Page 42 of D.I.E.T. (Did I Eat That?)

“Hey.” I punched his shoulder lightly. “I’m usually the one giving the rubdowns.”

My punch did nothing to quell his laughter. My lips, when he drew me to him, did. I missed this. I missed him. “Ready to get dinner?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I answered dreamily because—hello.Sinjin’s lips fogged my brain.

The best part of the evening came when we got back to the city and he took me to Uni for dinner. Sushi. I adored sushi and Uni made the best while providing an ultra-cool atmosphere. Streamlined butcherblock tables. Modernist high-back chairs. Canister lights hanging down from the ceiling in threes. Red up-lighting all along the baseboard made everything below the knees glow.

We ordered the small dinner party in order to try a little bit of everything. We drank chilled pear sake and at the end of the meal, despite having gorged ourselves on fish and rice, I ordered a scoop of the green tea ice cream and Sinjin ordered a scoop of ginger ice cream that we shared between us.

We held hands over the table and as we walked out after he paid the bill.

“Thank you for today.” I leaned my head to rest against his shoulder as he drove.

“Will you come home with me tonight?” he asked.

As deep as I was in it with him, I’d go just about anywhere he asked right now, but things were still too up in the air with us for me to be that honest. Guarding my feelings, I answered, “Absolutely.”

Absolutely could mean love. Or he could assume it meant I wanted sex. I knew what it meant, and that was enough.

As he headed home, his phone rang again. Enough. “Sin—”

“Grab that for me, will you, sunshine?”

I sighed, reaching into his pocket for his phone. To my shock, it wasn’t Vanessa, but his sister Bette. “It’s your sister.”

“Answer it, please.”

Okay. “Hello?” I answered.

“Ohmygod, is this Brigeeta?” she asked and rustling sounded in the background as if she moved her mouth away from the receiver for her to yell, “She answered his phone!”

“Sinjin’s driving, but if this is an emergency—”

“No. I just can’t believe you’re answering his phone. He hasn’t had a woman answer his phone since Vanessa.”

Uh, excuse me? Vanessa’s a common enough name, right? It couldn’t be, could it?

I felt like I’d been punched in the gut while Sinjin continued to drive us toward his place, a sweet smile spread over his face, oblivious to the bomb his sister just dropped. “You don’t say,” I answered.

“Can you believe he bought a ring for her before she crushed his heart? So needy. We put up with her because baby brother was head over heels, but none of us girls were exactly heartbroken when it ended.” That sounded familiar, though I hadn’t been head-over-heels with the numbnut.

“Hmm…” I had no idea what else to say, though, as it turned out, I didn’t have to say anything. Bette kept the conversation going all on her own.

“While I have you on the phone,” she said low and conspiratorially, “my husband’s nephew is married to her hairstylist andshesays you’re all Vanessa talks about since you and my brother got together.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. And she’s on a mission to get him back, what with them working all those late nights together. I know my brother has to be smarter than that. I’m sure you have nothing to worry about.”

Worry about? I hadn’t been worried before, but now I was.

My heart sank. His behavior toward me had completely flipped last week. Why? Had he been ‘working things out’ with his ex?

“Sinjin can talk to you now,” I said. “It was good to meet you.” Then without waiting for a sign off, I handed the receiver over to him and moved back closer to my door.

The call with his sister didn’t last too much longer. Whatever they talked about, they had complete privacy because I was too shellshocked to listen. After he hung up, he slipped the phone back in his coat pocket and hit the remote for the garage door opener.

We barely made it inside the house when he shoved me up against the wall, pinning me there with his arms, his body and his lips.

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