Page 47 of Liar
Ash grinned, and the cashier behind the counter appeared confused. She only ordered one meal, and I ordered mine. It’d been a long time since I’d had McDonald’s, but I knew Ash loved their nuggets, so here we were. Not really a fancy dinner date, but one she’d hopefully enjoy anyways.
We sat down in a booth in the corner. Ash chose the seat that overlooked the restaurant, while I sat facing the windows, able to see most of the outside from where I was. No stalkers. No one hiding in the shadows that I could see, but maybe I wasn’t too good at picking them out. Ray had apparently made some visits to my house and I hadn’t had a clue.
Ash filled up the top of her chicken container with ketchup, and I watched her dip her chicken in the red sauce before bringing it to her mouth. I hadn’t even touched my burger yet, mostly because…chicken and ketchup. That was like turkey and ketchup. Just no. I’d heard some people dipped any sort of meat in ketchup, but…yuck. That shit needed barbeque sauce or something.
“You going to watch me all night, or are you going to eat?” she asked. “Or is it too fatty for you to eat? Since you’re a work-out freak.” She gave me an unimpressed look as she sipped her drink—Dr Pepper, because apparently that was the best type of brown pop there was, according to her.
“I was just watching you smother your chicken with ketchup,” I said, opening my Big Mac container. “And thinking about how nasty it is.”
“It’s not nasty—it’s good. It’s the only way to eat chicken.”
“I think I’ve met a million people who would disagree with that.”
Her grey gaze narrowed, her lips quirked into a smile. “You have not.” Just to disgust me more, she literally scooped ketchup onto her next chicken nugget.
I wanted to gag, not going to lie.
“Mmm,” she murmured, her cheeks puffy like a chipmunk with her mouth full, “it’s good. You should try it.” Ash swallowed, carefully dipping her next nugget into the ketchup and offering it to me. “Have one. It’s not every day I offer to share my nuggets, you know.”
That was probably true.
The last thing I wanted to do was eat the nugget in her hand, but I found myself taking it anyway, my fingertips brushing against hers. Our eyes met, though I was pretty sure she stared at me to see my reaction about the chicken and ketchup thing, and not because we’d touched.
I brought it to my mouth and took a bite, ketchup-dipped side first. I chewed…and swallowed, which was hard for me.
Ash laughed. “If you really hate it, that’s fine. I guess it’s not for everybody. Now, French fries and ice cream? That’s a winning combination to everybody, even the ones who haven’t tried it yet.”
Ice cream and French fries. That was a new one.
After we filled ourselves up with fast food, I drove us to the movie theater one town over and purchased the tickets to the movie she’d sent me. We got more junk food in the form of buttered popcorn and some candy, which Ash complained was way overpriced, but I didn’t care. Hell, if she’d ask me for the whole concession stand, I probably would’ve bought the whole thing for her. Every last piece of overpriced candy would be hers. Pocket change to a Salvatore.
But she’d never ask for something like that. Ash wasn’t like that.
I was tasked with holding everything while she ran to the restroom before we handed over our tickets and were ushered into our theater. She’d chosen some action flick, but frankly, I couldn’t care less what we were seeing. Stupid as it sounded, I was merely happy and content to be with her. The movie could be literal shit, and I’d still be excited about tonight.
Excited, and angry. Excited for Ash, angry because someone thought they could tear me away from her.
Fuck them.
And fuck her, for an entirely different reason. I’d been dying to get my hands on her ever since seeing her again in January. I’d been patient, so patient, and each day that passed that I didn’t know how Ash felt under me I died a little more inside.
Dramatic? Definitely, but so true.
Ash chose two seats in the middle of the theater, not the highest up and not the furthest down…mostly because there were a bunch of people already seated, and sitting directly beside someone else would’ve been awkward.
The previews started not soon after we sat down, and with the loudspeakers talking about whatever animated flick was being advertised on the screen, Ash leaned over the armrest and whispered, “I had a dream about you last night.”
I nearly knocked the popcorn bin off my lap, my face giving everything away, apparently.
She grinned. “It was a good dream, in case you’re curious—which I know you are. And, before you ask, no, I will not give you any details.” Ash got a handful of popcorn from the top of the bucket, stuffing her face as she settled in and began paying attention to the giant screen before us.
Problem was, of course, how the hell was I supposed to focus on a movie after she said that?
A dream about me. A girl didn’t dream about me being nice and playing with puppies. No, they dreamed about me taking them, about me owning them and making them cry out my name while I was buried inside of them. If Ash dreamt of me, I couldn’t help but wonder what position we’d been in. I was down for damn nearly every position when it came to Ash.
Damn it. I was getting hard thinking about it.
Speaking of hard, it was immensely hard for me to focus on anything other than the lithe, pretty blonde beside me. Even though she looked like a ragamuffin, like she just rolled in off the streets, she looked good. There was a slight kink to her yellow and pink locks, her eyes lively and warm. Ash was just as content beside me as I was her.
