Page 114 of Five Days to Be Mine

“Thanks.” I smile back, but inside I still can’t shake the feeling that I don't deserve this, that it’s too much.

We order and I check my phone.

“How are things with you and Evan?” Jenny asks with a smirk. “Oh, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to!”

“Considering I've seen you half naked, I think we’re beyond that.”

She covers her mouth with her hand and blushes. “True. So how are they?”

I laugh. “Good. Really good. I feel like I'm in a dream.”

Jenny takes a sip of water. “I kind of felt like that with Matt. I couldn't trust that it was real. Do you know I've been married twice before?”

I shake my head. “No, I didn’t know that.”

“I’m surprised Sabrina didn't blab about it.”

I knew Jenny was a year or two older than me, but ever since I first met her, she and Matt have been an item.

“Yeah, I swore I’d never be with someone again until I met Matt. Sabrina introduced us, so I have her to thank for that. To Sabrina.” Jenny lifts her glass in a mock toast.

“To Sabrina,” I echo.

“I kind of miss her.”

I laugh. “Yeah, she has a kind of magnetic field.”

Our food arrives and we dig in.

"What made you trust Matt?”

“When he kept trying. I don't know. I guess when he didn't do anything that I couldn't trust, you know? I kept waiting for him to be a jerk and it didn't happen.”

“I kind of feel like that with Evan. Like it's too good to be true.”

Somehow, saying the words out loud, it feels like a relief, but it also feels like what I have been telling myself isn’t true.

I think back to seeing his ex in the café and tell myself that having money isn’t everything. Emotional stability counts for a lot.

“I've seen how that man looks at you, Mara, and he thinks he's the lucky one.”

“Maybe we’re both lucky.”

“That's the spirit. Thanks for giving me a job.”

“It’s not a proper job, at least not yet.”

A wave of guilt washes over me because I still haven't chosen an assistant.

Jenny's great, but I know Suki really wants something new and before I ran into Jenny at Sinful Bites, I had Suki in mind.

“I am happy we pulled off these sculptures for Wendy. We’ll see if the phone rings from her clients.”

“I know it will,” Jenny says.

We eat and finish and walk out with each other.

“Thanks for lunch,” she says.

---