Page 22 of See Me

I exit the locker room after a quick change of clothes and stuffing my protesting feet into these ridiculous heels and find Enzo red-faced, bent over his phone on the bar.

“What’s up with you?”

He looks up and rubs his hands through his hair. “This stupid thing keeps telling me Lucky Charms isn’t my favorite cereal and I know the fuck it is.” He picks up his phone and types quickly before setting it back down with a huff.

I chuckle and grab a bin of silverware and a stack of napkins and get myself settled to roll until the first customers start trickling in for lunch. “What are you trying to do?”

“Log in to one of my dating profiles. I must have set this one up drunk or something but it’s Lucky Charms. It always has been and always will be Lucky Charms.”

“What’s the draw to those things? What do you actually get out of them? A date? A one-night stand?”

“Listen, Blaze. I didn’t wake up this morning prepared for an identity crisis. I get what I need for now.”

“And that’s sex, right?”

“Yes, that’s sex,” he deadpans.

“Don’t you want more than that? Someone to care about? Someone who cares about you? Someone to snuggle up to and talk about anything and everything with? Someone you miss when you aren’t with them?”

He stands up straight and looks at me with his mouth hanging open, eyes wide as saucers. “I had my doubts for aminute but now it’s certain.” He gestures between the two of us. “We’re never gonna work out.”

I throw my head back and laugh. “Come on, be serious for a second. Have you ever had a serious relationship? A closeness with someone?”

“I’ve had relationships. I’ll have you know I’m a great boyfriend. Never even cheated once.”

“Well, congratulations for honoring the most basic decree of any relationship.”

He rolls his eyes. “If, and I meanif,I wanted a serious relationship, I’m fully capable of doing all thedecrees.”

“That’s not how you use that word.” I shake my head. “Anyway, what if all your exes were here right now? What would they say about you?”

He smirks. “Pretty bold of you to assume they would all fit in this room.”

“See, you can’t even have a serious conversation. How am I to believe you could have any real relationship?”

“I can, I just don’t want one.”

A door slams at the end of the hall and Luca cuts across the hall to the kitchen. He talks to Omar and grants me a quick flick of his eyes over Omar’s head, holding my gaze for only a second. I turn to Enzo and open my mouth to ask the question that’s bouncing around my brain.

“Nope. He’s not a relationship guy and no, I won’t tell you why.”

I close my mouth and roll up a set of silverware. “I wasn’t going to ask that.”

His lips quirk up into a grin. “Sure thing, Blaze.”

I toss the roll of silverware into the bin and slide it off the bar. “Shut up.”

“I’m not saying you couldn’t have him for anight. I mean, I see the way he looks at you, but that would be it. The man has himself walled off like Chernobyl.”

“Chernobyl was walled off to keep the poison in. If that’s the case, I’m doubly not interested.”

He laughs. “Right. And those sparks that are so mighty they make the lights dim whenever you two are in a room together are just my imagination.”

“I think that’s anger and hatred. It’s obvious you’re crap at interpreting emotions.”

He waves his hand to dismiss my statement. “Love, hate… it’s a fine line.”

I eye Luca stalking around the kitchen. “I thought he wasn’t coming in until later.”

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