Page 93 of The Sun and Her Star

“Have your feelings for me changed, Apollo?” he asks me in a solemn voice.

“My feelings for you haven’t changed …” I begin.

“But?” he prods. But instead of looking disappointed, he’s smiling.

“But, I’m not …”

His eyes dart over my shoulder.

And suddenly the rest of the world comes rushing back. The music is still playing, and we’ve been joined by a few other couples. But we’ve been standing, having an intense, emotional conversation in a room full of strangers. And the man who, at least publicly, is my boyfriend.

“Graham. I can’t talk about this here.” I take a step back, and he doesn’t try to stop me.

He nods slowly, his eyes lose a bit of their sparkle. “Yeah. I understand. Will you meet me again?”

“Yes,” I say quickly. Because whatever happens, I still love Graham. I always will. And now that I’ve seen him, I just want more.

“Tonight?” he persists, and I can’t stop the excitement in my voice when I say, “Okay.”

He smiles and reaches into his pocket and hands me a card. “Call me when you get home. I’ll come over.”

I take it from him with a nod. He grabs my trembling hand.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, Apollo.”

“Says the big bad wolf,” I mutter before I snatch my hand away.

We walk back to the table.

This time not touching, not speaking.

“Lucas.” Graham extends his hand to shake, and Lucas, far from looking aggrieved, stands up and shakes his hand vigorously.

“Graham,” Lucas says with a big conspiratorial grin as if it’s some sort of inside joke that they call each other by their first names.

“Nice to meet you. You’ll have to get used to me occupying Apollo’s time. I haven’t seen her in a long time. We have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Oh hell, no problem. Hell, the picture I posted of y’all on IG already has three thousand likes. That’s just in the last five minutes. I’m about to be the most popular guy at the office.” He laughs his horrible laugh and Graham’s eyes narrow. He doesn’t say anything but turns to face the rest of the table.

“All right, folks, nice to see you,” he says, and with a two-finger salute he turns back to face me.

“See you soon?” he whispers. His eyes are serious. I can see his heart in them, and that is something I’ve never been able to say no to.

“Yes.”

I’m in so much trouble.

“Okay. ‘Night Sunshine.” He nods in relief and leans forward and presses a soft kiss on my cheek.

I watch him stride out of the room like he owns it while the adoring crowd just stares.

I don’t blame them.

He’s glorious.

As soon as he’s gone, the noise level in the room erupts as conversation picks up again.

A lot of people are looking at me, and I know there’ll be a lot of speculation after the display Graham and I just put on.

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