Page 7 of Entirely Yours
“There’s a bodega on the corner. I’m going to run down and grab some pizza. Stay here, okay? There’s an extra T-shirt and boxers in my backpack over there, if you want to change.”
She turns her face away from me, but I can feel when hershoulders slightly shake. “Do you need me to stay?” I whisper, hand running soothingly up and down her back. “Are you okay on your own for a minute?”
“You’re being too nice to me.” She sniffs and my heart nearly breaks in two.Thisis too nice? Getting her a slice of pizza when she’s just passed out from hunger?
“Thea, honey, this is the bare minimum. You obviously need something, so of course I’m going to get it for you. I don’t know what kind of assholes you normally surround yourself with, but I am definitely not being too nice.” I reach around and tip her chin toward me. “Got it?”
She sniffles again and gives me a forced smile. “Got it.”
I’m halfway out of the door when I hear, “Thank you, Jules.”
I haul ass down to the corner store, worried about leaving Thea alone for too long. I know next to nothing about this woman, but I grab a slice of meat lover’s pizza, some Oreos, and a bottle of apple juice. At the register, I also impulsively buy two scratch-off lottery tickets hoping they’ll lift her spirits a bit.
When I walk back into the hotel room, I feel a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders at the sight of Thea cuddled up in my Bardot Brothers Coffee T-shirt—one of the test shirts Gabe had printed—watching a sitcom rerun on TV. She’s surrounded herself by fluffy hotel pillows, and the blankets are tucked up around her waist.
She looks like an angel, floating on a cloud of bedding. The sight makes me want to do some veryunangelic things.
My chest tightens as it hits me just how fucked I already am.
“Hi,” she mouths, a small smile tickling her lips.
“Hi,” I reply. “I brought sustenance.” I grab a towel from the bathroom and lay it out over Thea’s lap and then take out her pizza, cookies, and juice.
“Jules, this is too much!” She looks at me like I just laiddiamonds in front of her, which makes my chest tighten with irrational anger.
“Say ‘thank you’ again, Thea, and see what happens,” I warn. “Like I said, this is bare minimum.”
I pull the scratch-offs out of my back pocket, trying to lighten the mood. “I will let you thank me though, if you win big on one of these scratch-offs.”
Her face lights up. “Oh my God, I love those things! Do you have a coin?”
Stuffing my hand in my pocket, I produce the penny I found outside of the venue earlier tonight and hand it to her. She carefully considers both of the tickets before handing one to me. “You’ll thank me if you win big, right?” she jokes.
“I think I already won big tonight,” I reply.
Thea takes me by surprise when she starts poking at my face. Her elegant finger stopping once on my forehead, once on my cheek, then down to my lips.
I quirk my eyebrow. “Care to explain what you’re doing?”
“Just making sure you’re real…” She bites back a smile and begins scratching.
Thea stuffs an Oreo in her mouth and after a moment of concentration, exclaims, “I won five bucks!”
“Nice!” I hold my hand up and she gives me a high-five.
She hands me the penny. “Your turn.”
I scratch, and sure enough, I also win five dollars. “Feels like a sign that we both won the same amount.” I pull her hand back toward me, pressing the penny into it, taking the time to fold each finger in until the coin disappears from view. “We’ll have to go get coffee together with our winnings.”
She scrunches her eyebrows in just slightly, eyes focused on where our hands connect, before shaking off the furrow and replying, “Yeah… maybe we can go to this shop.” She points down at my shirt that she’s wearing. “Is it in Boston?”
Huffing a laugh, I reply, “No, it’s not.”
I want to tell her about Sassafras.
I want to ask her for her number.
I want to find a way to make tonight last forever.
