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“What are you talking about?”
“I forced you to come here and buy me food, and you’re not even eating, so now it’s like I’m taking advantage of you.”
She rolled her eyes and leaned back into the red cushions. “Get over yourself, Rondeau. I don’t care that much about it.”
“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel any better.” The waitress returned momentarily to drop off Nathan’s Coke and Tully’s milkshake. “I guess this means I need to pay.”
“That would defeat the purpose of our deal.” She realized then, that she had not even actually acknowledged the deal he offered when they were in the car. Technically, she wasn’t liable for his food. Yet, she still kind of wanted to. She popped the cherry off the top of her milkshake and ate it. Its sweet syrup soothed her bitter tongue. “I’ll pay.”
“No, no. How about this instead.” He sipped some of the Coke through his straw. “I have a quiz on Monday aboutThe Iliad, and that book and I are not clicking right now. So instead of you buying dinner, you come over and help me study tomorrow.”
Now this, again, was not something he needed to negotiate, because she had already offered to help him study on Saturdays if he needed it. She would have said yes even if he had no bargaining power. She could argue with him about it, but his mouth was set into a determined line, and she supposed she could let him have this victory if he’d like it. “Fine.”
He sat back, satisfied. “Then it’s a deal.”
So many deals between them. Practically every interaction—aside from the first—felt like a deal of some sort. He does this and she does that. Maybe by the end of this fake relationship, she’ll have some serious negotiating knowledge to make her a powerful businesswoman after she’s done with school.
The waitress returned with two plates in her hand. This was another thing that Tully enjoyed about Betty’s before she hated it: they were the fastest in the entire town.
She settled the plates onto the table, and Tully’s sipping paused as she took in the egregious amount of food being presented to Nathan. Betty was generous with her fries on a normal day. Stacked high on a plate for a single order that took up all the space of the large dish that the burger left open. But Nathan had ordered two portions of fries, and that would have resulted in a mountain of fried potatoes, so Betty had opted to put the second portion on another plate.
Tully was a personal witness to the amount of food teenage boys could eat—she had an older brother after all—but even she doubted that Nathan could handle all this on his own.
As if deciding the same thing, Nathan pushed the spare fries across the table and in front of her. “Here.”
She had to admit, they looked good. They smelled even better. The subtle sheen of oil on them reminded her how much she agreed with Nathan that these were the best fries in town. She wasn’t sure what fries exactly smell like, but it made the first hint of an appetite twist in her stomach. Yet, she’d already made her choice, and going back on it would make her look silly and she wasn’t going to make Nathan give up his big post-win meal just because she didn’t order. She pushed it to him. “I don’t want your pity fries.”
“They aren’t pity fries. I ordered them for you,” he said. The fries were back.
“I said I’m not hungry.” They were gone again.
“Try this first and then tell me you’re not hungry.” They stopped in front of her one last time, but Nathan kept going. He reached across and picked up a couple of the still-steaming pieces and dipped them straight into her chocolate shake then held them in front of her face.
Tully blinked, surprised. She stared cross-eyed at the too-close fries dripping with chocolate. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Open your mouth.”
“That’s gross.”
“Just do it.”
She hesitated, and waited for Nathan to laugh. But he didn’t. He looked very serious about this. So she opened her mouth and let him stick the chocolate-covered fries into her mouth.
Turned out she trusted him more than she thought.
Luckily, she did.
They were delicious. A perfect combination of sweet and salty, and suddenly she was less annoyed that Nathan made her try it, and more upset that she had never tried it before.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“It’s not bad.”
He grinned and picked up his burger. “Told you.”
Tully finished the entire plate of fries. The bitter sickness she’d been too focused on was long gone, and she relaxed back into her seat as she waited for Nathan to finish up the last of his own side. She would offer him some of her shake to dip it into, but she had already finished it.
She should thank Nathan. Weirdly, she found she had a lot she wanted to thank him for today. Noticing her discomfort when he hugged her and offering her a solution, showing her that wonderful combination of sweet and salty, and finally, making her forget for a while why this place was ruined for her.
