Page 210 of A Taste of Vanilla
He looks at me, and I look back.
“I’m mad,” I say. “And I’m allowed to be mad.”
“It didn’t happen to you.”
“No, it happened to someone I…” I stop.
The sentence catches in my throat.
Someone I love.
No.
I clear my throat. “Someone I care about,” I say instead.
His eyes stay on mine.
He heard the almost.
We’re both getting worse at hiding it.
“Okay,” he says quietly.
Just that. Okay.
I look back at his tattoos. “What does the script say?”
His gaze drops to the line across his side. “Measure twice. Leave once.”
I blink. Then stare at him.
“Warren.”
“Yes?”
“That is the most devastatingly repressed tattoo I have ever heard of.”
He smiles. “It was a joke!”
“No.” I shake my head. “It’s a cry for help in Carpenter font.”
“It’s not carpenter font.”
“Oh my God, is that the part you’re defending?”
He laughs. “No, Halston.”
I laugh softly as he watches my face carefully. “Better?”
“Some.”
“Scale?”
“Six.”
“From?”
“Eight.”
