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My chest ached at her words.

Married? What the hell was she talking about? Had they continued to get serious after I had left? The feeling in my chest was all too familiar. It was the same pain I felt when Tylertold me he had a girlfriend. I’ve been mourning all along since that day. Mourning the fact that I wasn’t his number one girl anymore. Mourning the fact that all those things he gave to her would never belong to me. Mourning the fact that I might know his childhood secrets, but she would know the dreams, fears, and aspirations of the man he was becoming.

When I swallowed, my saliva felt heavier. I reached inside my bag to take out my wallet so that I could just grab my bread and go when I touched something scratchy. Pulling the object out, I remembered I had the pink tourmaline in my bag since Friday.

As I walked intoDelicia’s, I pulled out my phone and did a bit of research into the stone. I almost let it drop to the ground when I saw the words aphrodisiac on my screen.

I did not need an aphrodisiac. Was that little cluster of rocks responsible for my moment of weakness, allowing Tyler to stay a few minutes in my room?

“Morning, Lupe,” I called out without bothering to look up, instead I kept looking at my phone and headed for my favorite bread shelf.

Both the stone and my phone went flying as I lost my balance.

“Fuck,” I cursed.

A strong arm wrapped around me, and an all-too-familiar masculine scent engulfed my senses. I closed my eyes tightly as if that would make everything disappear.

“Not how I expected you to fall into my arms,” Ty muttered.

“W-w-what?” I stuttered as my eyes sprang open.

Damn.

I should have kept them closed.

Tyler was giving me a wolfish smile that showed his white teeth. I was a sucker for a Colgate smile. Being this close to him reminded me that I envied his naturally long lashes. His green eyes seemed to sparkle with amusement.

“Morning, beautiful.”

“Astrid,” I corrected him.

His grin got bigger. Did he not get the memo that I didn’t want to be his friend anymore?

He wasn’t letting go of me. A normal person would have done so already.

“Do you mind?” I asked him as I tried to push away from him because my skin was starting to feel tingly and butterflies that had no reason to take flight were fluttering.

“Yes, I do mind,” the arrogant bastard replied.

Augh.

Since I didn’t want to keep making eye contact with him, I looked him over, but I quickly discovered that was a huge mistake.

He was wearing a simple white tee that saidKanes’ Autoon the right breast pocket, and on his head he had a black backward cap.

Noooo.

Backward caps were like catnip for me.

I was going to throw away that damn aphrodisiac stone the first chance I got.

“I heard shouting, is everything okay?” Lupe’s voice got closer the more she spoke.

I craned my neck and saw her coming from the back. There was a huge smile on her face as soon as she saw us.

“Ay, que lindos,”she beamed.

“No, nolindos,” I told her, not knowing what she meant, but judging by her tone it couldn’t be anything good.