Page 46 of Craving Francesca

“Hey,” I ground out, still staring at the car that was supposed to be driving me home. “Um, are you busy?”

“It’s noon on a Monday,” he replied dryly.

“Right. Um, never mind.”

“What do you need?”

“No, it’s okay. Sorry. I’ll talk to you—”

“Francesca,” he barked, cutting me off. “What do you need?”

“A ride?” I answered quietly.

“Where are you?”

I clenched my hand around my purse. “The clinic.”

“I’ll be there in ten.”

“You really don’t have to. I shouldn’t have called—”

“Ten minutes.”

He hung up before I could argue again.

“You sure you’re not Frankie?” the driver called through the open window.

“No,” I called back, going into the app to cancel the ride.

After a moment, the driver cursed and pulled back onto the road.

The minutes dragged by while I waited for Gray to get there. I should’ve made other arrangements, but I hadn’t realized that getting in a car with a stranger was going to spook me. We’d used that service hundreds of times in the last few years without a problem. Hell, I’d just used it an hour and a half before. I could handle myself, and if things got really squirrelly, I carried pepper spray in my purse.

“You can wait inside if you want,” Jesse called, poking their head out of the door. “Until your ride gets here.”

“That’s okay.” I shook my head.

“Okay, let me know if you change your mind. You want Hal to wait with you?”

Right, because standing outside with a security guard wouldn’t look conspicuous. I shook my head again.

The door had barely closed behind them when a vaguely familiar SUV pulled up to the curb. Ignoring the fact that it wasn’t an actual parking spot, Gray climbed out of the driver’s seat and rounded the hood.

“You didn’t have to get out,” I chastised, hurrying toward him.

“All set?” he asked, opening the passenger door for me.

“Yeah.” I gingerly climbed into the car and held my purse on my lap.

God, I was such an asshole. I shouldn’t have called him in the middle of the day to pick me up. We were barely even friends. I should’ve just gotten over myself and taken the car I’d ordered.

“You hungry?” Gray asked as he got into the car.

“Not really. Thank you so much for doing this. Seriously.”

“No problem,” he replied, pulling out onto the road. “You sure you’re not hungry? I’m gonna run through somewhere.”

“I could eat,” I replied, changing my tune instantly. The least I could do was buy him lunch. “Whose car is this?”

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