Page 210 of A Taste of Vanilla

He looks at me, and I look back.

“I’m mad,” I say. “And I’m allowed to be mad.”

“It didn’t happen to you.”

“No, it happened to someone I…” I stop.

The sentence catches in my throat.

Someone I love.

No.

I clear my throat. “Someone I care about,” I say instead.

His eyes stay on mine.

He heard the almost.

We’re both getting worse at hiding it.

“Okay,” he says quietly.

Just that. Okay.

I look back at his tattoos. “What does the script say?”

His gaze drops to the line across his side. “Measure twice. Leave once.”

I blink. Then stare at him.

“Warren.”

“Yes?”

“That is the most devastatingly repressed tattoo I have ever heard of.”

He smiles. “It was a joke!”

“No.” I shake my head. “It’s a cry for help in Carpenter font.”

“It’s not carpenter font.”

“Oh my God, is that the part you’re defending?”

He laughs. “No, Halston.”

I laugh softly as he watches my face carefully. “Better?”

“Some.”

“Scale?”

“Six.”

“From?”

“Eight.”