Page 50 of Fever

“Yeah, I’d left but didn’t quite make it home.”

“Oh,” I said, still wondering what made him come back.

“Why did you call?” he asked.

I took a sip of my water.

“I, um, didn’t want to be alone.” It came out as if I was bored, and needed company, so I rephrased my statement. “I mean, I wanted you to stay.”

I took another strand of hair behind my ear.

“Why didn’t you say that before I left?”

I watched him pick up his O.J. and take a gulp.

“I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t sure what I wanted at the time.”

“You weren’t sure?”

“I mean. Well… I was, but I didn’t know if asking you to stay was the right move with us pretending to be a couple. You know I’d hate for something silly to happen like, me thinking you care about me when we’ve both agreed to pretend to be a couple in public.”

I was beginning to ramble. It only happened when I was nervous, and I was no friend to anxiety.

“But I do care for you, Santana. Very much.”

A thrill of pleasure ran through me, and my nerves jumped to the edge. I smiled. “I care about you, too, Josiah.” I reached for my water again, needing to quench the rising heat that sat in my belly. After getting a new sip, I sat my glass back down.

“When was the last time you’ve been in a relationship if you don’t mind me asking?”

Josiah smiled at me and his tongue move inside his mouth. “You should’ve asked me that before you agreed to become my wife.”

A torching heat covered me, and my brows shot up. Using those words rattled me in more ways than one. I laughed it off, but the sound held nervousness.

“You’re right about that,” I said.

“It’s too late. You’ll be Mrs. Josiah Alexander Rose in no time.”

More heat sheltered me. Josiah didn’t have an issue making jokes about being married, but I was beginning to think I’d screwed up. What forced me to think I could pretend to be his wife? I must be crazy. My silence made him reach out to me.

“Hey, everything okay?”

I must’ve drifted off into space because I was no longer smiling but looking off into the distance.

“I’m fine,” I said. “What are your plans for today?”

Josiah pulled back, readjusting his posture as he sat upright.

“I’ve got a meeting with Samantha Lean, my father’s assistant. I told him that I had signed the papers to his agreement, but I haven’t. I need to get it done so she can quit blowing my phone up. Afterwards, I plan on going into the dealership. It’s interesting though—I feel like doing none of those things.”

“What do you feel like doing?”

He held me under an intense stare before I realized I was holding my breath.

“What are your plans today, Santana?”

I shrugged and bit down on the corner of my lip. “I’m on leave at work, so I’ll probably just hang out and watch a couple of movies. You’re welcomed to join me if you don’t think it would bore you to death.”

“I don’t think doing anything with you would bore me,” he said.