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She smiled, and he never realized how that single curve of her lips made his day instantly better. “I always figured he did.”
She got to work making his coffee, and guilt hit him in the gut. “If I knew you’d have to take everything out again…”
“Did you think I kept day old coffee in a container somewhere?” she joked.
“I don’t know what I was thinking actually.” His brain had been fuzzy all day.
Ever since she mentioned how some people like the idea of being tied to a bed it had turned into a fantasy that had him daydreaming too often. Though when he tried to sleep, he constantly tossed and turned, wishing he could make those fantasies a reality.
She lifted her chin in his direction. “You look tired.”
“Haven’t been sleeping,” he admitted.
“Why not?”
The question nearly smacked him to the floor. He kept his composure and cleared his throat. He couldn’t tell her the truth. Heat rushed through his body and he yanked at the collar of his shirt. “A lot on my mind,” he finally said when he realized Cami was waiting for him to answer.
“I hear you,” she said.
“What’s on your mind?” It was a distraction, but he genuinely wanted to know.
She pointed to her head. “It’s like an all-day buffet in there. The minute one thought is gone, it’s filled by something else.” She laughed, but it sounded tired, and it was the first time he noticed her not being a hundred percent present.
“Is it work?” he asked.
“Work, my family, my tire.” She glared at him, but her eyes almost immediately softened with humor.
“I told you to let me call my guy.”
“If you haven’t noticed, I prefer to do things myself.”
“Oh trust me, I’ve noticed, but you have to remember that sometimes it’s okay to ask for help.”
She shrugged as she poured his coffee into a cup. “I guess I just don’t want to bother anyone.”
It was a sentiment he knew too well. After Mom died then Dad went to jail, Enzo took on everyone else’s burden and hid his own. He didn’t want to worry anyone or weigh them down with his problems when they’d already been drowning in their own.
“Everyone has their own problems, it’s hard to add to that. In a way, it kind of makes you feel guilty,” he said.
She blinked up, her brown eyes catching his with a kindred clarity. “Exactly.”
He had always thought he and Cami were total opposites, but maybe the only thing different was the image they projected out into the world. The inside, the part of a person that counted most, didn’t seem to be so different after all.
Cami dumped two sugars and a splash of milk into his cup before popping a lid on it. “And done.” She pushed it across the counter to him, and he reached for his wallet.
She held her hand up. “It’s on me.”
“No,” he said. “You took everything out again for me. The least I can do is pay.”
“You also tossed money in my tip jar for the last coffee I tried to give you. Don’t think I’ve forgotten.” She tapped her head. “While the buffet table is quite busy, it’s also a steel trap.”
He laughed. “Why don’t you come by the restaurant then. I’ll get you a lobster roll to go so you have one less thing to worry about tonight.”
“A coffee for a lobster roll seems like a piss poor trade on your part. I’m getting two fifty for that cup. Lobster rolls are costing what these days? Twenty-two bucks?”
He smiled. “Something like that, but we get a discount through Marco.”
“I’ll take you up on it another day. Right now, I need to meet up with Ella to go look at coffee tables.”
