Page 29 of Love or Leave

"Thank you for coming with me."

He slid that gorgeous smile her way. "I owed you. Besides, this beats stewing at home, wondering what Fran and Blake are up to."

She lifted the corner of her mouth. "I'm sure I'll think way too much about Cooper and Lily now that I know they're together."

Antonio nodded. "But you won't get back together with him?"

Cara puffed out a laugh. "Absolutely not. Been there, done that. I've cut him out like a gangrenous toe, and I have no intention of re-infecting myself."

Antonio laughed. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but a tap on her shoulder had her spinning around.

"Cara?"

Her eyes popped open, and she turned to find Jalen. "Oh, hi," she said.

Jalen leaned in and gave her a hug. It felt easy. Comfortable. That was how she'd wanted to greet Antonio.

She pushed away the thought and forced herself to focus.

"I'm glad we ran into each other," she said.

Jalen pulled back and flashed a brilliant smile. "Me too. This is my friend Paul."

"Hi, Paul. This is Antonio," she said, and waited for them to all shake hands while internally yelling at herself for not saying “my friend Antonio.”

Jalen placed his hand on her upper arm and leaned in. "Can I talk to you, just for a second?"

She nodded and let him lead her away from Antonio and Paul.

"I was wondering if you want to go out with me sometime this week? Maybe Thursday?"

She nodded way too emphatically and had to tell herself to be cool.

"I'd love that."

"Great," he said, pulling out his phone. "I'll take your number and call you to arrange it."

She smiled and gave him her number just as the band came on stage.

"We better get to our seats," he said. "Paul will kill me if I make him miss anything."

She smiled as he came in for another quick hug.

"See you later," he said as he pulled back. He walked off with Paul.

Antonio came back into her vision. "All good?" he asked.

She broke into a nerdy smile and did a little dance, letting the excitement out. "He asked me on a date!"

Antonio laughed and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "So, mission accomplished then?"

"Yes," she said as a deafening wave of feedback hit her in the ear and everyone in the room winced.

She glanced from the stage to Antonio. "Freezing?" she asked.

His head jerked back slightly. "You want to go already?"

She nodded before remembering what he'd said about sitting in his apartment alone, thinking about his problems.

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