“You can’t stare at me all night. Come on, eat.”
“Do you always eat with your shirt off?”
“Whenever I’m home.”
“That looks dangerous…”
“How?”
“You spill a hot piece of chicken on your chest…and that will definitely burn.”
“Well, I don’t spill.” I cut into my food and took a bite.
“Alright…” She finally directed her gaze to her dinner and placed a bite in her mouth. “Wow…this is good.”
“Don’t be surprised.”
She continued to eat, enjoying everything on her plate and washing it down with some wine. “Who taught you how to cook?”
“My mom.”
She was about to drink from her wine again but stopped herself. She suppressed the smile on her mouth, but it couldn’t be contained behind those gorgeous, plump lips. “Your mom?”
“Yeah? So what.”
“I’ve never heard a man say that before.”
“My mom was a stay-at-home mom most of her life. Whenever I’d come home from school, I’d ask her for a snack. She always told me she wouldn’t make it for me, but she would always make it with me. I guess that was her way of making me more independent. She started doing it when I was five, which is a little young, but it paid off.”
“That’s cute.”
“Yeah, I’ve always been a bit of a mama’s boy. Make fun of me all you want. I don’t give a damn.” I’d also lived in a house with my brother and father, so it was all sports and activities. My younger brother needed more attention than I did, so my dad gave it to him. That left me to hang out with Mom.
“Why would I make fun of you?”
“Because no grown-ass man should say he’s a mama’s boy.”
“I don’t see the harm. I’m a daddy’s girl.”
“Not the same thing. That’s actually cute.”
“You’re cute too, Thorn.”
I drank my wine again, brushing off her comment. “You’re just saying that because you’re in love with my big dick.”
She chuckled. “I’m not saying that because I’m in love with your dick. I’m saying it because it’s true.”
“Whatever you say…”
“If I were just in love with your package, I wouldn’t be having dinner with you. I’d get my action and then take off.” She’d already eaten half of her food, and she was still going. “Keep that in mind.”
“That’s a good point. I don’t have dinner with women either.”
“Never?” she asked incredulously.
I shook my head. “I don’t think I’ve ever cooked for a woman before.”
“Not even Titan?” she asked in surprise.
“Well, except for her. But that’s a different situation.”
“Because she’s the only woman you’ve ever loved?”
“Uh…” I didn’t like the way she phrased that. It made me sound like a pussy. “No. Because we would work late at my place, and I would just whip something up. It wasn’t really romantic…”
She swirled her wine before she took a drink, her mood suddenly diving. “I know it’s hard right now, but it’ll get easier.”
Huh? What was she talking about? “What will get easier?”
“Getting over her.” She started to push her food around, obviously no longer hungry. Her eyes turned down to her food for a while before she raised them again.
My immediate response was to laugh at the absurdity of her words. I couldn’t get over Titan because I never felt a romantic feeling toward her. I wanted to blurt that out and tell her I’d never loved a woman in all my life. Just when I decided to, she kept talking.
“I’ve been through something similar. It’s one of those things that takes time. It’s different for everyone. Some people immediately bounce back, and some people don’t.” Her eyes were filled with painful memories, and her somberness escaped in her tone. The indications were subtle, but since I paid such attention to her, the signs were obvious to me.
Now I didn’t care about setting the record straight. All I cared about was what caused her to feel so much anguish. How could a man leave her for someone else when she was absolutely perfect? The guy would have to be insane. “You have?”
“Yeah.” She set her utensils down, obviously finished eating. “It’s been a few years now. But for the first six months, I was pretty upset about it. As time passed, it got easier. I’m in a good place now, and I’m very happy. But I’m so happy that I’m scared to lose it again. So that makes it impossible to trust anyone. I’m not sure if I’ll ever want to be in a relationship again. Not when it seems so risky.”
My heart tightened in pain, and I ached for this woman. I never wanted her to be sad. I never wanted her to be so hurt that she couldn’t trust again. Whoever this guy was, I knew he would regret his decision someday—big-time. “What happened?”
“The specifics don’t matter. I was in love with this guy, and we were happy together. He started a new job, met someone there, and unfortunately, it just happened. It wasn’t a situation where he was sneaking around behind my back and lying about where he was. He told me he was attracted to her. A month later, he left his job because he couldn’t be around her anymore. But that was when he realized that whatever they had was something he couldn’t ignore. So he left…” She said all of it with surprising strength, but there was a hint of the years of pain that she endured. “Months went by, and I constantly questioned if I was the problem. If I’d done my hair differently or worked out more, would he have stayed? But in the end, I knew it was out of my control. Perhaps this woman was his soul mate, and there was nothing either of us could have done about it. I saw him about eight months ago. They’re married and have a young daughter together. It took me a long time to look him in the eye and say I was happy for him…but I am happy for him.”
She was a lot more understanding than I was. I wanted
