"What?" I sputtered.
He laughed. "No more serious talk. Remember? You hungry?"
I nodded. It suddenly occurred to me that it was dinner time, and I hadn't even had lunch. We turned off his street, away from his childhood home.
I hadn't had an easy childhood, but compared to Lawton's, mine was a cakewalk. What would it feel like to actually live in a place like this?
I never wanted to find out.
As we left his old neighborhood behind, I watched the urban landscape change from worse to better with every mile.
He took me to a little Tai place in the business district. I had to work in just a couple of hours, so we didn't have a lot of time, but the time we did spend together made me remember why I'd fallen for him so hard in the first place.
We held hands over dinner and laughed over dessert. I talked about Josh and Grandma and the time I'd let Erika bully me into piercing my naval.
His eyes smoldered into mine. "Is it still pierced?" he asked.
I laughed. "You know the answer to that. No."
"You sure?" he said. "I could check."
"You could," I said, "but we'd probably get kicked out of here."
He grinned.
I found myself grinning back. "What are you so happy about?" I said.
"You didn't say I couldn't check, ever. You just said I couldn’t checknow."
I thought of Erika's words. Just have fun, let it go.
I looked across the table at him. I loved this guy. And he made me laugh. True, he'd also made me cry, but that was part of life, right? And he did love me. I could see it in his eyes.
And I loved him too. So much it almost hurt.
Maybe I was a fool. But I'd rather be a fool in love than a fool with regrets. And I knew one thing for certain. If I walked away now, I'd regret it forever.
Before we left, he leaned in close, ignoring the dirty plates and empty glasses. "Tell me something," he said.
I was lost. Lost in his eyes. Lost in his presence. "What?" I said.
"Are you still my girl?"
There was no way I could stop myself. For better or worse, I felt myself nod.
He practically dove across the table, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close. I heard his voice, tender in my ear. "Baby, I promise you. You're not gonna regret this."
What Ireallyregretted was that I had to work that night. So instead of spending the night in his arms, or even an hour in his bed, I'd be spending the night at the diner, delivering food, pushing drinks, and worst of all, training Brittney.
We were sitting in the Parkers' driveway when I told him that Brittney was my new co-worker.
"Want me to take care of it?" he asked.
"How?"
He shrugged. "However."
I thought about it. It was tempting, but ultimately, I couldn't say yes. I didn't want anyone to fight my battles for me, no matter how easy it sounded. So, with a certain amount of regret, I told him no.
