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Emily
Really, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see her sitting at one of my booths the next day at work.
Faith’s gaze caught my own as I placed someone’s order in front of them. There went hiding out and pretending I hadn’t seen her. I had forgotten to mention it to Benjamin last night that I had seen her at Dad’s. It was kind of hard to talk to him about anything when he kept his head between my legs whether we were watching TV on the couch or lying in bed. In three days, he’d managed to make me feel feminine and sexier than I’d ever felt in my life. I didn’t know what to think of someone so invested in pleasing me, and he did it like he loved doing it.
Somehow, I knew Faith was here to pester me though. Maybe she knew about us because she never came to Crash’s. Until today.
Taking a deep breath, I walked over to her booth where she sat alone. “Faith… Fancy seeing you here,” I murmured. “What can I get ya?”
She opened the menu in front of me. “What’s good here?”
“Um… I’m not sure you’d like the same things I like.” Because I liked food. Period. I liked almost everything on the menu.
She lifted her eyebrow. “Oh?”
Abort! Abort!
“How about we start with what you’d want to drink?”
“Any tea?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. We got flavored, iced, and even hot tea.”
“Get me iced.”
I walked away quickly to grab her drink and check on my other tables. Only it was over with too soon because I was now back at her table again, placing the tea in front of her.
“What should I order?” she asked again.
I paused, met her penetrating stare and thought about it. “Hmm. I personally love the bacon cheddar fries then I grab a cheeseburger to go with it.”
She nodded. “That sounds good. I’ll take that.”
Well, that was…so much easier than I expected.
“What would you like on it?”
“Everything, but leave off the mustard and ketch-up.” She made a face, and I smiled. I smiled because I had something in common with this woman! I didn’t like ketch-up or mustard on my cheeseburger either.
It wasn’t much, but it was something.
“I don’t like those on mine either,” I told her, and she simply regarded me. “I’ll go put in your order.”
______
“I’m so exhausted,” I grumbled as Benjamin and I strolled through the gas station at midnight. No sooner had I gotten off work, he talked me into taking a midnight run to the gas station for something sweet. Benjamin didn’t eat many sweets, but he did have his days where he binged. Me? I needed something sweet always, ya know, to make it through the day and live because what was life without chocolate?
He grabbed a bag of jerky, and I followed behind him. He gave me a smirk as he grabbed a Reese’s off the shelf and tossed it to me. I barely caught it. “Here. Chocolate will help.”
“Seriously, having your mom there for two hours watching me as I worked took all the energy I had.”
He tossed me a Snickers. “Was she being mean?”
I shook my head. “Not…necessarily.”
“She’s probably trying to get to know you.”
I stopped walking. “Ya think?”
He laughed. “Yeah, she knows about us. Mom’s a tough cookie, but I’m her baby and she wants me to be happy.”
I grabbed a bag of chips and threw them at him. “Stupid mama’s boy.”
He grinned. “You know that’s not true.” I rolled my eyes. “Hey, Mom’s the best person to have by your side. She’ll throw down for you if you’re in her tiny circle of people she loves.”
I snorted. “Oh, I know.” He didn’t know just how much his mom tried to protect him when he left for college, from me. It still stung when I thought about it and that was probably why I felt so iffy about her. I wanted to like her, and I wanted her to like me, but that was in the back of my mind haunting me. It sucked. I hated that she thought I was that type of girl even when I knew I wasn’t. It was the fact that she was Benjamin’s mom, and she had helped me to believe that my best friend deserved a better best friend than me.
Now, he was more than he was then and that was scary. I wanted to prove her wrong like I had convinced myself. Benjamin had complete faith in me, so I should too, and her as well. I was a good person if Benjamin thought so. He was smart, considerate, and just knew his stuff.
“Did you go to Dad’s today and play cards with him?” I asked as he kept grabbing more and more junk. His arms were full.
“Yeah, he took ten dollars from me today. Twenty from my dad.”
I sniggered behind his back, then caught sight of the Zero bar in his arms. “That’s mine, right?” I pointed at it.
“You’re sweet enough already.”
“Is that your way of telling me I need to lose weight?” I asked him.
He turned all the way around to look at me. “Lose an inch, and I’ll cry. No shit. Those curves are my heaven and hell, leave them alone.” He turned back around so that I could grin to my heart’s content.
“What are we even doing? You don’t have time to sit up and eat all this crap. You have to be up in a few hours!”
“We don’t have to eat all this tonight. Are you crazy? We’d go into a food coma with all this sugar.”
I shook my head and laughed. “Seriously, Benjamin. Let’s go. No more.”
He turned back around and bent down, placing his mouth next to my ear. “I still have to eat you before we can sleep. Screw this junk. This shit’s for you.”
Just like that, my body was a web of lust.
I leaned into him. “Then, let’s go home and let you eat so that I can sleep.”
I stepped away from him quickly, shocked at myself that I was becoming so brazen in front of him. I thought for sure he saw the color of my cheeks before I turned my head.
When he grabbed my butt, dropping half of the candy bars on the floor, I knew he really loved that I spoke back.