“Good.” He reached for his phone. “Then I’ve got it. Are you in the mood for anything specific?”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she tipped her chin up in a mildly defiant manner.
“Pizza. Cheese fries. Ranch.”
“Sounds good. I know just the place. How do you feel about wings?”
“Sure.”
“Spicy, okay?”
Yas just smirked at him, which he took to mean she was more than fine with some heat.
Pulling up the delivery app, he wandered over to Sarah’s couch to sit down while he put the order in.
“Would you like something to drink?” Yas asked. “I was just about to mix something up.”
“Sure.”
“You’re going to be stuck drinking what I’m drinking.”
“That’s fine.” He was pretty sure she really was testing him now. He wondered what she was planning on drinking. Something girly she seemed to think he wasn’t going to like would be his guess.
Little did she know, he wasn’t that picky.
She might be, though.
“What do you want on your pizza?”
“I like everything.” Her voice floated out of the kitchen, which was on the other side of the wall. Just enough so he couldn’t see her, but he could hear the clink of ice, then the sound of a drink in a shaker. Interesting. “Just choose whatever you like.”
Tiger came bounding down the stairs with Hope only a few steps behind him. Spotting Zeus on the couch, both of the dogs made a beeline for him.
"Hello, sweetie," he murmured, giving Hope a quick pet before getting back to his order. One pizza with everything, one pizza with pepperoni. He also added some chocolate cake and a cannoli at the end. If Yas didn’t want them, he’d eat them later. Movement out of the corner of his eye let him know that Yas was on her way back into the room. “Done.”
He looked up to see her coming toward him, an almost triumphant expression on her face as she held out one of the wine glasses in her hand. The liquid inside was pink.
“I didn’t see any martini glasses, so we’re making do with wine glasses tonight,” she said, coming to a halt in front of him. The look in her eye dared him to take one of the drinks.
“Thanks.” He plucked the glass from her fingers and leaned back against the couch as he put it to his lips. The crisp, fresh taste hit his tongue. “Cosmo, right?”
“Right.” She looked, dare he say, both confused and disappointed. Moving to the left, she sat down on the other side of Hope. With a dog on either side of him, it wasn’t as though she could sit directly beside him, so he didn’t know if she was still trying to scare him off or not.
“I don’t have to stay if you don’t actually want company,” he said, just to make sure she knew she wasn’t stuck with him. She might actually want to be alone, and that’s what was up with all the little tests.
“No, I do, I just…” Yas looked down at her drink and spun the glass very slowly between her fingers. Slowly enough that it barely made a ripple in the liquid. “I’m trying to make sure you don’t want to date me.”
“Okay…” He let the obvious question hang in the air.
“It’s not you. It’s me.” She sighed and took a sip of her drink. “I’m cursed. I know how that sounds, but I really am. Every time I date a guy, he meets the woman of his dreams and gets his happily-ever-after once we break up. And I’m sick of it. So, I’m no longer dating and getting my hopes up.”
Zeus shrugged. “Who said anything about dating?”
Now she turned to look at him, haughty and sure of herself. He liked that, too.
“Well, you took me up on my invitation to spend time together this evening, and you ordered dinner, so technically, you’re paying. I just want to be very clear about what’s on the table.”
Well, he could appreciate that. Zeus gave her a measuring look over the curled-up Hope between them.
