AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m not their equal.”
“That’s the biggest line of bullshit.”
“Hi, I’m Tini, I’ll be your server today,” a tall brunette with flawless skin and perfect makeup said. She held a pad with a pen at the ready. “Have you had a chance to look at the menu?”
“Perfect timing,” Nero said, flashing that Grasso charm. Did he even realize he was doing it? “I’m starving. We’ll take an order of your mozzarella sticks.”
My eyes popped wide, and my lips pursed. He was not ordering those.
“At twenty-two bucks, I bet they’re amazing,” he said with a quirk of his lip. To anyone else, it would seem like a dig to the establishment, but coming from Nero it was nothing but charm.
“Totally worth it,” she said. “They’re so good. And you get two dipping sauces!”
“You don’t say?” Nero’s head lowered, eyes meeting mine. “Oh, and just to make sure. You don’t fry those in the same oil as the fried shrimp, right?”
Heat engulfed my heart, spreading through my entire body. I was allergic to shrimp. I carried an EpiPen just in case.
“No, we keep those separate,” the waitress said.
“Perfect.”
“Do you know what you’d like for your main course? Or would you like me to put these in first?”
“I’ll have the steak sandwich, and she’ll have the bacon cheeseburger medium, no onion, extra pickles, and a side of ranch for her fries.”
He collected our menus and handed them off to the waitress.
“I’ll put this right in.”
She disappeared, and I stared, mouth slightly agape.
“You okay?”
“You stalking me?” I tilted my head, crossing my arms. “Watching me devour my favorite meal on the regular? See me pick those gross onions off and dig in my fridge for the pickles?”
He chuckled. “I notice the things that matter.”
“And my exact order matters?”
He smirked. “Came in handy, didn’t it?”
Two hours later, not full on two measly mozzarella sticks, but on the burger and fries, my car was hitched to the back of a tow truck and driven off into the sunset. This day was definitely not going according to plan. Anxious energy flowed through me, and I shifted as Nero and I stood on the sidewalk.
“You ready to check in at the hotel?” he asked.
I had this dream many times before. Nero and I being stranded, having to share a bed. Him realizing how awesome I was and falling madly in love with me. Except this was no dream. If anything, it was a damn nightmare. What if I snored? What if my boob fell out of my shirt while I was sleeping? They took on a mind of their own when I closed my eyes.
Maybe he got two rooms. Then again, paying for one was more than enough, and if I was going to pay him back, one room sounded better.
“Sure.” I forced a smile to hide the uncertainty in my tone. “It’s not too late. You can still head home.”
Nero’s eyebrow arched, head tilted, making him look more adorable than usual. “I already told you. I’m not leaving you. We’re in this together.”
“You’ve already laid out so much money.”
“Lanes, I have more money than I’ll ever know what to do with. I’d rather spend my money on someone I care about and not just crap that’ll sit in my garage.”
My treacherous lips curved upward. I tried to swish them together to hide the smile, but it was no use. Heat exploded in my cheeks, and I knew I looked like an over ripened strawberry. It was stupid. I knew he cared. He always had. It just wasn’t in the way I had always hoped.
