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“What makes you think I’m going to leave with you?”
“Bellamia, how could you not?”
The term of endearment didn’t get her to blush the way it usually did. She switched off her phone and tucked it into her handbag so that her face plunged into darkness, and I couldn’t tell what expression was on her face at all.
“I know you think you’re all that, but I can live without you, you know.”
“Youcan,” I agreed. “But do you want to?”
“I know these lines work on the other women who fall at your feet in worship. You should know by now I’m not them. I’m not easily impressed by fancy parties and money and well-delivered pickup lines.”
Shit. She’d had far too much of that in her life. I should have known. Then again, Celine had always been a challenge.
“Let me take you out,” I said. I’d never had the chance inside to convince her; others had demanded my attention.
“I don’t think so,” she said.
“You always say that.”
“And yet, you keep trying.”
“I’m not one to give up.”
“So I can see. You know what they say about people who try the same thing over and over, expecting different results.”
“Persistent?”
“Crazy.”
“Crazy about you,” I said and waggled my eyebrows.
Celine rolled her eyes—that much I could see in the darkness.
“Where is that damn car?” Her tone was irritated, and she looked serious about trying to get away from me. I was bantering, but her words weren’t delivered jokingly.
My amused mood dissipated, and I was getting frustrated.
“You’re set on pushing me away,” I said.
“That would suggest that we’re close,” she said, looking up and down the road rather than looking at me.
“Celine,” I said and touched her arm to get her attention. She looked down at my hand as if it offended her and glared at me.
“You’ll do well to unhand me,” she said.
I was suddenly angry.
“Why are you like this?”
“I’m not like anything.”
“I don’t know who you think you’re fooling. You’re so full of shit, pushing away everyone and everything, making sure no one can get close to you when youknowwe have something.”
“Maybe you’re the one trying to fool yourself into thinking there’s something at all. We may have had something a long time ago, but times have changed. We grew up.”
“We learned what we wanted.”
“What I want isn’t you.”
