Page 73 of Black Ties and White Lies

“Name another time,” I counter.

“When you wouldn’t answer your damn phone when I was trying to reach out about the agreement.”

“Again, not my fault. I thought you were calling about Carter.”

“The fact you thought I’d be calling you to try and convince you to get back with him only furthers my point of you being a pain in my ass.”

My eyes narrow. No matter how hard I try, I don’t think I’ll win this argument with him. I understand how he gets whatever he wants at work. He’s relentless. An expert at twisting things until he’s right.

“Name something else.”

An aggravated growl passes through his lips. “What about the time I had tobegyou just to takeone biteof my homemade chicken alfredo?”

My nose scrunches. “Listen. No alfredo could ever comecloseto the one I grew up eating in my grandmother’s kitchen. I was just trying to do you a favor.”

His lips twitch as he fights a smile. “If I remember correctly, you said it wasn’t half bad.”

I scoff. “Because you didn’t add cream. People here don’t know authentic alfredo. It’s never the same as my grandma who was born and raised in Italy makes it..”

“My point still stands. It took thirty minutes of convincing just for you to taste one noodle.”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree,” I get out.

He hits the bed softly with his hand. “Sit.”

“Why?”

“Do you always have a question for everything?”

Proving him wrong, I take a seat while sealing my lips shut. I back up until my back hits the soft pillows against the headboard. I hold my lips together, fighting the urge to ask him why again.

He walks and grabs the bag of snacks I’d picked out. I guess that answers my question. Turning the bag over, he dumps out all of the food, his eyes running over my decisions. He picks up the bag of Twizzlers, holding them with a confused look on his face. “Out of all the candy you could choose from, you pickedthese?”

I gasp. Reaching across the bed, I swipe the candy from his grasp and hold it protectively against my chest. “These are the supreme candy,thank you very much.”

His nose wrinkles in disgust. “They taste artificial as fuck.”

I rip the bag open, sticking one end of the candy vines between my teeth and taking a bite. “I don’t care what you say. They’re my favorite and you being a Twizzler hater won’t change my mind.”

He shakes his head at me, opening the bag of beef jerky and taking a bite. We settle in comfortable conversation the rest of the night. When he turns off the lights and climbs into bed next to me, I wonder what to do next.

Should we cuddle?

Do I stuff a pillow between us and tell him to stay on his side?

Before I can worry too much about what the etiquette is for sharing a bed in this situation, he makes the decision for me. Reaching across the bed, he loops his arm around my middle and pulls me against his chest. Beck tucks his chin between my neck and shoulder, our bodies connected from that point all the way down to our feet.

It takes no time for me to fall asleep, feeling more peaceful in his arms than I ever have before.

“I never thoughtI’d say this, but I’ve never been more excited to see Ezra in my life,” Margo says with enthusiasm as she bounces up and down to stay warm. I look to my side at her, a growl rumbling low in my throat. “Careful sounding so excited when speaking of my driver. He’s worked for me for years but make me too jealous when it comes to him and he might just lose his job.”

The eye roll she gives me tells me she doesn’t believe me in the slightest. She practically skips across the parking lot toward Ezra, leaping into his arms and enveloping him in a large hug.

If he didn’t hover his arms over a safe spot on her back, he’d already be fired, our friendship be damned. I stop in front of them, raising my eyebrows as Ezra looks at me with an amused smile. Margo steps from his arms, looking at the waiting car behind him. “I thought we’d be stuck here forever.”

“Was it really such aterribletime?” I question, giving her a knowing look. While what happened last night was nowhere near planned, it wasn’t the worst turn of events I could imagine. In fact, in my personal opinion, it turned out more than perfect.

A blush creeps to her cheeks. She looks from me to Ezra and back again. A frigid breeze picks up around us, a bite to it as it hits us all in the face. Margo fixes the hair that blows with the wind, a gleam in her eyes as she looks between Ezra and I. “Awful. The worst.” She tries hard to fight a smile, but eventually she can’t any longer. She winks as a breathtaking smile overtakes her face.

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