Page 79 of Not Safe for Work

He laughs at the look on my face because I’m not sure if I should be flattered or horrified. Cheap grocery store cakes are my guilty pleasure, and what the hell? He was noticing how I ate them?

“Hannah hates it too. She politely requested I never breathe a word of my ‘hobby’ to any of her friends.” He shakes his head. “It’s another reason we broke up. She thinks it’s too risky to bank on this as a career, and… it hurt that she wouldn’t even try to believe in me. I actually make a pretty decent amount from my social media accounts, but no one believes this is a real job.”

I blink, trying to arrange all of these pieces into some kind of order.

“So, you bought the macarons for me?” I blurt out.

Good job, Tris. That’s the important part here.

His smile turns sheepish. “Sorry, it was stupid. I walked past the shop and had to look inside, and I thought you’d love them. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’d changed my mind about giving them to you by the time I’d made it back here.”

“It’s not stupid,” I say quietly, my heart tying into weird twisty knots. “That’s really sweet.”

He bought them for me. Not Hannah. Why does that mean something?

We watch each other for a moment, silence blooming between us. It’s not uncomfortable or tense—it’s an endless runway stretching into possibility.

The chocolate lava cake I ordered is sitting on the table. I pick up the fork and take a bite, closing my eyes in ecstasy because it’s really, really good. Rafe watches me intently, and I spear another forkful and hold it out for him.

“You’re a fan of dessert, then?”

“Yeah.” He wraps his hand around mine and the fork perched in the air. “I am.”

I wave my other hand in a sweeping motion. “And yet, you look… like that.”

He snorts. “Why do you think I work out so much?”

I huff out a laugh and cover my mouth as a spray of chocolatey crumbs dusts the air. “That’s why I exercise too.”

He grins and then pulls my hand towards his mouth as he wraps his lips around the end of the fork. Good grief, I could watch him do that every day for the rest of my life.

I gesture to him again. “You do a much better job at that whole chiseled abs thing,” I joke, taking another bite. Rafe’s expression turns serious as he takes the fork from me and spears another bite.

“You’re perfect, Tris.” His voice is so intense that my breath catches, and my heart trips over itself. “Absolutely perfect. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.” He holds the fork to my mouth, and I take the bite, chewing slowly, unsure of how to respond.

I swallow the cake and tip my head. “Why did we never talk about any of this before?”

He chews and swallows before giving me a penetrating look. “We didn’t get off on the best foot for some reason.”

“Right,” I say, thinking of all the reasons I pushed him away when we first met. Five years ago, those reasons defined my entire existence. They became the hard-and-fast rules I lived by, making me so fucking afraid of allowing anyone in.

I convinced myself that this was how I wanted to live.

And now I’m realizing just how much that might have been to my detriment.

Then he adds, “Maybe the universe wasn’t ready yet. Maybe we needed this place and this moment first.”

I smile. I like the sound of that.

“I feel like after all this sharing, I should invite you back to the bed,” I say. “That couch looks miserable.”

The corner of his mouth crooks up. “It’s not so bad.”

I scoff. “Fine, then stay there.”

Then, I open my mouth like a baby bird, and Rafe smirks, taking another piece of cake and feeding it to me.

Chapter Twenty-One