sooner or later, along with my job, I didn’t like being called out like that, nor did I appreciate the way she looked at me, as if I was purposefully trying to pull something over her without her knowledge. This was her staring me straight in the eye and telling me, you can’t fool me.
I was speechless for a while, because I honestly had no idea what to tell her to put her at ease, to calm her down and reassure her that I wasn’t just here to date her and then drop her. This wasn’t like that. I…I didn’t know yet what this was, but I knew that wasn’t it.
“You should just take me home now,” she murmured.
“You might think this date is pointless, but luckily for you, I’m not of that state of mind,” I informed her, hating the way I felt inside as I looked at her. I might not know this girl that well, but I wanted to make her smile, wanted to hear her laugh and take that sorrowful expression off her face. “In case you didn’t already know, I’m not taking you home now. You and I are going to have this date, and I’m going to do everything in my power to make you have a good time.”
The look she gave me right then could stop traffic. Was she annoyed at me? Oh, well. She could suck it up and deal with it. “You can’t force someone to have a good time,” Bree told me matter-of-factly, folding her arms over her chest in a challenge.
I leaned forward on the table, unable to stop the grin that spread across my face like wildfire. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see who’s right.”
Our food came soon after that, and it was as I ate, I paid special attention to her, noting the way she mostly moved the pasta around on her plate. I wouldn’t let her get another small salad. This girl must hardly eat, and it couldn’t be healthy for her.
It bugged me.
For whatever weird reason, it bugged me to know that Bree didn’t take care of herself. I couldn’t say why; she wasn’t my girlfriend. We weren’t super close. Still, that didn’t mean I didn’t care about her. She was my brother’s girlfriend’s sister. We were automatically connected in a way.
“It’s good,” I told her after swallowing the bit of food in my mouth. “You should try it.”
“I’m not that hungry,” she whispered, instead reaching for her drink and taking a small sip.
Well, at least she stayed hydrated, I supposed. The human body could last longer without food as long as it was getting some form of water.
I stuck my fork into a few new noodles, waiting to bring them to my mouth until after I asked, “Why do I feel like you’re always not that hungry? You barely touched your salad last time. I don’t think I’ve seen you eat a bite. Don’t tell me you ate before I picked you up.” That was a possibility, as tiny as it was.
Bree let out a sigh. “I didn’t. I just…I don’t know. I’m not hungry.” Her green eyes flashed brighter as she added, “You can’t make me eat anything, Calum.” Oh, she had a fire in her, I could hear it in her voice. It was then I wondered if something was making her sad, if something had happened to depress her.
This girl had a personality; it was just hidden behind walls.
I…I wanted to get past those walls, I realized. If you would’ve held me at gunpoint and asked me why I felt this way, why I’d had such a quick change of heart when it came to Bree Stone, I would have said I had no idea.
Was this me rebounding? I didn’t know. I didn’t think so, but I knew I liked being in a relationship. I liked knowing there was someone out there who would be there to listen to me at the end of the day, to hear my rants about work and sports and shit like that—and someone in my bed at night.
My mind wandered then, landing someplace it definitely shouldn’t. Oh, no. I shouldn’t think about Bree in my bed, her pink hair splayed around her head on my pillow in a halo of color, her lips parted as she sighed out my name. I shouldn’t imagine her pale body on display, the smoothness of her clavicle giving way to the curve of her breasts…
Shit. Stop that,