Page 10 of Serendipity
He pushed the door open before I could answer, and all the worries I had floating around my head disappeared when my eyes zeroed in on the table, covered with a white cloth and two plates with carefully placed burgers and fries on the side.
My stomach protested again, as he gently pushed me inside the room, holding his hand on the small of my back. Even with the shirt and the jacket covering my body, I could feel the heat of his hand, penetrating through the material, going all the way to my skin.
“Go on.” He dipped his chin. “I brought these for you to eat, not to look at them.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I crossed the small distance between us and the table in a matter of seconds, and pulled out a chair, settling myself on the side of the table instead of the head. I honestly didn’t even care where I sat.
“They look so pretty.”
“I’m sure they’re more delicious than pretty. If you don’t like it, please tell me.”
“Why?” Was he going to kill the chef because I didn’t like the burgers?
“No, nope, don’t even go there, Alessia. I can see the wheels turning in your head. Whatever it is that you’re thinking is probably as far from the truth as possible. Besides, nobody died.”
“Yet.”
“Point is, nobody died now, so please sit your ass down and eat. They can hear your stomach protesting in Los Cabos.”
I could’ve argued with him, could’ve refused to eat, but instead, I dove, grabbing a burger with both of my hands and bringing it to my mouth. That first bite, that ecstasy coursing through your veins, was always my favorite one.
“Oh, God,” I moaned around the burger, taking the first, second, then third bite, chewing as fast as possible. “This is fucking good.”
“Right?”
“I might need to kidnap your chef, though. He knows how to make burgers, and that’s all I need in life.”
“I mean, you could, but I’m pretty sure you know how to make a burger yourself.”
If I wasn’t chewing at that moment, I would’ve laughed.
“Nico, I manage to burn popcorn in the bag. You know that type that you just have to put into a microwave, and voilà, you got it. And I burned it in the microwave. Now just imagine what would happen if I actually cooked. That’s a fire hazard for an entire building.”
“So, you don’t cook?” he asked, trying to keep a serious look on his face.
“Look.” I swallowed quickly and wiped my mouth with a napkin that was placed on the table. “I could, I’m not saying I couldn’t, but we should make sure that we have an ambulance in front of the building as well as firefighters.”
“That bad?” He sat down, staring right at me, and the fry I swallowed suddenly went where it wasn’t supposed to.
Oh no.
No, no, no, no.
My lungs seized, my throat started closing up, and I was pretty sure my face started resembling a tomato. That whole thing about my entire face getting red whenever I blushed did not happen only when I blushed.
I placed my hand on my throat when the coughing started, and my eyes started watering. This seriously couldn’t be happening.
“Fuck.”
I could hear him, but I couldn’t see him with my vision getting blurry and my chest hurting. I bent down, trying to cough out the piece that lodged itself in my throat.
“Breathe through your nose, Alessia.” His voice came from my right side, right next to my ear, at the same time when his palm landed between my shoulder blades.
Easier said than fucking done.
It felt as if my entire left lung went out with the next cough, and before I knew it, he had me up, performing the Heimlich maneuver. He wrapped his arms around me, his hands positioned beneath my chest, right above my stomach, pressing and pressing and pressing, until the piece that was choking me went flying out, landing right on top of the half-eaten burger.
For a minute, the only thing I could hear was his steady breathing and my choppy one. My ears buzzed as the blood whooshed through my system. My heart thundered against my chest, and then I realized that he never removed his hands from me, holding me tight against his chest.
