Sincerely, Carter (Sincerely Carter #1)(39)
“A Belgian waffle with vanilla yogurt and strawberries—with a sprinkle of chocolate chips.” She smiled at me as she set down my usual. “And a waffle tower with chocolate yogurt, peanut butter, and a sprinkle of Oreo chips and gummy bears on the side for you.” She set a plate in front of Carter. “Could you two do me a huge favor and mix it up every now and then? Don’t you get tired of ordering the exact same thing every time?”
“Could I have an extra waffle today?” Carter smiled. “For free? Will that help?”
“You’re lucky I actually like you, kid.” She laughed. “I’ll bring it out after I get my next two tables.” She winked at us before walking away.
“So….” I said, stopping. My first question was always what he did the night before, but I already knew the answer to the question. Me.
Seemingly picking up on that, he intervened. “Has Nicole sent you her usual, ‘I can’t hang out with you this weekend, but I’ll definitely make it up to you’ text yet?”
“Not yet. I think she’s going to follow through this time. She said she’s going to buy me lightweight-safe drinks all night tomorrow, and then she wants to hang out at my place afterwards.”
“You believe her?”
“I do.” I nodded. “The only thing that shocked me text message wise today was Chris. He asked if we could meet up again this weekend…”
“I think he really likes you. Are you going to give him a chance and maybe just have sex since that’s all it was supposed to be anyway?”
“No.” I picked up my fork. “I don’t think I’m capable of having casual sex like you are.”
He raised his eyebrow.
“I mean…His strange sex sounds aside, all we had was attraction and sweet kisses, but I need more than that to form a connection. Even if it is only for temporary sex. Besides, it’s not worth starting anything anyway since I’ll be leaving eventually, you know?”
“Not necessarily. Long distance relationships can work under certain circumstances.”
“What circumstances?”
“None.” He laughed. “I was just trying to give you a false sense of hope.”
I smiled and cut my waffle, and for the next hour it was as if things were absolutely normal between us. I was actually convinced that us having sex last night wasn’t going to change us at all.
When it was time for the bill, Carter covered it as usual and boxed up my leftovers. Unlike usual, he pressed his hand against the small of my back when we stood up, and he left it there until we got to his car—sending my nerves into a frenzy with a simple touch.
We didn’t talk on the way to my house, and I noticed that he’d neglected to turn on the radio. The only noise between us was the wind and rushing traffic.
Two stoplights from my block, he finally spoke. “After all these months of stealing classes from the culinary school, they still don’t care that you’ve never paid a dime of tuition?”
“Shockingly, no. It hit me a few weeks ago that they only call security on me when it’s exam day, and the professors really like me. My passion, anyway. Did I tell you that one of them wrote me a recommendation letter for a few other schools?”
“No.” He laughed as he pulled over to the curb. “Please tell me that you actually read it and made sure he didn’t say that you’re a thief anywhere inside.”
“He did not!” I laughed with him, opening my door. “He said I was brilliant and possessed some of the most fervent passion he’d seen in years…He did mention my “creative means” to learn, but there’s no way they’ll equate that to me stealing classes.”
“Let’s hope not.”
“Thanks for the ride.” I shut the door. “I’ll hit you up tomorrow if Nicole bails on me.”
“She will.”
“She won’t!” I quickly walked away and rushed inside my house.
I put my hand over my heart and exhaled; it was racing all over again.
This was so not good…
Track 14. Speak Now (3:42)
I slept late the next day. All day.
I even called in sick to my part time job at the marina, and let my manager berate me for the umpteenth time. (Something about if I was ever late again or called in sick one more day I would be fired. I didn’t care about the fired part, it was more about losing my boat access pass that I sometimes needed to use when the chefs held classes on Parker Island; private boat fares weren’t cheap.)
When I’d finally found the motivation to drag myself up, it was six o’clock and I figured I should start getting ready for a night with Nicole. I went downstairs to see what she’d dropped off earlier and found myself standing in a sea of plastic bags—bags full of all types of junk food: Cheetos, chocolate bars, twenty different types of fruity candy, and lots of vodka and beer.
It was just like Nicole to literally drop something off without thinking about putting it away. By the time I finished stuffing everything into the pantry, it was seven o’clock and she’d sent me a text:
Soooo don’t kill me for this, but I have to cancel on you tonight! I have a really, really good reason though! It has an eight pack and I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, I promise!
WHAT THE HELL?