Page 131 of Tall, Royal Hater
“Wha—oh, pancakes,” I said hungrily, sighting a stall where a middle-aged, brown lady stood behind the glass front counter. She was flipping mini fluffy pancakes in dome-shaped holes of a big square pan with two wooden skewers. A younger black man waited by the stall, presumably for his order, while a little mixed-heritage girl clung on to one of his legs, a lollipop gripped in her hand.
“Do you want some?” Shehryar asked.
I angled him a look. “When have I ever said no to pancakes?”
“Come on then.”
“Wait.” I tried to dig my boots into the cobbled stone, but Shehryar’s strong arm still dragged me forward. “Shehryar, you’re not paying.”
“I’m paying.”
“You’re not.”
In front of the stall, I got my purse out and ready…
And Shehryar snatched it right from my fingers.
“Shehryar,” I growled, reaching for my purse.
But he shoved it into his opposite pocket, out of my reach. “You’re not paying,” he said sternly, his gaze just as domineering and stubborn.
“I’m gonna f—” Remembering the little girl standing right there, I gritted my teeth and huffed through my nostrils.
He arched a mocking brow, daring me to finish. I didn’t. I wasn’t going to. Yeah, I had a foul mouth, but it wasn’t foul enough to swear in front of an impressionable child. Instead, I glanced away.
Fine, let him spend his money on me. I’ll spend it all. Then he can cry about it later.
And yet, I made no attempt to move out from his hold.
The lady behind the counter took payment from the black man, then with a white open-top box in one hand, he took, I assumed, his daughter’s hand in the other and walked off.
“What can I get for you sweethearts?” the brown woman said as we stepped up to the counter.
“Oh, we’re not together,” I said quickly, offering the lady a“ha-ha that’s so funny…not”smile.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” the lady said, but her confused smile was focused on Shehryar’s hand on my waist.
Yeah, can’t explain that, lady. I ain’t got a clue either.
“Well, what can I get for you?” she added politely.
I hummed in thought, eyeing the options listed on a small black chalkboard sitting on the counter, then the toppings on display, and delighted in the fact I could order what I usually liked.
“She’ll have a set of ten with chocolate sauce, strawberries, and the mixed chocolate flakes, please,” Shehryar said before I’d even formed my first syllable.
I blinked, lips parted, chest jumping with a case of bad hiccups in stunned realisation.
That…was my order.Why does he know my order?
Leaning into his arm, I aimed a side glance at him. “How and why do you know what I want?”
“Because I’ve never seen you have anything else with your pancakes before. Ever,” he said like it was some boring, old, common knowledge.
Well…that was true. But that implied that he’d paid attention to me before this trip to Touma enough to know my habits and likes, which I knew wasn’t true. Shehryar had always avoided me in every manner of the word until I butted heads with him and forced his hand.
But the possibility he’d secretly still watched me the way I would never admit I’d watched him made the lost bird in my stomach knock incessantly like it kept flying into the same glass wall.
I caught the quickest glimpse of a mischievous smile on the older woman’s mouth before she turned her attention to Shehryar. “And you, young man?”
