Page 95 of Get A Fix

“I don’t think I can be coy. I think only Victorian ingenues can be coy.”

“Fine. It’s you. You’re mine, and I don’t want him coveting you,” he made clear, walking me back to the table, where we said our goodbyes and promised to see everyone later.

“You have to come out dancing with us tonight,” Bitsy begged him. “Please.”

“Who planned the boat ride tomorrow morning after the bachelorette party?” I asked her. “Because that is just vicious.”

“What now?” She sounded alarmed.

Sienna was cackling, and got up and kissed my cheek. “Please come out tonight. You can put your gorgeous movie-star boyfriend in a disguise.”

“Is that me?” Ash teased, kissing behind my ear. “Am I the boyfriend?”

I shook my head at him. “How much did you drink?”

“He’s just smitten with you, kitten,” Sienna apprised me.

“She knows what’s up,” Ash agreed, then raised his voice and wished everyone a wonderful rest of their afternoon.

He waved, then led me to the door of the gastropub, where Tori stopped us. She tried to give Ash back the two hundred-dollar bills he’d left her as a tip.

“This is too much, Mr. Lennox.”

“Absolutely not. You were so kind to us, and we appreciate it.”

She gave him a hug then, he gave her a squeeze back, and we were off.

Halfway down a cobblestone alley that was only for pedestrians, I asked him where we were going. It was still cold, but the hard rain had become a light drizzle.

“I don’t care,” he mumbled, sounding strange.

I stopped moving, and because he had the umbrella, he left me in the rain for a moment before he darted back to cover me again.

“What are you doing?” he snapped at me. “You want to catch pneumonia?”

I scowled at him. “You know, you don’t actually get sick from getting wet; you get sick from these things called germs, and⁠—”

“Yeah, fine, that was dumb,” he muttered, raking his fingers nervously through his hair. “I just—watching Damien talk to you, seeing his obvious interest, that was… I mean, I could feel that in my gut.”

I nodded. “I was thinking about the long distance earlier,” I confessed. “And not about anything like fidelity or monogamy, but just about that connection you were talking about. Making sure that’s working will take real work.”

“And you think what, that I’m not capable of that?”

“You already have so many balls in the air,” I reminded him. “Maybe there’s an easier option.”

He shook his head. “This is sounding so familiar.”

“Because that’s always the suggestion when you meet and like someone who doesn’t live anywhere near you.”

After a moment, he nodded.

“We’ll be living separate lives, so why not keep them that way until we can make time to see each other, and then it will be like this again.”

“It won’t, though,” he husked, tipping his head to get me walking.

In silence, we made it to the end of the alley, and he pointed to a sign across the tree-lined street that said AVALON BOOKS AND Tea. We looked both ways, even though there were no cars in sight, then darted across the two-lane road. Standing in front of the window, it looked warm and inviting inside, with rows of bookcases, shelves of mismatched mugs, and hardwood floors covered in thick patterned rugs.

“Do you want some tea?” I asked him.