Page 40 of The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back

I sat down and picked up a menu.

"Anything look good to you?" he asked.

I held the menu up to cover my face so he wouldn't see me blushing. Because he looked good to me.Jake's not on the menu, I told my hormones.

"What would you recommend? I've never had sushi before."

He pushed the menu away from my face, and he had an expression of absolute shock. "How is that even possible?"

"Because my mom's half Japanese."

He looked completely confused. So I gave him the CliffNotes version of her drama. He seemed to get it. "Totally understand. It is pretty cool that you have this whole other heritage in your life."

"Well, unfortunately it comes with my mother attached."

That made him smile. "Okay, so the lobster roll is amazing, the toro is killer and I've always loved the yellowtail."

"None of that has eel in it, does it?"

"They have eel here, but no, none of the ones I just mentioned have eel."

"Then it sounds good."

Jake took my menu, went to the bar to place our order, where the chefs greeted him by name. He chatted with them for a few minutes before coming back to the table. Just how many dates had he brought here?

"Come here often?"

He at least had the decency to look a little embarrassed. "I used to come here every week with my grandfather before he passed away. It was his favorite restaurant. This is the first time I've been here since he died. I hadn't wanted to come back here again until now."

My breath caught as he reached across the table and took my hand in his, squeezing gently. I wanted so badly to believe the lie. I wanted to squeeze his hand back and revel in the idea that Jake had brought me some place special because he liked me and wanted to be with me. But all I could hear was Mercedes's voice when she told me how sad and pathetic I was.

"Did you want to see the final product?" Thankfully, my voice didn't tremble or break. I reached over into my bag and pulled our manga out. I handed it to him.

He put it on the table and slowly turned the pages. I had colored everything in, and it looked pretty awesome, if I did say so myself. It turned out really well.

Jake closed it and looked up at me. "This is amazing. You are really talented. We're getting an A for sure."

The thought crossed my mind that we were, once again, discussing my drawings. I didn't dwell on it though. If he brought up those portraits of him, I would change the subject. Easy enough.

"You may not want to count your chickens on that one. You know how Ms. Aprils feels about me."

"It's cool. Aprils loves me."

He said it in that cocky, offhand way that only the truly popular and confident could. A pretty blonde walked past our table and Jake's eyes flickered briefly to look at her before returning his full attention to me. She had a passing resemblance to Ella.

Mercedes's venomous words rolled around inside my head. Of course anyone would choose Ella over me. Miss early admissions to UCLA. Boys falling at her feet. All gorgeous and perfect.

I stopped myself. In the past I would have kept going, comparing myself to her. I would have blamed Ella for Jake using me and added it to my List of Grievances. But I could finally see that none of this was Ella's fault. She had stepped aside and practically gift wrapped Jake for me. She had even schemed to try and get us together. She had done nothing but support and love me and I was not about to pay that back by blaming her.

Even if Jake still wanted Ella, Ella didn't want Jake.

The chef, a man named Toshi, brought our plates over personally. He told us to enjoy, and Jake handed me a pair of chopsticks. I refused them on principle and used a fork.

"I hope you don't mind, but I went ahead and ordered their green tea ice cream. Sometimes it's fun to have dessert before dinner."

I didn't know what to try first, but I generally liked lobster. Jake pointed out the right one, and I had a piece.

"Ugh," I said.

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