Page 56 of Building Romance
He tips his hat and walks toward the lit path in the park. I want to tell him to be careful but I have a feeling Al does this every night. Hell, he probably knows every inch of this neighborhood better than anyone.
Adriana leaves and Cam turns the lights off before locking the front door. She falters slightly as she turns to cross the street and sees me sitting on the bench.
“Hey,” she says softly as she approaches me.
“Busy?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Why?”
I shrug. “Just thought I’d see if you wanted to hang out. Maybe watch a movie,” I suggest.
“Oh, well, Drew is watching a reality show,” she says, motioning to her apartment above us.
“We can go to my place. I have a movie room,” I offer.
She smirks. “Shocking,” she says in a mocking tone and I laugh.
“I know, right,” I tease.
“Fine. Just let me grab some things and change,” she says as she lets me into the building. “What should we watch?”
“Arachnophobia?” I state.
She punches my arm and I smirk. Yeah, coming here was the right thing to do. Screw my brothers, Al is right. Cam is worth fighting for.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Cam
Fletcher inspects every square inch of my apartment as he waits.
“Who’s this?” he asks, pointing to a photo of me with my grandmother, the one whose saltshaker is missing.
“That’s Gan-gan,” I reply while I stuff some toiletries into my overnight bag. I used to be better prepared for the new relationship getting-to-know-you conversations. I used to sleep with men, but lately, it’s all been about the café.
“And this?” he asks, pointing to a family photo.
“Those are my parents, my brother, Winston, and me,” I state, grabbing clean underwear while he’s not looking.
“And—”
I cut him off. “That’s me and Drew on spring break. That’s our friend Kylie. That’s her brother, he plays baseball. And that’s Drew, me, and Drew’s cousin. And that’s all of us on the rooftop. And that’s me, Carly, and Ava at the zoo last year. And that’s a photo of me with my cousins at a family reunion a few years ago,” I rattle off because I’m tired of the back and forth. I’m generally just tired. It was a long day. I’m still sorting out everything that went awry while I was away. Phyllis did all she could but things happened, orders were placed incorrectly, and invoices needed to be paid. It’ll take me at least two weeks to sort all of this out.
I turn back to my bag and toss in some other clothes. “OK, I’m ready,” I say as I spin around to face him.
He’s stepped up behind me so we’re chest to chest or stomach to chest. I look up at him and he cups my jaw. “You have a lot of people in your life,” he says and his voice has a hint of sadness. Does he not? I realize how little I know about him. I obviously know who his family is. But aside from a few lighthearted stories he shared about his brothers and the superficial information on the internet, I really don’t know much about him.
I give him a small smile. “I guess I do. Although, some of them are annoying,” I say, trying to lighten the mood. I gesture toward the living room where Drew is watching the latest episode of some reality television series about people falling in love on an island.
I zip up my bag and he grabs it, pausing at the photo of me and my grandmother. “The missing saltshaker was hers?” he asks, motioning to the photo.
“Yeah. She taught me how to bake,” I say, remembering all the times I helped her in the kitchen. She always seemed to be in the kitchen, cooking or baking something or maybe those are just my favorite memories of her.
“You look a little like her,” he says as he examines the picture.
“A little,” I agree, walking out to the living room. He follows me and Drew looks up from where he’s snuggled up on the sofa.
“I’m going to watch a movie over at Fletcher’s place,” I say.
