Page 49 of Promise Yule Be Mine
"Sure. Let's go for lunch," I answered and as we left the store and made our way back to the car I got a message.
Jenna: What?? No I didn't. What do you mean canceled? She can't do our cake anymore? Crap. What are we going to do now?
I paused and stared at my screen.
If not Jenna, then who?
15
KODY
"Brunch, lunch or some grub?" I asked and turned to Nova who was walking beside me, hands in his pockets, chewing his lips in concentration and brows knotted with worry.
"Huh?" he said as if just noticing I was with him, and shook his head, placing a smile back on his face. "Oh. I'm easy with anything. Brunch, maybe? If you know somewhere good."
Seeing his smile, even if forced or not entirely genuine, made my heart skip a beat. Several, even, and right in that moment, I knew without a shadow of a doubt I was getting dangerously close to being the kind of man who would do anything in the world to never see that smile fade even for a moment.
He held my gaze and I held his, at war with myself, with my emotions, my thoughts, my feelings and the promise contradicting them all.
"I'm sure there is," I said and looked away.
I had to. I had to put a stop to these preposterous ideas as if I would ever have a chance with Nova in the first place.
There was a perfectly good reason I was marrying Jenna. A perfectly good reason I’d agreed to do it in the first place and that was because of how unlucky I was in love.
Of how many times I'd had my heart broken because the person I thought was my special someone couldn't see past this image of me as this masculine, sexy man when all I was made of was cuddles, kisses and holding hands.
Even if there was a small chance Nova liked me, he too wouldn't be able to see past my asexuality. He too would find me lacking. He too would run as far from me as possible. And who would blame him? Who would blame anyone? If I was dating someone who forced me to be with them sexually I wouldn't want them either, so how could I expect someone else to live without something so many thought was a crucial part of any intimate relationship?
"This looks good." Nova pointed to a diner a couple blocks from the bakery and we found solace inside.
Within a handful of minutes we were seated, served drinks and had placed an order, leaving us sitting across from one another in a booth, unable to avoid each other's gaze.
"I'm sorry about this," he said after a couple of minutes of awkward silence.
"What for?" I frowned.
What did he even have to apologize for?
"The cake. Today. Everything's going wrong for some reason."
I stared at him.
Was he being serious? Did he really think this was his doing or did he think I believed that?
"First of all, you didn't do anything. You're doing a great job of unfucking up our fuck-ups, and for that you deserve a medal. I can't imagine it being easy dealing with both of us."
Nova raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to tell meyouwere behind the cancellation?" he asked, but the smirk that appeared on his face gave away the intent behind the words.
"Me? No! Maybe? Of course I wasn't."
He laughed but quickly composed himself to shoot daggers at me. "Are you sure?"
I put my hands up and leaned back with the most offended expression I could muster and glared at him for a second, two seconds, maybe longer before I grinned.
Nova shook his head and nursed his coffee, and this time when the silence rose between us it was familiar, easy. Soft. Almost its own entity.
"I really didn't do it, by the way. I was just kidding."
