Page 42 of Waste of Worth

Karen laughed, winking before she turned back to the counter. “Lay that charm on, Dino. You know how much I like it.”

He’d never quite thought of himself as charming before.

But it had made her smile again.

Tucked into the corner of the couch, his notepad and pencil back in his hands as he put more detail, more of his memories of the moment he was currently drawing onto the paper, Dino found himself watching Karen again.

She was engrossed in the series marathon playing on television. Her brief bouts of laughter occasionally brought his attention back to her before the moment was gone and he was back to his drawing.

Dino was all too aware that he couldn’t ignore the outside world forever. He couldn’t keep himself locked up in Karen’s apartment for much longer, because someone might finally notice he hadn’t been around.

It wasn’t as if he’d missed anything important. There were no meetings he needed to attend, and his business dealings were being handled by other people, while he’d left the immediate work to his younger brother.

He didn’t really need to go.

Dino worried that pushing his luck might not end well for him.

Tomorrow, he’d head back to his place, and make sure he was seen by the people who needed to see him. That left him with one more night, and oddly, he hoped it was a dreamless one.

“Dino?”

“Yeah, sweetheart?”

He glanced up at Karen’s call of his name, realizing he’d zoned out again while going back and forth between drawing and watching her. She was such an interesting creature. To some, she probably seemed overtly normal. Nothing extraordinarily special about a woman who could be set beside a hundred other women and not stand out in the crowd.

Dino didn’t think that was true at all.

Anyone who might think that of Karen was missing out on the beauty that radiated from her easy smile and warm eyes.

She couldn’t possibly be just normal.

Not when she was as wonderful as she was.

Karen leaned over a bit, coming closer to his spot at the other end of the couch. “Are you almost done?”

“Done what?”

“Drawing, Dino. That’s what you’ve been doing for the last two hours.”

He looked to the clock—had it been that long?

Smirking, Dino set his pad and pencil aside. “Maybe it’s the company that keeps me occupied and losing time.”

Karen’s cheeks pinked slightly. “Was that a come-on?”

“Not—”

“Because you know all you really need to do is tell me you want to fuck, right?”

Dino’s brow lifted at her blatant suggestion. “Good to know, but that’s not what I was trying to do.”

“Boo, you’re no fun. Can I see your drawing then?”

At that request, Dino did hesitate.

Karen was quick to notice. “You don’t have to. I was just curious.”

He wasn’t sure that she would understand the sketch he’d been working on all day, or for that matter, if she would recognize the battered face staring back at her in the image. The brutality that he’d drawn onto the white page was disconcerting in detail, even to his eye and mind, the very person who had lived it.