Page 26 of What Happens in Paradise

‘I’m not sure that anyone looks in the mirror and says they arebeautiful.’

‘They do not?’ I clutched my chest pretending to be shocked by this revelation. ‘My sister told me it was normal.’ I smirked again.

‘Oh my God!’ She laughed. ‘Do you seriously look in the mirror and tell yourself you’re beautiful?’

‘No, but not because I believe it is wrong to do that. I do not do it because I already feel ithere,’ I pointed to my head, ‘andhere,’ I patted my heart.

‘Wow.’ Jasmine’s eyes widened. ‘Let me move closer to the window to give you and your ego more room.’

‘So to believe in yourself is to have an ego?’ I rested my hand on my chin.

‘No, but…’

‘Is it a lie? You think that I am ugly?’

‘Of course not! I mean, clearly y-you’re…’ she stuttered. ‘You’re a… a very attractive man.’ Her voice trailed off and her gaze dropped to her sandals.

This was interesting.

Jasmine was always so calm and eloquent. To see her flustered was new. And I could not deny that I liked the fact that she had just said she thought I was attractive. In fact, not just attractive, butveryattractive. Especially when I was certain that she had no interest in me.

‘Gracias. But you must understand, when I say these things, it is not because I want to… what is it you say? Blow my horn?’

‘Trumpet,’ she corrected. ‘We say,blow my own trumpet. Then again, you might be right. I think Americans say blow or toot your own horn.’

‘Vale. I do not say it toblow my trumpet. I say it because if I do not believe I am beautiful, how can I expect someone else to believe it?’

‘Hmmm.’ Jasmine nodded. ‘That’s actually true. You’re very confident for your age.’

‘You say that as if I am a teenager.’ I smiled.

‘Compared to me, you are!’

‘En serio?’ I said.

‘You’re asking if I’m being serious?’ Her brows knitted together.

‘Sí.’

‘Of course I’m being serious! You’re what? Twenty-nine, right?’

Also interesting that she knew my age when I had never told her.

‘Correct.’ I nodded. ‘How old are you?’

‘A gentleman never asks a woman her age.’

‘And who told you I was a gentleman?’ I smirked.

‘Oh… I…’

‘I can be of course, but perhaps I am not as innocent as you presume. Age is irrelevant. In this world, there are wise people who are twenty-nine and people who are twenty-nine and stupid. And if you think I will judge you or change my opinion of you because you tell me you are thirty-one or forty-one, then you have much to learn about me.’

Jasmine stared at me, her eyes wide, her lips parted. I did not know what she was thinking, but what I said was true.

Although I did not know her exact age, I knew that she was in her late thirties because she had mentioned a few times that there was not long before she would be forty and grimaced like it was a curse, not a blessing.

My ex would have given anything to have reached that age.

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