this is just a hallucination, a cruel trick of my calorie-starved brain, but I could swear the light of heaven is s
, but I couldn't care less-matter of fact, I could plop a juicy
mears on my cheek where the third bite misses my mouth a bit, but the tast
the maître d', who's resumed his vantage point at the f
ack with a mou
the fifth is even better than that. My whole body
that I remember my whole "spread it out over three days" plan. As soon as I do
u
l, sort of-so you can think clearly, and you'll solve this. You made it through losing Clara, and you loved her, so
ually does the job. All credit goes to t
the bill on my table, and my
he check half a dozen times. But it
joke?" I ga
back over to me. "No part of this is a 'joke,' ma'am," he spits. He says "ma'am" the way yo
o be a joke," I insist. "Was there g
an actual
ort, "it's
ve no control over the menu, ma'am. Or the pri
want to just cut out my
a'
y need you to no
en, m
N
as a couple walks in off the street, bundled up against the cold, but beautif
l red from all the crying I've done over the last two days, and I'm yelling at this stu
think. Turns out it sme
for a pizza," I insist, my voice
e, that pale, grasping claw of a hand looming cl
the bathrooms and, at the very end of it, a black door marked EXIT. I trip my
into an enraged mask. "Listen here, you s
nces
's a man standing on the threshold. He's huge, tall enough to almost brush the ceiling, and broad enough to take up the whole
bout him te
anging immediately to contrite and submissive. "I
co-how fitting; a stupid name fo
elp but stare back. Those eyes are shockingly silver. Ful
asons I don't think I could ever
ngly white teeth, a devil-may-care je ne sais quoi that radi
kness I can't touch or na
xpected exactly that. "Are
ything, but then the undeniably loud rumb
ches at the noise. I'm pretty sure it'
o, "Put what Ms. Paige ate on my tab. She and I will also take a po
sco stammers. He bow
chances with him than with this handsome, terrifying man who gives orders lik
straight through to my soul. To every bad thing
in a tone of voice that says it's not real
ection to my earlier statement: ro
om smells
/1/114965/coverbig.jpg?v=7f65407b32ac809c952b5d10b1cf533e&imageMogr2/format/webp)