Page 5 of Cross + Catherine: The Companion

Cross flipped Zeke the middle finger, but didn’t say a word otherwise.

Zeke glanced in the rearview mirror at Catherine. “Do you have any place that you want to visit in the Kitchen since that’s where we’re heading?”

“Me?”

“I’m looking at you, aren’t I?”

“Be nice,” Cross warned.

He added a punch to Zeke’s shoulder to make his point. Zeke barely reacted at all to the hit.

“Yeah, you,” Zeke said, still looking at Catherine. “Anywhere you want to go, or what?”

Catherine had to think about it. She had only been to Hell’s Kitchen a couple of times before. Usually, her time in the city—when she went—was spent in upper Manhattan, on Fifth Avenue, or inside one of her family’s upscale restaurants. She had gotten to spend the day in Hell’s Kitchen once with her aunt, Kim. One place stood out the most in her memory.

“Could we go to The Annex?”

Cross looked back at her. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, the market, you know. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Maybe because he might think it’s a little low-key for your tastes,” Zeke suggested.

Catherine frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean? Like I’m too spoiled or something?”

“Yeah—”

Cross punched Zeke again. A lot harder the second time, and it shut his friend up instantly.

Zeke glared. “Do that again, Cross.”

Cross ignored his friend, and turned back to Catherine. “Yeah, we can go to The Annex.”

She settled into the backseat. “Okay.”

“Where’s he going?” Catherine asked when Zeke left the table.

The older teenager headed out of the diner without a look back. His phone had chimed with a call or something, but he hadn’t even checked it before leaving the table.

“Amanda,” Cross said before taking a bite of pizza.

“He didn’t even look at his phone. How do you know that?”

“The ringtone—he uses that one for her calls.”

“Oh.”

“You gonna eat, or …?”

Catherine laughed, and reached for the fork next to her plate. Just the strange look on Cross’s face was enough to make her hesitate.

“What?” she asked.

“You’re not seriously going to use that, are you?”

“The fork?”

“Yeah,” he said.