Page 30

“You scared the fuck out of me. I’m not sure how we even got here. The morning started out good between us, then somewhere, it went to hell. What happened?” she asked quietly. There was no need to raise her voice or badger him. She simply wanted to know what had caused his anger.

“I didn’t mean to act that way,” he said, voice almost childlike. “I just…” He stopped himself from speaking. If Myla didn’t know any better, she would’ve assumed that his abrupt silence was for dramatic effects only. But she could clearly see that he was affected by what he was about to say.

“You just what? Talk to me, Dante. You wouldn’t accept my silence earlier, so I’m not accepting yours. What caused the switch in your demeanor?” Myla asked as she gently touched his hand.

“It’s just the fact that I was supposed to be taking you out. I was supposed to be cheering you up. I’m a man. It’s my job to make sure that you’re taken care of in any capacity. I just feel like the restaurant owners went out of their way to humiliate me. No apologies offered. No suggestions. Just We don’t accept American Express.”

What the fuck? Myla thought, her head tilted in confusion. She paid close attention to every conversation that she was involved in. Sunny had genuinely offered an apology and a workaround for covering the bill since AMEX wasn’t accepted.

Does he believe the restaurant was personally trying to attack him by not accepting the credit card that he has? That can’t be it, Myla thought, but she knew it was a fact. Dante had quickly forced himself to believe that the restaurant’s policy was solely created to inconvenience him. That single thought was alarming.

The psychologist in her wanted to call attention to his way of thinking, but the woman in her just wanted to calm Dante down.

“Oh, baby, don’t say that. Sunny’s policy is not a personal attack against you. They weren’t trying to emasculate or humiliate you. They just can’t afford the fees associated with such an exclusive card. It’s not you,” Myla said as she continued to rub his hand.

Did I comfort him unnecessarily, or simply restate what was true? Myla wondered. She was certain she knew the answer, and inwardly that fact made her cringe.

“I know you’re right, but you having to step in and cover the bill was just a slap in the face. Everybody was there looking at me like I was some leech. I didn’t like that. I’m taking us to the ATM now so I can reimburse you,” Dante stated as he drove in the direction of the nearest automated teller.

Myla was offended. He was projecting his insecurities. Attempting to make her the bad person. His card declining had nothing to do with her or the patrons of the restaurant. When she looked back to see how long the line was, no one was looking at either of them. People were on their phones, taking selfies with the Sunnyside Up Smiling Egg Mascot. The line had been long, but no one, other than him, had been annoyed. People didn’t start looking at him until he started screaming.

“What the fuck? Dante, do me a favor and take me home! You can’t be serious right now. I know you didn’t think I gave a fuck about two punk ass twenty-dollar bills?” Myla shouted. “You did all that pouting and driving like a bat out of hell because I covered the bill? Yeah, I’m done here,” Myla said dryly. She was annoyed, and Dante knew it.

No, you’re not, Dante thought as he watched different emotions cover Myla’s face. Time to make her see things my way.

“Myla, I wasn’t trying to make a scene or piss you off. I just know how things look. How many times have you had a session, either current or in the past, with women saying men don’t cater to them, men don’t pay for things, and all types of other shady shit? I make sure everyone around me is taken care of. I didn’t feel like I was doing my part for you,” he admitted.

As he knew it would, Myla’s angry demeanor vanished. The hard ridges of her face instantly disappeared, replaced with the softness he saw all morning. Instead of lashing out, she spoke calmly.

“I just watched you pull out a credit card that many people will never have access to in their entire lives. You then informed her of having what kind of card?” she asked. There was no way she could remember the name because she had never heard of it before.

“Dubai Royale First Mastercard,” Dante said proudly.

“Dubai Royale First Mastercard,” Myla repeated the name. She needed to remember it so she could Google the perks when she got home. “How did you qualify for that?” she asked clearly, intrigued.

“Dubai is a place that I frequent for business and pleasure. Since I’m always there, it just made sense for me to get a card to collect airline and travel points,” Dante shrugged as if having the prestigious card was no big deal.

Handsome, wealthy, and well-traveled. I like that, Myla thought as her clitoris began pulsating. Some of the men she’d dated had never even been to an airport. A man who knew his way around the globe made her excited.

“Listen, you don’t get to determine how I feel about things. No matter what I may or may not have heard, you don’t get to think for me. Do we have a clear understanding?”

Myla was offended. She was so angry that she didn’t even want to look at him. She faced the window instead. She couldn’t focus on anything other than what Dante said. She was so deep in her thoughts that she failed to realize that she had fallen into a trap.

Dante looked at the back of Myla’s head and smiled proudly. He placed his hand over his face to muffle the laugh that threatened to burst from his well-moisturized lips. Instead of laughter, he let out a sigh.

“Myla, I apologize. I was supposed to be making your day better, not worse. If you give me a chance to make this up to you, I promise that this will never happen again,” Dante replied as he drove away from the ATM.

He didn’t drive like a maniac this time; instead, he interlocked his fingers with hers, then kissed the back of her hand.

Myla wanted to be angry, to tell him that they couldn’t move any further, but she didn’t because he had apologized. She didn’t want to be the reason that their day came to an end. More than one person had literally gushed over him in the restaurant; she knew Dante was a good person.

She didn’t want him to leave without seeing where they could end up next. Instead, she said, “You still owe me a pottery class and a fondue dinner.”

“I can do something better,” Dante said as he u-turned in the middle of the street.

A few moments later, he pulled into the parking lot of Timmons Grocery. Dante walked into the small family-owned grocery store to grab a few items. He was surprised by how packed the store was. He had never been there before. He only stopped because Chancellor mentioned it.

“Hello, sir. Would you like to purchase a reusable shopping bag? It’s only ninety-nine cents,” the store employee said as she held out a red reusable bag with Timmons Grocery stamped on the side.