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She smiled politely. “You don’t need to do that. This is my issue to deal with. You have your own.”
I should have backed down, given her space. Wouldn’t really have been true to me, though, and that had been working pretty well for me so far. “I know,” I said. “But I want to. Even if it’s just little things.”
She held my gaze for a long time, fixed squarely on me, studying, before she relaxed, dropping her shoulders. “I’ll be busy late tonight. Nine thirty at the earliest. But I hope you won’t mind if I steal you again after that.”
A nervous rush bubbled in my chest, but I nodded. “I don’t mind it being late. Gives me plenty of time to figure out a way to up my game.”
She smiled, a light flaring over her eyes as she turned to the door. “Let’s not play the one-upping game. I liked La Mar.”
“Oh, easy for you to say after you whipped out a custom-tailored dress and the opera…”
“Reminds me, I hope you don’t mind if I take the dress back to Anya. As good as you looked in it, it will only be better with proper tailoring over longer than a few hours.” She looked down at herself. “And if I steal your clothes.”
“They’re all yours,” I said, leaving out the part that I’d happily let her take all my clothes and leave me in rags if I got to look at her in them. “I’ll, uh… think of something nice for tonight.”
“I look forward to it.” She straightened her back. “All right. Back to good-girl life.”
She said that, but this didn’t feel like rebellion anymore. Felt like being where I belonged.
∞∞∞
“Oh my fucking god.”
Ruth looked like she was trying to work out whether to hug me or punch me. I felt the same way, but I was polite and just slid into the seat next to her under the deep green umbrella on the News Café patio, in front of where she’d already gotten me the sandwich and cortado I always got here. It had always been one of Ruth’s favorite places ever since she’d moved to Miami, and I’d always been a little hit-or-miss on it, but Ocean Drive had taken on some different feelings for me ever since I’d been… well, in Miami Beach a lot more lately. On personal matters.
“Ordered ahead for me,” I said, shifting to get comfortable in my seat. The wind was driving hard today, and the sky was starting to get dense with clouds, but there wasn’t supposed to be rain until later. “Thanks.”
“Don’t you just act like nothing happened.”
Quietly, calmly, I picked up my sandwich and bit into it. Ruth folded her arms.
“Oh, now she’s giving me the silent treatment. Too fancy off playing around with Cameron Mercier to give me the time of day now.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, keeping my gaze across the street, fixed on the ocean. She swatted my arm.
“Okay, come off it. What was that?” she laughed, eyes sparkling. “Ma’am, I did not even know you owned a dress like that. You looked like you should have been at the opera.”
I cleared my throat. “Funny you should say that…”
“No.” She leaned in towards me. “She took you to the fucking opera?”
“You’ll be happy to know that goofy pretentious language served me pretty well.”
“You whipped out a dress like that to go to a French opera with Cameron Mercier, and you were planning on just sweeping it under the rug?”
I looked away. “I mean, if we’re keeping score, she got me the dress. Took me to her old friend to have it tailored for me.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, woman.” She dropped her arms on the table, staring at me dumbfounded.
To be fair, I felt the same way about the whole thing. I took a bite of my sandwich.
“So, what, wedding next weekend?”
I cleared my throat. “I mean, technically, in the first place, she’s still married…”
“Right.” She frowned, but it vanished not long after. “Still, though… damn. You two are quite a couple.”
I looked away. “So, where should I take her tonight?”
