Page 22 of Bad Seed
I can’t.
Please.
“Well…” He turns back to his spread of ingredients and rests his hands on the counter. “Is anything here a threat to you?”
Even knowing there’s no chance of him having eggplant, I peer over his shoulder. Making a show of looking everything over, I nod and laugh. “Looks good.”
He turns his head. I only catch him in profile as he asks, “Derek, wasn’t it?”
“I’d rather not talk, or think about that. If it’s all the same.” I’m here to eat dinner and have wild sex, not roll out the carpet for past trauma.
Derek’s a nothing to me. A mistake I fixed by dumping him, blocking him, and moving as far as I could. I will not let his ghost ruin this, or anything else in my life.
To my relief, Aubry nods. I move to step to the side when I spy the veins rising on the back of his hands. He’s gripping so hard to the counter he looks about to rip it off of its nails. “Please keep a watch and warn me if I go for anything dangerous,” he says. With a smile in place, he worries one of the cloves of garlic between his palms until the paper flies off.
Aubry’s quick with the knife. I barely see him move, just watch the garlic go from being a bulb to a fine mince. As he dices the zucchini, he glances over at me. “Could you fetch the pasta out of that cupboard?”
I spot a box of spaghetti hiding at the back and pop up onto my tiptoes to reach it. Just as I get my fingers on it, I look to Aubry to see if I’m right. He isn’t paying a lick of attention to the knife flying near his hand. Nope, all of his focus is on me, my tits spilling toward the top of my dress, my legs stretched at their limits.
My first instinct is to suck myself in and apologize. My next instinct is to talk. A lot. “Now I’m regretting the white. Should have gone with the blue, or maybe red.”
Aubry snaps his head like I shattered a spell. “Sorry?” He stares at the cutting board filled with diced tomatoes and zucchini, then upends it all into a pot.
“My dress.” I pat my hands to the top, knowing I’m about to drench it in pasta sauce, but it draws Aubry’s eyes like a moth to a bonfire. “If I’m not dropping tacos, curry, or popcorn down my front, it’s because I’m not eating. Any trip to the Olive Garden is guaranteed to end in me covered in sauce, probably more than the pasta.”
He’s staring at me. Because I can’t stop talking.
Aubry drops the knife, and I gulp.
“I see three options. Either I loan you one of my shirts.”
One of his shirts…? Like right off of his back to drape around me. A little giggle starts in my throat at the idea of him sitting there half naked watching me eat.
A coy smile teases Aubry’s lips. “I cover you with my hands.”
“Ah ha…” I grimace laugh in a giddy panic.
His only response is an eyebrow raise before he turns to his pot. With little care for measuring, he squirts a mess of red banana sauce into it and grabs a spoon. Damn it, did I mess up my chance again?
“What’s the third option?”
“Hmm?”
“You said there were three options? What was the last?”
“Oh.” He gently stirs his sauce, barely paying me any mind. Seconds that turn into eons tick by. I can feel the rise and fall of Pangea before he glances over his shoulder. “You’re not wearing your dress at all.” My brain fights to process his words into a coherent thought.
So we’ll be doing laundry?
Oh, wait. Duh, Sadie.
As he stares at me like I’m already naked, I swear his dark eyes take on a purple sheen. It’s enchanting and terrifying at the same time.
Is this my cue to tear off my clothes? Tear off his clothes? I flex my hands, picturing myself awkwardly reaching behind to pull down my dress’ zipper while he watches with confused disgust. Then I remember it’s a sun dress with a tie on the front and there is no zipper. So if I just shimmy out of it, then I’ll get my head stuck at the waist as he stares at me.
How do they make undressing look so hot in the movies? Probably velcro.
As my brain’s processing how I can get naked without looking like a ferret trying to wiggle out of a sweater, my mouth talks. A lot. “I make curries. Not great ones. My mom’s the specialist. But I picked up a few tricks from her. One time I tried to do a ramen curry. Big mistake. Never doing that one again.”
