AllFreeNovel
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He studies the restaurant as if seeing it for the first time, and his expression softens. “All right,” he says. “Stay here. Don’t move, do you hear me?” He walks inside and speaks to the waiter, then comes back out. “Come on.”
His hand resting lightly on my upper arm, he leads me across the road and around the corner, stopping outside a McDonald’s.
“Better?” he asks.
I swallow and nod.
“Good.” He leads me inside.
We go up to a large interactive board to place our order. I stare at all the options, overwhelmed, and eventually he says, “Want me to order for you?” I nod again, and he says, “You’re not a vegetarian?”
“No.”
He starts pressing buttons—two Deluxe Double Quarter Pounders, two large fries, a pack of Chicken McNuggets, two apple pies, two Hot Fudge Sundaes…
Eventually I say, “How many people are joining us?”
“I’m hungry, and you need fattening up. Do you want a coffee or a cold drink?”
“Water, please.”
He adds two bottles of water, presses the button to pay, and uses his Apple Watch. “I think the company expense account can cope,” he says when he sees the look on my face. Then he leads me over to a table.
“Sit,” he says. “You’re as white as a ghost.”
“I’m okay,” I mumble, but it’s true that I’m feeling a bit lightheaded, so I slide onto the bench without further argument.
He walks over to wait for our order. He obviously doesn’t give a fuck that the scruffy youths and students in their charity shop clothes are staring at him in his expensive three-piece suit. He studies his phone until our number appears, then walks back with the tray of food, puts it on the table, and slides onto the bench opposite me.
“Dig in,” he says.
I open one of the boxes containing a burger, and the scent of cooked meat rises to my nostrils. Oh my God, it smells amazing. I pick it up and stare at it, then take a big mouthful. I know I’ve probably got sauce all around my mouth, but I don’t care. Closing my eyes, I chew slowly.
“All right?” he asks, amused.
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my whole life,” I tell him.
He chuckles and dips a Chicken Nugget into a pot of barbecue sauce. “I’m guessing you eat here a lot?”
“Over thirty bucks for one meal?” I wipe my mouth free of ketchup and collect half a dozen fries. “That would buy me a week’s worth of food.”
His eyes widen. “You’re kidding me?”
I shake my head. “Two Weet-Bix and milk for breakfast, jam sandwiches for lunch, or sometimes cheese if I splash out, and pasta, mince, pasta sauce, and onion for dinner, with a handful of frozen vegetables.”
He looks at the burger in front of him. “No wonder you didn’t want to eat at Frankie’s.”
“I’ve never been in a restaurant,” I tell him.
His eyebrows rise. “Seriously?”
I shake my head again and have another big bite of the burger.
He clears his throat, then has a handful of fries.
For a while, we eat in silence. I don’t like the fact that he’s paid for my lunch, but it tastes too wonderful to turn it down.
He has a couple of the Chicken Nuggets, then pushes the rest over to me. I eat them while he wipes his fingers on a serviette. “I want to talk to you about what happens next,” he says.
