Page 26 of Pick Six
“Even when it means forced grocery shopping?”
“Yes, but—“ I pause as we head down the candy aisle. “You’re getting these for me.”
I toss a bag of sour gummies into the cart and grin.
“What are those for?”
“The movie after dinner, obviously. If we’re going to keep doing this fake dating thing, we need to do it right.”
“Ah, in that case…” He stares at the candy and then tosses a couple more bags in.
I laugh and shake my head. We finish up our shopping trip a couple of minutes later. It feels oddly normal, to be grocery shopping with him. Pretending we’re a couple just getting things for dinner. This might not be as bad as I thought.
THIRTEEN
Alex
I’mnervous about letting her see my place. I don’t typically have a lot of people over here. I like my privacy. So despite the fact that I’d been to her and Drew’s place a million times, she’s never been over to mine. Drew had come by plenty over the years alone to hang out or bring something by, but he’d never brought her with him.
When I turn on the light and she steps inside, she looks around, taking in the surroundings.
“Your place is nice. And that view is stunning.” She nods to the window.
I have a partial view of the water, but the city spreads out in front of the glass lit up with the evening glow of lights and reflects in the beads of water forming as it starts to rain.
“Did you have a decorator or is this you?” She steps out of her shoes and takes a turn in the living room, looking at the artwork and the furniture.
“A decorator. I don’t have the patience for all the matching and coordination. I just picked a few things I liked and let them run with it.”
“It looks good.”
“I’m glad you approve, Saint.”
The use of her nickname has her eyes flickering over to meet mine, and I raise a brow in question.
“Feels weird to be in your space if I’m honest.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. You’re usually pretty closed off about things. I guess I feel like I’m getting an inside look that I shouldn’t.” She frowns a little.
“You’re more than welcome to snoop around if you want. I don’t have anything to hide.”
“No secret wife hidden away or a secret action figure collection? That’s boring. I was hoping I’d at least get some juicy gossip or something to tease you about, but as usual, everything about you is perfect.”
My heart skips a beat at her statement. I know she doesn’t mean it that way, but I can’t stop the stupid part of me from wishing that she did.
“What do you mean?”
She blinks for a second like she didn’t realize what she was saying.
“You just always have everything together. At least appearance wise. Obviously, things get a little messy for you or I wouldn’t be here… But just your car always looks like it’s just been detailed, your clothes are tailored to within an inch of their life, now I expect a semi-messy bachelor pad and instead, it looks like this.”
“I’m not here a lot, and I have someone who comes in and cleans, and my trainer stocks food and groceries. I have a team, so it’s not really something I can take credit for.”
“The clothes? The car?”
“I mean those, yes. But you remember who my father is, Saint. I always had to look and act a certain way because there was always a reporter or a political opponent dying to get a piece of information they could print about me.”
