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I supposed it was a good reminder. A clear sign of what I had to do. The truth was about to set me free from this stubborn woman. Problem was, with her, I actually wanted to be a captive.
“I’m thinking,” I said with a sigh, then nodded at the ad.
Darkness curtained her face when she followed my glance. “Oh.”
Her voice was softer than I’d expected, sadness clouding her features. Her eyes traced the outline of the imposing structure behind a picture of a kid in handcuffs. It was a somber reminder of the world we lived in, a world that pulled people apart rather than bringing them together.
God, I hoped she never had to know more about that world than she had to.
Lea’s hand reached out and brushed over mine, her touch sending an electric jolt through my body. She was looking for an invite. I pulled my palm into my lap and looked away.
“I asked around about you, you know.”
My head jerked back toward her. “You did what?”
That was the last thing I expected to hear.
She shrugged. “It was already big news around the neighborhood. School, etcetera. Your ex-girlfriend was in one of my classes last year, you know.”
“I—you know Gina?” I definitely wasn’t expecting that.
She gave me another look that said I was right to feel like an idiot. “Belmont’s not that big. Of course, I know Gina Reyes. We, um…we go back.”
Something in her voice told me it wasn’t in a good way. Which shouldn’t have surprised me. Gina was hot—all that nineteen-year-old me really cared about when we were hooking up—but she had claws. Sharp ones.
“Well, whatever they’re saying, it isn’t true,” I said. “Especially her. We don’t talk ever. We barely even did when we were hanging out.”
Lea’s face flushed the color of a pink rose as she obviously imagined what exactly Gina and I were doing if not talking.
Shit. Maybe I’d fuck this up without even trying. Maybe all I had to do was say more insensitive shit like that.
The problem was, I couldn’t bring myself to hurt Lea on purpose.
“So you’re not planning to get back together with her?” Her voice was small. Tentative. And the look on her face made me want to get on my knees right then and beg her forgiveness.
“Fuck. No,” I said definitively. “Not in a million fuckin’ years.”
“Why?”
She didn’t sound jealous. Just curious. Like she knew very well how hot Gina was—she and the rest of Belmont. And sure, I knew it too. Gina Reyes was the girl every kid on the block wanted to get with, so why wouldn’t I go back to hitting that on the regular if she was practically begging for it?
Those green eyes, though. No sign of envy, but they speared just the same.
“Why would I go back for that mess when I got perfection right here?” I blurted out.
I had no business talking to her like that. But I couldn’t help the utter fucking bliss I felt when she glowed at my kind words. Things I shouldn’t have said but somehow meant completely.
It occurred to me then that nothing felt better than this moment. Maybe nothing in my life would ever feel better than making Lea Zola, a girl I barely knew, shine with happiness.
“They say you stole that car to pay your best friend’s debts,” she said after a moment or two. “Were they lying about that?”
I stared at my hands, no longer able to bear looking at that goddamn ad or feeling like she could see right through me. I wrapped the plastic handle around my fingers until the tips turned white. “I already told you that story.”
“Answer the question, Michael.”
I looked up at the cracked plastic ceiling of the train car. Jesus, couldn’t anything in this fucking city be perfect?
Well, one thing was. And she was sitting right next to me.
