingers sliding over her leggings and grazing her inner thigh.
Indira absolutely, 100 percentdid notautomatically squeeze her thighs tight together at the contact. And she also didn’t choke back a gasp at the bolt of sensation it sent through her. Or didn’t send through her… whatever double or quadruple negative of denial she was working in at that point.
Jude, for his super-chill part, flung himself to the opposite side of the car with as much gusto as a wallflower protecting their virtue in a historical romance novel.
The rest of the drive was nothing but awkward silence.
“Do you want to call ahead and put in our order?” Indira eventually asked. “We’re less than ten minutes out.”
“On it,” Jude said, lifting his hips to pull his phone from his back pocket, then searching for the number.
Indira cleared her throat. “I’ll have—”
“Whiz-wit, mushrooms, tomatoes, mayo, ketchup?” Jude finished for her.
Indira blinked at him in surprise. “You remember my order?”
A touch of pink kissed Jude’s cheeks. “Well, you made me get them for you often enough in high school and college.” There was an awkward pause. “And Collin too, obviously. I know his order.”
Indira continued to stare at him until Jude shot a nervous glance at the road. Indira refocused her eyes on her driving.
“Right. Of course,” she said, swirling the past minute around in her head as Jude called and placed the order.
Either her standards were exceptionally low, or Jude retaining her cheesesteak order for the better part of a decade was the most romantic thing to ever happen to her…
Both things could be true.
She parked next to Dalessandro’s and reached for her purse, but Jude hopped out of the car before her fingers touched her wallet.
“I’ve got it. I’ll be right out,” he said, shutting the door and jogging up the ramp to the entrance.
Indira sat in a shocked silence.
Payingtoo? Was he trying to kill her and her silly, aching heart?
This needed to be taken to the group chat.
Indira:Jude remembered my cheesesteak order
Indira:and paid
Indira:do you think this means anything?
Texts back from her friends were almost immediate.
Thu:oh *WOW*! Another man doing the bare minimum of decency! How shall we celebrate?
Lizzie:where’s the cheesesteak from?
Harper:is this a fake dating outing or… are you two hanging out just to hang out?
Indira:… I guess both?
Indira had filled her friends in on the fake dating thing because… well, because those three could sniff out a secret from miles away and weren’t against public humiliation and coordinating massive, dramatic scenes to get answers. It was just easier to tell them the truth.
