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Rueben does his best to monopolize her attention throughout dinner, clearly trying to gain ground and get Sapphire to like him. He’s being way too obvious about it if you ask me, and she’s entertaining him a little because she’s not rude, but we can all tell she’s not super happy with him.
She’s also a little clipped with Bishop and Scout, though as usual Bishop is taking it in his stride and Scout is being quietly stoic. Rueben’s the only one visibly affected by Sapphire’s resistance.
“Are you done eating?” I ask, when it’s been a few minutes since she last picked up her fork.
Her plate is still half-full, but Bishop’s portions tonight were a little more out of control than usual.
He tends to cook in bulk, and that’s never a bad thing when you have a house full of men who are pretty much always hungry. There are always leftovers in the fridge. Take-out is a once a week treat when someone (Rueben) can’t be bothered to cook on a night that Bishop can’t.
Sapphire nods. “I’m done.”
“We have dessert!” Rueben blurts when I get up, ready to clear our plates away.
“Dinner was amazing, thanks,” Sapphire says, her gaze on Bishop before she looks back at Rueben. “But there’s no way I could eat anything else now.”
He looks crestfallen.
He’ll get over it.
She’s not going to give him the cold shoulder forever.
I clear the plates away.
Sapphire gets up, picking up her oversized purse.
She’s ready to get out of here.
I can tell without asking.
Her eyes are practically screaming when she looks at me.
I look back at my pack brothers. “We’ll see you later.”
Bishop gets up and brings his own plate to the sink. “Take the Jeep and call me when you get there.”
“No problem,” I tell him, heading out into the hall once Sapphire’s at my side.
He didn’t need to give me instructions, and I think he knows that, but everyone’s a little tense so I’m not going to be a dick about it.
I never would have taken the Mercedes to the city, and I know they’ll all be sitting around here worrying until we’re back. I would have called once we got out there without needing to be told.
I take the Jeep’s keys from the rack by the door, and I look at Sapphire.
“If you need the bathroom, we probably won’t get a good chance to stop until we’re almost out of Silver Lake.”
“I’m fine,” she says. “I just really want my own clothes.”
Nodding, I open the front door and lead her out to the Jeep. The Mercedes is boxed in by the more sensible car because we rarely use it. The Jeep has a lot more trunk space and it can fit five people.
“Who owns what?” Sapphire asks, raising an eyebrow at the Mercedes as we pass it by.
“We share,” I confess. “We’ve been a pack for close to a decade, so we pooled money on the house, which was a no brainer, and later the cars. Bishop and I wanted the Jeep. Rueben wanted the Mercedes, and he knew he could convince Scout to go for it, too. First year we had it, those two were always taking turns with it. After that, the novelty wore off. It basically sits in our driveway collecting dust now.”
“That’s one expensive dust-catcher,” she muses, shaking her head as she moves around the Jeep to the passenger side.
I open the driver’s door and get in, messing around with the seat before I’ve got it how I like it.
If there’s one thing that’s a pain in the ass about sharing, it’s having to make tiny adjustments to the seat and the mirror virtually every time I need to go drive somewhere.
