Page 103 of The Sun and Her Star

A lot.

“Graham, we’ve been walking for nearly five minutes and you haven’t even asked where I was taking you.” Apollo nudges me with her hip.

I look down at to find her beaming up at me and I tighten my arm around her and nuzzle the top of her head with my chin.

“What are you smiling at?”

“You. You’re here. We’re hanging out.” She sighs contentedly and looks back to watch where we’re walking. “I’ve missed you.”

“Yeah, me too, Sunshine. I’m glad I came.” She gives my waist a squeeze and we fall back into our comfortable silence.

We get to the corner of Fourth Avenue before I ask where we’re going.

“It depends.” She steps out of my hold and turns to face me with a pensive look on her face. “Are you in the mood for a walk?”

“As long as there’s food at the end of it, then sure. I’m not the one in heels.” I nod down at her booted feet.

“They’re comfortable and … it’s not that far. Well, not really.” She’s looking around as she’s talking. She looks at me and purses her lips and shakes her head.

“No. We’d have to walk through Washington Square Park and every time I walk through there, something embarrassing happens. A bird will shit on my head or I’ll trip over nothing and skin my knee. Or a water pipe will burst the minute I walk past it. That place has bad juju.” She opens her purse and grabs her phone. “Let’s get an Uber.”

“Sure. Sounds good. But I still don’t know where we’re going.”

“First to eat. There’s a great Vietnamese place across from The Strand Bookstore on Broadway.”

“Oh, man. It’s on my list of places to visit. I follow them on Instagram.”

“Oh, yeah? I hardly use it anymore,” she says as she peers down West Seventh.

“Yeah, I know,” I say.

Her head turns toward me sharply, her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I check every once in a while to see if there’s anything new going on. Like if you’ve dumped that boyfriend of yours yet.”

“Graham. Come on.” She rolls her eyes and shakes her head before she returns to looking for our driver.

“What? You know you’re going tohaveto dump him, right?”

She looks at me again and narrows her eyes. “I don’t know any such thing.” And then her eyes slide to mine, and she smiles slyly. “I already have. Two months ago.”

I pump my fist. “Iknewit. So, you’re single…” I nudge her thigh with mine and smile broadly when she flushes and drops her eyes. .

“I guess,” she mumbles.

“Why did you end things?” I probe.

She turns her head and gazes at me. “Because when I kissed him, I tasted you.”

My mouth goes dry and lick my lips and sharpen my gaze on her and watch her closely. “You mean, before I got here?” I ask, afraid to believe what she’s saying.

“Graham, I know it was a long time ago and that it was brief,” her fingers flutter to her lips and her eyes close briefly. My heart kicks in my chest at that gesture.

I know what she’s remembering.

I still feel it, too.

“It was so very fleeting,” her eyes come to mine and there is a direct but tender honesty in them. “That kiss ruined me. And it wasn’t fair to be with him when I dreamed about another man every night. I should have ended it a long time ago.”

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