Fire & Brimstone (Neighbor from Hell #8) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,50

such a hurry to get his paperwork done so that they wouldn’t miss the movie that he’d forgot to have customary pre-date snack.

Shaking her head and mumbling something that he couldn’t quite catch, she returned her attention to the cashier waiting on them and with a smile, said, “We’ll take one of everything and could we please have two Cokes? One extra large and a small, please?”

“Sure,” the cashier said, throwing him a nervous look, no doubt well acquainted with a few of the other Bradfords in town.

“You didn’t have to do that,” he said as he pulled out his wallet, praying that she didn’t listen to him and cancel the order, because honestly, he was fucking starving and wasn’t sure that he’d survive the next two hours without food.

“And risk you passing out on me during the best part of the movie?” she asked with a smile that told him everything that he needed to know.

He couldn’t risk fucking this up again and losing a woman like her.

*-*-*-*

“Are you sure that’s going to be enough?” he asked as she settled the big tub of extra buttered popcorn on her lap.

“More than enough,” she promised him, still wishing that they’d at least had some plain M&M’s, but this was better than nothing.

As soon as she’d spotted the snack selection on display she’d realized that her days of enjoying high calorie/high fat snacks at the movie theater was over. That is until the manager overheard Lucifer mention that she couldn’t have gluten and he’d suggested the popcorn. The popcorn was safe to eat so at least she had something to snack on while she watched bimbos get torn apart by zombies.

It really was the little things in life, she thought with a wistful smile as she nibbled on some semi-warm super buttery popcorn. While Lucifer systematically devoured every last morsel of junk food that she’d ordered for him, they sat there in silence as they watched all the previews. It was the first time that she’d ever been out with a man that she didn’t feel the need to fill the silence.

It was actually really nice to be able to sit here and not worry about that horrible awkward silence setting in. She hated that, but it always seemed to happen. That didn’t seem to be the case with Lucifer.

She was actually enjoying herself, she realized as she popped another small handful of popcorn in her mouth. A few bites later she was regretting only getting a small Coke to wash away the taste. For a second, she considered stealing Lucifer’s soda, but she didn’t want to risk cross contamination or losing her hand since he did have a really unhealthy obsession with his food that occasionally turned violent.

She wondered if that was hereditary as she ate more popcorn and finished off her Coke, which lead to other questions about his diet. How much food did he actually consume in a day? What was his food bill like? God, she’d probably die of a heart attack if she ever found out. She…

Oh, no.

“Are you okay?” Lucifer asked as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat, trying her best to ignore the violent cramping tearing through her stomach.

“Yes,” she lied through her teeth, giving him what she hoped was a reassuring smile as she sat back and folded her arms over her stomach, hoping that he didn’t notice the move.

He looked at her for a few more seconds before he reluctantly returned his attention to the big screen, but she wasn’t fooled. She could tell that he was keeping an eye on her.

When that position didn’t help, she shifted a little bit to the right and winced when that made it worse. She tried telling herself that this wasn’t from gluten, but she was all-too familiar with the cramping and nausea surging through her body.

As discretely as possible, she pulled out her phone and Googled, “movie theatre popcorn,” hoping that her hunch was wrong. It wasn’t. Apparently regular popcorn cooked in real butter, air popped or in oil was safe, but movie theatre “butter topping,” wasn’t. It not only didn’t contain real butter, but bleached flour was one of the first ingredients, which explained quite a bit at the moment.

“What’s going on?” Lucifer whispered, leaning in close to her as she sat there, trying to ignore how badly her stomach hurt and the way that the movie theatre suddenly felt like it was a hundred degrees hotter than it had been only a