Smoke and Wishes (Best Wishes #1)(24)

“Sadie wasn’t kidding when she said you had a deep-seated love for Indian food,” he took a bite of the dish. I was thankful he ordered a double amount otherwise I couldn’t honestly say there would have been enough for the both of us. I shook my head and took a bite of the lamb, followed by a bite of naan soaked in the vindaloo sauce.

“I fucking love Indian food. Well, I love food in general,” I shrugged as I took another bite.

“With how small you are, I never would have guessed,” he responded while digging into one of the vegetable samosas. His comment was innocent enough, but it still stung. Now or never.

“I, uh, don’t really have an appetite when my nerves start acting up. I do love food, especially spicy food, but when my anxiety is being an asshole, it’s a struggle to get anything down and keep it down.” I looked at my food, soaking up more of the sauce with the bread so I didn’t have to see the look on his face. After a long silent pause though, I glanced over to him.

“I’m sorry, firecracker, I didn’t mean to be insensitive. I wasn’t thinking,” his eyes searched mine with a small frown marring his handsome face.

“It’s alright, Dante, I promise. Truthfully, this is something I promised myself I’d work on when I came to RSU, making friends, opening myself up. Charlie, that girl that called while I was at your place the other day, knows almost everything about me. Which is great, don’t get me wrong, I love my best friend, but when I left for school at the beginning of summer, I realized I wasn’t close with anyone other than her and my mom. So, I decided to try and be a bit more open and social. Although, I’m pretty sure the twins kind of forced me into it when they ambushed me after I deliberately sat away from the crowd at orientation,” I laughed remembering them plopping down into the seats and talking to me like they’d known me forever. My heart ached at the thought of my mother and Char, but I pushed the feeling away quickly. That’s why I’m working on it.

“I’ve never been great at making friends, I was picked on a lot in school, Charlie and ...”, I shut down the thought of him before it could fully form. Taking a deep breath, I continued, “Charlie would always stick up for me. That’s why we became such good friends. She’s always confident and doesn’t take shit, and I’m, well...” I shrug as I mumbled the rest, “just kind of there. I don’t know, I don’t seem to interact well with others and my nerves usually get the best of me.” I realized I was rambling on and decided to redirect the conversation, “so, yeah, that’s way more depressing than I anticipated for tonight. Time for a subject change. How was your day? What have you been up to?” I laughed looking into Dante’s forest green eyes.

“Well, you’re more than welcome to use me for socializing practice,” he chuckled. “I promise not to judge, I actually struggled with something similar when I was younger. The guys have always been there for me, but it was hard making any other friends outside of our little group. Getting into Kohl my senior year of high school actually helped. It kind of forced me out of that shell, maybe you just need to find where you belong that brings out that in you too,” the warmth of his smile made my heart squeeze. Where did these amazing guys come from? They're all so thoughtful. “I have an idea, give me your phone,” his calloused palm appeared in front of me. I raised an eyebrow at him and dug it out of my jacket pocket. He quickly typed something in after I unlocked it. “There now you can reach me anytime, day or night.” Now that I thought about it, I figured it would be a good idea to have Cam and Nik’s numbers since I’d already gotten the others.

“Thanks, I sent you a text so you have my number. If you want, you can send it to the other guys. The only thing I need you to promise me is to make sure no one gives it out to anyone else or tell anyone that it’s my number, alright?” I couldn’t help the desperation that tinged my words as I cut into the rest of my samosa.

“You got it, firecracker, I’ll just add you into a group message how’s that?” My phone chimed immediately after his inquiry.

Dante: “look who joined the party guys!”

Hudson: “holy shit, princess is officially in if we’re adding her to group chat!!!” His response was followed by three excited emojis.

Lucie: “hey guys, happy to be part of the inner circle.”

Landon: “LEMON DROP!!”

Unknown Number: “hey doll, how are your ribs feeling today?” The text screamed Cam.

Logan: “pleasure to have you love, this could get interesting,” his message included a winking emoji as well as the one with little devil horns, making me chuckle.

Unknown Number: “Got it.” Nik rounded out the last of the group’s responses.





I saved Cam’s and Nik’s numbers to my phone, my chest tightening for an entirely different reason than the usual anxiety. It felt good to belong, especially with a group as close-knit as this one. Their looks have nothing to do with it. At all.

“I’ll talk to them about not giving out your number. Okay, firecracker?” I nodded in response, tucking my phone into my pocket. “And to answer your questions, well, for one I’m sitting here enjoying this delicious dinner with you. Second, our Kohl practices are going really well so we should definitely have a good shot at winning the tournament this year. Third, I have a double date tomorrow night with a girl from my stats class.” I tried to ignore the surge of jealousy at the thought of Dante on a date with someone else. Who am I to feel that way? I just met the guy.