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“It doesn’t,” I said, getting a little smile out of her.
She deserved better.
Not that there was anything wrong with a dollar store teddy bear if that was all the guy could afford. But assuming they were together for a while, if that was all he could ever get to show her he was thinking of her, that was pretty fucking weak.
“I mean, not that, I mean, I know that we are… you know,” she said.
“Yeah, baby, I know,” I agreed, giving her a wicked little smirk that had her cheeks heating.
“Right. Well, we are, doing that. But that doesn’t mean that I think you are, you know, my…”
“Boyfriend,” I supplied.
“Right,” she said with a definitive little nod. “That.”
“And if I said… I wanted to be that?” I asked, feeling her out.
Her gaze went to mine, searching. Like she was trying to find any dishonesty in my words. She wouldn’t find that, though, because it didn’t exist.
Something came over her gaze then, right in that second before it skirted away, looking out at the store instead of at me.
“I think… it’s complicated,” she said, voice small.
“Baby, it doesn’t have—“ I started, but it was right then that the sales woman came back with a pile of shoeboxes, and then the two of them hemmed and hawed over two pairs for the next twenty minutes.
I knew what Avery was trying to do.
Figure out which of the two was the cheapest.
And for that, for not playing by the rules, she was going to get both of them.
“Let’s ring them both up,” I said, getting to my feet as Avery looked at her feet in the mirror.
“What? No,” Avery said, wide-eyed as she turned to me.
“We had a deal,” I reminded her. “You weren’t going to worry about the price, or I was going to buy you one of each pair,” I said, seeing a few women nearby smile.
Reaching down, I grabbed the boxes, and followed the sales woman away.
“Do you have these in her size?” I asked, motioning to a pair of flats as we passed.
She took out her tablet, and searched around.
“Yes. Would you like those as well?” she asked, eyes brightening, likely thinking about her commission.
“Yes,” I said, nodding.
“Very good. Just give me one more moment,” she said, hurrying away, then coming back with another box.
A glance over my shoulder said Avery’s gaze was fixed down at her own feet, a warm smile tugging at her lips.
Making every fucking cent worth it.
The woman bagged the shoes, rang me up, and took the cash with a surprised brow raise.
“Thanks for your help,” I said, taking the bag from her.
“She’s a lucky girl,” she said.
“Think I’m the lucky one here,” I said, walking back toward Avery.
It wasn’t until she was picking up her old heels to slip into the bag that she noticed the other box.
“Emilio!” she sighed.
“Surprise for later,” I said, wrapping an arm around her lower back and leading her back out. “Where to next?” I asked.
“I’m not looking in another storefront, that’s for sure,” she said with a nod.
“What then? A show? Movie? Museum? Dancing?”
“You’d go dancing?” she asked, dubious.
With her, I’d take fucking ballroom classes.
“Sure,” I agreed.
“Really?”
“Yes, really. You want to?”
“We can’t,” she said, shaking her head.
“Why not?”
“Because we have a big bag now full of expensive shoes we can’t just leave at a table to go dancing.”
That was a fair point.
“What are you doing?” she asked as I reached for my phone, shooting off a text.
“Just give it… ten minutes,” I said.
Then, sure enough, a man came walking toward us. A little rough around the edges. One of Brio’s soldiers, and he tended to employ the more street-looking guys.
His chin nodded as Avery tensed next to me.
Scary-looking guys on the street had very different meaning to women, I knew.
“It’s alright,” I said, pressing a kiss to her temple, then holding the bag out toward the man. “Appreciate it,” I said to him, getting a nod. “I’ll be in touch,” I added, and we both knew I meant compensation for his time since this was not his usual work. “Now we can go dancing,” I told her before she could question me.
I knew it would need to be a conversation at some time. About what I did. About the dangers associated with that.
But I didn’t want tonight to be that time.
I just wanted to have some fun with her.
So that was what we did.
We found a club, some little place with live music pouring out into the street whenever the doors swung open. We ordered drinks for courage. Then I pulled her out onto the dance floor, our bodies moving together for hours in a way that seemed to have us both primed and anxious to get home when we finally found ourselves in the back of a cab, buzzed, happy.
