AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fay Fay: Lol. I agree. Hey, gotta run. I’m interviewing a new sous chef. Love you! Let me know how today goes. I’ll text you as soon as I hear anything from Theo.
I send her back a bunch of heart emojis and toss my phone. Looking all snazzy in my Pilates gear, I find Tate standing by my door in fresh clothes. “Where did you get those?”
He opens my door. “Let’s go. You’re going to be late.”
Which is also true. Glenda, my instructor, hates it when I walk in late. “For real, did you rob some guy on the street?”
“No.”
“’Cause you don’t have any bags.”
I walk out of my door and stop. No one’s shocked when I turn around and slam into his chest.Dammit.I bring my eyes up to his. “I’ve got it. You’re a magician.”
He shakes his head. “Walk, Mindy.”
I shrug and turn around, putting one foot in front of the other. I’m tempted to ask him about Iraq as I go down the stairs. But that would mean I care. And I don’t need to know anything about him. What Idoneed is to know when he’s going to be gone so I can get back to my regularly scheduled program.
But I’m also really nosy.
“Is it true? You did two tours in Iraq?”
He’s not fazed by my question. “Yep.”
“What did you do over there?”
“Lots of things.” He leans forward, pushing open the front door of my apartment complex.
“Did you kill bad guys?”
“Yep.” Taking my shoulders in his hands, he turns me around, guiding me outside.
“How long were you there for?”
“Almost three years.”
I stumble, and his arm shoots forward, snaking around my waist to keep me upright. I cock my head. “Three years?”
“Three years,” he repeats.
“That’s a long time.”
“It’s three years.”
At no time does he show any emotion. No,“Yay, three years!”No,“gross, three years!”Just“three years.”I can’t imagine what he went through. What he saw. “I dated a guy who was super into military movies. It wasn’t a bad thing because I had an insane crush on Jake Gyllenhaal and he’s in aton, but, man… to live the real deal.” He opens his car door, and I climb in. Same song and dance. He demands I buckle up, and we’re on our way to Pilates.
Surprisingly, I walk in on time. For once, Glenda isn’t snarling at me. “Since it’s frowned upon to do Pilates in jeans and they probably don’t have a mat big enough for you, why don’t you go make yourself scarce for the next hour?”
“Mindy. Wow, on time. This is a first.” I turn to Becky, offering her my over-the-top, fake-as-hell smile.
“Right?Socrazy.”
Her eyes drop to my neck. “Oh my God, what happened?”
“Oh, this? It’s nothing. Work got a little out of control. You know what I mean?” Her lips thin as I hold in my smirk. She knows exactly what I do. And I know she knows because she gossips about it with everybody in class when she thinks I can’t hear. What she doesn’t know isIknow her husband has been cheating on her for years. How do I know this? When she’s not paying attention, everyone is gossiping about her.
“Oh…well then…” She takes her beady eyes off me, latching onto Tate. “And who is this?”
The guy who was supposed to make himself scarce. “This is Tate. He’s a reporter. He’s doing a feature about my life. My girlfriend Reece really took to my story when we chatted at book club.”
