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The gangly male server approached our table. “Hi, would you like to put in any appetizers?”
“The cheese biscuits, the onion brick, and we’ll share a full rack of spareribs with collards and corn on the cob,” Smoke rattled off.
“Regular butter or the spicy butter?” the server asked.
Smoke looked to me. “Spicy?”
I raised an eyebrow. “How can you eat at a time like this?”
My stomach rumbled.
Smoke grinned at me and then glanced at the server. “Spicy butter. And I’ll take another pint.”
The server gathered our menus and took off.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I said.
“You didn’t answer mine,” he pointed out.
With a sigh, I shook my head. “No, of course I’m not going to leave you, but we just emotionally clobbered Tavy in public. We should’ve done it at my apartment.”
“Nah,” he said. “A restaurant is neutral territory. There was no good way to tell her how serious this is, cupcake.”
Frowning, I nodded.
“What?” he asked, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
“I just—what if she makes me choose. You or her?”
“Look at me.”
I lifted my eyes and met his intense gaze.
“Tavy might be pissed as fuck right now. But she’d never put you in a position where she’d make you choose.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“How don’t you know?” he fired back. “You’ve known her for years. Is she the type to do that to her best friend?”
“No.” I swallowed my feelings stuck in my throat. “She’d sooner cut off her own arm than hurt me. And until today, she thought the same of me.”
* * *
“You ordered too much food,” I said as I took the to-go bag off the table.
“No such thing.” Smoke put his credit card back in his wallet and then grabbed my hand. “Barbecue is better the second day anyway. Something about the spices and marinades settling in the fridge overnight.”
We stepped out into the autumn night and I breathed in a deep lungful of air.
“You drive,” I said to him, rifling through my purse.
“You sure?”
I nodded and tossed him the car keys.
He opened the passenger side for me and I slid in. A slight headache had begun to form at my temples.
We drove with Smoke’s hand resting on my leg, my hand covering his.
