Page 48 of Affinity

Without blinking an eye, she escorted us to an empty patio and let us have our choice of table. One thing I liked about Malibu was no one here cared if you were famous or had money because everyone who lived in the area was all of those things. They were used to it and never treated anyone differently.

The moment our hostess walked away, Abbi leaned forward, her gaze darting around the area before she whispered, “Have you ever been here before?”

I looked around, wondering why she’d ask. The place seemed normal enough, with the exception of there being very few customers. “No, and why are you whispering?”

“I don’t know,” she continued to speak softly. “It’s the vibe I’m getting.” Her hand shot up with one finger pointed up. “And before you say anything, I don’t believe in all that hooey, but I won’t deny my feelings either.”

“Hooey? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard that word uttered before.” I tried fighting back a laugh but lost the battle when Abbi’s eyes narrowed more and more with each twitch of my lips.

“Let it all out, funny guy.” I knew she wasn’t mad, though, going by the slight upturn of her mouth. I liked it when things were easy between us, and maybe they would be now that I didn’t have Alpha Blue hanging over my head and constantly putting me in a bad mood.

“I’m sorry,” I chuckled. “I know what you meant, but I couldn’t help myself.”

Stretching her arm out to my side of the table, she took my hand in hers. “It’s fine after the day you’ve had. I know you didn’t like the show, but it’s still got to sting that they wanted you gone because some of the cast and crew think you’re cursed.”

“Hell, for all I know, I may be. Maybe I’m not supposed to be an actor. Everything was fine between Poppy and me until I was away on a shoot. Once I got back, everything went downhill from there. Maybe I’m not meant for this.”

“Hey,” she smoothed her thumb over the top of my hand, “you love acting. I know you do, and I don’t want you to give up on something that you feel passionately about because you’ve had a shitty run. I have a feeling your life is going to turn around. You just have to give it time.”

How could she have such faith in me when she barely knew me?

“Thanks, I needed that.” I turned my hand over and interlaced our fingers together. “Surprisingly, it does hurt that they let me go. I know it doesn’t make sense when I wanted off the show and was hoping that bed would be my character's death bed. Not mine.”

“It won’t be; just give yourself some time.” She smiled sweetly over at me, and I felt it deep within my chest. I was in trouble if one smile from her could elicit such a reaction.

“Do you know what you want?” a raspy voice asked from beside us, causing both Abbi and me to jump. We’d been too immersed with each other to register him coming upon us. He placed our waters down and stared out at the water, not once making eye contact with us.

“Can you give us a couple more minutes to look over the menu?” Abbi asked with a blinding smile that I wanted only for myself.

“Sure,” he answered before walking off. He was the shortest, skinniest guy I’d ever seen with a voice so dark and gruff that if heard him on the phone, I’d have thought he was seven feet tall and broader than a barn.

Slipping her hand from mine, Abbi picked up her menu. “We should probably decide what we want.”

What I wanted at that moment was Abbi, but I didn’t think she was on the menu. Soon. Hopefully, very soon, before my dick got chafed from the overuse of my hand.

Looking up from her menu, she found me staring at her. “Do you know what you want?”

I shook the thoughts of wanting Abbi naked underneath from my head and looked down at my menu. “I’m not sure. How about you?”

“I think I’m going to get the fried shrimp basket, but I also love crab legs, so I don’t know.” She bit the inside of her cheek as she scanned the menu.

“Why don’t we get some legs to share? We’ll get a little of everything and see what’s good.”

Her eyes lit up. “That sounds delightful. I’m starved since I only had a few bites of my lunch before it got rudely interrupted.”

It seemed like a lifetime ago that Rikki had come up to our table and tried to cause trouble. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that she wanted to break up Abbi and me. Because why else would she have said the shit she did?

“I’m sorry about Rikki, and I’m sorry for anyone else who tries to make you jealous in the future. I can promise you that they all meant nothing. As bad as it sounds, and I do know it sounds bad, they weren’t even a blip on my radar, only a convenience.”

“That does sound bad.” She sat back in her chair with a frown marring her beautiful and once happy face. “More than bad. I can’t even think of the word to describe how it makes me feel inside.”

Before I could try to atone for my words, our waiter sidled up to our table with a scowl on his face and his pen and pad ready to take our order. I had a feeling he didn’t love us being in his section when it was his downtime. “Have you had a chance to decide?”

“Yes, we’ll have two pounds of the crab legs, two fried shrimp baskets, an order of crab cakes, the Ahi tuna plate with mushroom risotto, and a shrimp cocktail to start us off.”

Abbi looked back and forth with wide eyes between the waiter and me. Had I not ordered us enough food?

“Would you like anything else to drink?”

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