Chapter 32 #2
“I didn’t know you had the feed saved to your home TV! How often do you watch it?”
Don’t answer that.
“Usually just when I can’t stop thinking about you.”
Her eyes narrow. “Are you messing with me right now?”
I shake my head.
“Okay, so how often is that? Is it because you’re worried about the budget?”
I chuckle, shaking my head at how completely clueless she is. “You have no idea, do you?”
“What? Stop playing with my emotions and just tell me!” Her neck is turning red.
The smile fades from my face. I’m looming over her now.
“This isn’t a game to me, Cupcake. You’re intentionally missing the mark here because you don’t want to accept it. And I’m okay with that. I get it. You can take your sweet time, and I’ll be right here, waiting.”
“You can stop calling me that, by the way. I know why you do it. Now that you’ve been inside me, it’s fucked up.”
“Why do I call you that?”
“Because when we first met, I had a little extra weight on me. It was your way of insulting me without Mom and Russell knowing.”
I physically jolt at her words. “What? All this time, that’s what you thought?”
She shrugs. “What other explanation do you have?”
I’m still trying to recover from her ludicrous assumption.
I wipe a hand down my face and try to remember exactly what her body looked like in high school.
I was such a horny teenager back then. All I remember was thinking she was so sexy that I would give anything to switch places with Will and not be her stepbrother so I could take her out.
“First off, you were never overweight. You’ve always been physically perfect, back then and now. If you want proof, you can take my phone and go look at the pictures I saved in my hidden photo album.” I pull my phone out, navigate to the hidden album, and hand it to her.
“Secondly, I call you that because one of my compulsive urges before I met you was to eat sugar.
I ate so much of it, and it started becoming an obsession.
I was stashing it everywhere, hiding it, eating it late at night, and punishing myself by running ten miles the next morning.
My dad found out and told me I had to make a change right then, or my entire life would be ruled by my inability to control myself.
So, I quit eating it, cold turkey, about a month before you and Clara moved in.
“That first dinner we all had together at Iggy’s Grill, Clara got you a strawberry cupcake from Sweeties at Street Eats.
I still remember you licking the pink sprinkles off with your tongue.
I couldn’t look away. You only ate half of it, and my dad told me later he was proud of me for not indulging.
But I wanted to, and I wanted you right along with that cupcake.
“So, no, I didn’t start calling you that because I thought you were overweight.
I called you that because you were forbidden, and I knew if I got a taste of you, I would never ever want to stop.
I’m still weak. I still can’t control myself around you.
That’s why I still don’t eat sugar, and that’s why I didn’t let myself see you for the last ten years.
That’s why I’ve kept you at arm’s length and tried to deny myself the indulgence. ”
Sometime during the time when I started spilling my guts to her and now, her face softened.
Her pale green eyes are glassy, and she’s nibbling her bottom lip.
She looks down at my phone in her hand, seeing the lingerie pictures she sent me by accident and the ones I took of her last night.
Her eyes meet mine, and she lifts a hand, pressing it to my chest. Her touch sends a shock through me.
“I really thought it was because I was chubby,” she whispers.
I shut my eyes, shaking my head. “Any other tragic misunderstandings we need to settle?”
“How long were you with Noelle?”
“We had a casual, physical relationship for about a year.”
“When did you break up?”
I shrug, opening my eyes. “We never started officially dating, so we never had to break up, but I told her I didn’t want to keep seeing her after the funeral.”
She considers my answer. “So … today was just … a coincidence?”
“Yes. Look, go to my texts and search for her name. She’s been texting me off and on, and I haven’t replied.”
She shoves the phone back into my hand. “I don’t want to see the things she’s been sending to you.”
She’s jealous.
She cares.
I try to hide the smirk on my lips, but she catches it.
She rolls her eyes, turning away from me. “I’m going to miss my flight.”
“Let me take you on a date tonight.”
She shakes her head, eyes wide. “No. I’m going home.”
“I meant in Coconut Beach, at the Grand Palm.”
“Why? Are there more secrets you need to tell me? Are you stalking my location too? Do you have January and the Bees reporting back to you everywhere I’ve been?”
I reach for her hand, interlacing our fingers.
I dip my head down to the side of her cheek, pressing my lips to her ear.
“No. I just think it’s time we went on a real date, Cupcake.
Since my secret is out and you know I’ve been stalking and obsessing over you, now I want other people to know it too. ”
“You mean, you want to mark your territory.”
“Of course. But I also want to try to convince you to give me a chance.”
Goose bumps are beginning to prickle on her arm. My free hand moves and brushes against her stomach, pulling her into me.
“No sex,” she breathes.
“Deal.”
“Really? Just like that?”
“Yes. I won’t touch you again until you ask me to.”
“I’ll let you know about dinner. I need to think about it.”
“Okay. Let’s get you to the airport.”