Page 47 of Wild

She hurries out of the room, her vibrant hair swishing over her slender shoulders.

I take care of the condom and meet her at the front. She locks up behind us and I follow her to her car. She doesn’t fight me as I climb in the passenger seat.

She looks over at me and I brace myself for the regret I know will be splashed across her face. I’m pleasantly surprised to not see‘we shouldn’t have done this’,just worry over our current predicament.

Luckily, we make it out of the lot and away from the street before her father arrives.

“I’m starving,” I say.

“Me too,” she admits, nibbling on her bottom lip. I wonder if she’s thinking about the ways we burned all those calories last night. I know I am.

“Let’s get breakfast then,” I suggest. Selfishly, I want to spend more time with her—I need to see she’s not going to suddenly panic on me and lose her mind over what we did.

“Waffle House?” she asks.

“I fucking love Waffle House,” I admit. “It’s my favorite of all the favorites.”

She laughs, it’s not a loose free sound like it should be. It’s still tight with worry and stress, but at least she’s laughing.

In this town there’s practically a Waffle House on every block so it doesn’t take us long to pull into the parking lot of one. Undoing my seatbelt I say to Mia, “I could live here forever. Want to know how I know that?”

“How?” she asks, the tightness around her eyes and mouth lessening a bit.

“Waffle House is everywhere. I could have it every day if I wanted.”

She cracks a small smile. I’m happy to see her easing up a bit.

We head inside and to an empty booth for two by the windows. There are a few other patrons, but it’s mostly empty at this hour.

We haven’t been seated long when a waitress arrives for our drink order—both of us asking for orange juice.

Mia glances at the menu for a moment and sets it aside.

“What are you getting?” I ask.

“Omelet,” she answers, looking out the window.

I want her to look at me, I need to know she’s truly okay with what happened last night. I pray she’s only worried about her dad finding out.

I know it should be a concern of mine too, but I can’t bring myself to care. If I can’t care for myself then I should at least care because of how it affects the guys. This is what we’ve all worked so hard for, and if I fuck things up with Hayes it ruins everything for them too.

But last night … it was something I’ve never experienced before, and for that reason alone I can’t regret it at all.

She slowly swings her gaze my way, a small smile tugging at her lips as if she knows what I’m thinking. She opens her mouth to speak, but before she can say anything the waitress is back. I silently curse at the intrusion, but give my order with a charming smile anyway. The poor waitress doesn’t know what’s transpired between us.

Once she’s gone, Mia and I sit in silence, looking at one another and waiting for the other to speak first.

I clear my throat and she winces. Lowering my voice I say, “Last night, please tell me you don’t regret it.”

I don’t know what I’ll do, or how I’ll feel, if she does.

She hesitates and then shakes her head. “No, I don’t.”

I breathe a sigh of relief, my whole body sagging with the release of tension.

“D-Do you?” she asks, her eyes downcast as she idly traces random shapes on the table, feigning she’s unbothered by her own question and my possible answer.

“Not at all,” I answer with surety. “It was…” I pause, unable to find the words to adequately describe what it was. Amazing, spectacular, out of the world, mind-blowing … they all sound ridiculous in my head so I refuse to voice them.

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