Page 18 of Royal Crush

But somehow, it helped ease the anxiety as I settled my feet in the footrests, then locked my car and headed for the café…where I came to an abrupt stop because there were two steps in and an old, heavy wooden door.

I rolled back, then peered through the window, but I couldn’t see in past the hedges, so I had no idea if Aleric was in there waiting for me.

Snagging my phone out of my pocket, I opened up his text thread, then changed my mind and called him. It rang twice, and when he picked up, I could hear the chatter of the café in the background.

“Running late?”

“Nope. I’m here. Just wondering how I’m supposed to get inside.”

“The front door?”

“Right. And the steps?”

“I—oh fuck. Ohfuck.”

I couldn’t help the tiny self-satisfied smirk that settled over my lips.

“I didn’t think.”

“Of course you didn’t. Which is obviously why you’re perfect for the role to play me.”

He met my words with silence. Then, “Are you going to hate me for that forever? It’s not like I went out of my way to beat out disabled actors.”

“You shouldn’t have auditioned at all.” Those were the words I’d been thinking for a good, long while now. I just hadn’t been brave enough to say them. “I shouldn’t have had to remind you about the steps.”

“You’re right.”

Once again, I felt a little thrown by his easy acquiescence. He was a dick sometimes, but too often, he folded like a wet paper towel. It was almost like he was trained to obey, which did things to my insides. Things I didn’t want to think about right now when I was busy being pissed off.

“How can I fix it?” he asked.

I was also not expecting him to ask that. “I don’t know. I’m not familiar with this café.” Or this suburb. If I’d had my driver with me, he would have known where to go, but on my own, I was lost.

“If you’re willing to still see me, give me three minutes. Please.”

I could do three minutes. I felt like a chump, sitting out there in front of the café like this, but he was willing to try, so the least I could give him was five hundred seconds of my life. I’d given a lot more to people who deserved a lot less.

“Fine. But I’m keeping an eye on the time. If you’re not out here by then?—”

“I promise.” He sounded like he meant it, and I detested it. I wanted more reasons to hate him. I didn’t want to soften.

Hanging up, I shoved my phone back into my pocket, then rocked onto my back wheels until my back touched the brick wall. A few people stared at me, several doing double and triple takes. Part of me wanted to nod and smile, to tell them to move along, nothing to see here.

Another part of me wanted to be angry. To ask them who the fuck taught them to stare like that. The little ones, I didn’t mind so much. But the grown adults?

“Sorry, sorry.” I glanced to my right and found Aleric with his hand pressed to the wall, half bent over, panting. “Shit. Sorry. I came from around back, and I didn’t want to miss you.”

“How long has it been since you’ve gone for a run?”

He wheeze-laughed as he attempted to straighten up. “Uh, never? I don’t run. I probably could have done the whole comeback thing with a superhero movie, but I’m not committing to six months of eating celery and raw-dogging protein powder and running six miles a day.”

I choked on a laugh. “I…fair enough. That was shorter than three minutes though. Good job.”

He flushed a deep, rich red along the apples of his cheeks. He looked stunned for a moment, then cleared his throat. “Right. So. There’s a park?”

“Is that a question?”

“You sound like my elocution coach,” he said, wrinkling his nose.

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