Page 15 of Absinthe Minded

“It doesn’t bother you that I put the kids first?”

“Why would it bother me?” He eased back to allow the server to put the food on the table.

“You’d be surprised how many guys don’t want to date a single mother.” I surveyed the various rolls, all of which appeared to contain raw fish.

“You should take time for yourself. Relationships require work. All relationships.” His eyes darkened and traveled to my chest. “In fact, why don’t we get this to go?”

I forced a laugh. He’d pushed to take our relationship to a physical level since our first date. I thought he’d gotten the message that I intended to take things slow, but it seemed I was wrong about a lot of things. “So… will this be our last date for a while?”

“That depends on your feelings about take out.” He wiggled his brows.

I didn’t have men beating down my door, but ugh. What a jerk. My thoughts drifted back to Gabe. As much of a horn-dog as he was, he’d never put me in this kind of situation.

“Maggie?”

“I don’t know…”What am I saying? The answer is no. I’m absolutely not ready for sex.An image of Gabe’s body moving over mine popped into my head.Where the heck had that come from?“I can’t tonight. I have a new roommate.”

“You let someone move in?”

“Sort of. My brother-in-law and his daughter are staying at the house for a couple weeks.”

Justin arched a brow.

“He’s in a rough spot.” I stuffed a piece of sushi in my mouth before I said anything else. The flavor of dead fish hit my tongue and curdled my stomach. As discretely as possible, I spat the sushi into my napkin.

“Is this the brother-in-law that dumped you?” Justin curled his lip, but I couldn’t tell if my manners or my roomie had caused the reaction.

I nodded and took a swig of water.

Justin pushed back from the table. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Me either, but it’s short-term.”

Justin waved his hand, dismissing the topic. “Let’s go.”

“Justin, I can’t—”

“That’s bullshit.” He shot to his feet and tossed his napkin on the table as if throwing down a gauntlet. “I won’t share you with another man. Come with me now or we’re over.”

People stared and whispered.

I wanted to crawl under the table and hide, but more than that I wanted to punch Justin Trudeau in the balls. He might as well have painted a huge redAon my chest.

“Maggie?” He thrust his hand in my face.

I forced a smile. “Stop at the twenty-four-hour pharmacy on the way to your place.”

He flashed me a triumphant smile. “I have plenty of condoms.”

“How about lube? I hear it helps when jerking off.”

He turned and stormed out.

I hung my head and fought to keep my emotions in check. Not that I was sad about the breakup—he could good and truly go screw himself. These were angry tears.

The waitress brought a to-go container and the check. Not only had he demanded sex, he’d left me to pay for food I couldn’t stand.

I snatched my napkin from the table to dry my eyes and the half-chewed piece of sushi fell into my cleavage. Let’s just say, the tears started and didn’t stop until I was safely in my car.

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