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“No, I can get a cab. You should go straight home.”
“My car is much safer than an Uber.” He frowned.
“My Uber is safer for you. Low profile, remember? At least until you get on those morning shows.”
“Megan.”
Ooh, he’d said it again. Lord, he was his own worst enemy. “Think about it. If your car pulls up to my apartment building, people will get all kinds of ideas. No, Alessandro. Tomorrow I’ll bug you for all kinds of help. Tonight, let me help you by sending you back home in your own car.”
“I did not think about it that way,” he conceded. “I apologize. Let me escort you outside at least.”
His sudden capitulation was sexier than a quarter hour of arguments. Megan hid her hot cheeks by putting on her coat and grabbing her bag. She said goodbye to the others, promised she’d call tomorrow with updates, and let Alessandro usher her outside.
The temperature was as cold as ever, the air just as perfumed by the cinnamon sugar from the churro truck. “Would you like a churro before you go?” he asked her politely.
“Sure. They smell so good.” In fact, she was beginning to regret saying no to dinner. The smells were making her stomach grumble loudly.
“I absolutely insist,” he said when Megan went to pay. He handed her a paper cone of churros. “I do not know if you know this,” he added, picking up a napkin, “but I get paid for what I do.”
“I know you do,” she said, blushing despite the cool air. “But I do, too.” She wasn’t going to tell him that she was probably worth more than him, no matter his recent success.
“That is true.” He seemed to consider the concept. “Can I buy you a churro because it would make me happy to buy you a churro?”
“That’s not fair,” she said. She couldn’t wait any longer to pull out the delicious pastry and take a bite. “Ohmigod.”
Alessandro was grinning at her.
“Don’t look so pleased,” she said with her mouth full.
“What?” He cupped a hand behind his ear. “I couldn’t hear you.”
“Don’t look so—mmm. Never mind.” She took another bite. The cinnamon sugar warmed her from the inside out. “I officially allow you to buy me churros whenever I come here.”
“That sounds as though you will be back.”
“Of course I’ll be back. I told the others I’d be back.”
“But you are very polite.”
“I meant it.” Then his words distracted her from licking the sugar off her thumb. “Hold up. What do you mean by that?”
“I have always noticed this about you. You work to make everyone have a better day. You choose your words carefully. You smile at everyone, but sometimes I think…”
She stared at him. Those silver-gray eyes wouldn’t let her go.
“I wonder,” he said, “what you would say if someone asked you to do something youdidn’twant to do. I wonder if all this making others happy is tiring for you.”
“I—” The emotions bubbled up so fast, she didn’t know which one to throw at him first. Megan didn’t get to put herself first. She’d chosen this. Infuriated with Cat and Kane’s fights? Smile and make a joke. Frustrated with Kane’s restrictions on what she could do at work? Smile and tell him she was happy with the work she had. Move away from a department whose projects made her heart sing? Nod and smile and make sure the coffee machine was running.
And this man, who hadn’t seen her in five years, had seen enough—remembered enough—to see what she’d hidden: that her ease around people always came with a cost.
“H—How do you know that?”No onewas supposed to know that. Even her family didn’t know this. If people knew that she had to work to make them happy, that it wasn’t, in fact, something she did easily? No. Megan couldn’t countenance it. They would be disappointed. She would let them down. She would fail.
“I saw it whenever you came into the coffee shop,” he said. “I saw it behind your eyes. It is what actors do when they are preparing for a scene.”
“Oh.” Shit. That was why he’d been looking at her so hard. “You remember all that back then?”
“Yes. I remembered you.”
