Page 23 of His Arranged Plus-Size Mate

“And what about you? What is your type?”

She looked at me from above her menu, her lips pulled in. “I don’t have a type.”

“Everyone has a type.”

“Not me.” She looked back at her menu, but I stared at her. I hadn’t heard she dated when she was here, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t before.

“Should I call your sister and ask?”

She rolled her eyes. “She would tell you my type is bad boy.”

This was new to me. “Oh, really? Is that true?”

“Maybe a little.” She placed her menu down. “I haven’t exactly picked great guys. They were all dicks who had one thing in mind.”

I had a hard time seeing it. I couldn’t picture her dating someone who was a bad apple. “I figured you went for nerds.”

She laughed at this, as she shook her head. “God no. I could never.”

“Why? Not interesting enough?”

“No, I…that was more Gabriella’s pick. I found tattoos and bad decisions a little more interesting. My first technically boyfriend was only a few months before I found him banging another girl in the locker room. The second guy I dated, I did because I wanted to rebel. The third guy I dated in senior year spent most of it smoking weed in the bathroom.”

I was surprised by this. “Gabriella made it seem like you were an angel.”

She shook her head. “We got along, but I also pushed back. I was angry a lot. Internalized it as I got older. Leaned into dating bad guys and having sex in the wrong places.” She knitted her fingers together. “But I wasn’t using a sport as a way to beat the shit out of other kids, so there is that.”

I couldn’t help but smirk as the waiter came over and set the drinks down. We ordered our food and continued to talk. I told her how I got into hockey, and she laughed. We discussed how we both hated school and following the rules. We both pushed against the boundaries that were put up.

“So, how did you end up with the guys? Someone who hates rules, I feel that your job has tons of them.”

“They do, but it’s also about having friends I can count on. A team. We all have our issues, and Brandon gave each of us an important role.”

“And what is yours?”

“Doing the dirty work no one else wants.”

I could see her face shift a little, almost like she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what that meant. She looked down at the table. “I feel sometimes that’s what Gabriella had to do to get us here.”

“How so?”

She shrugged. “She handled a lot. Our mother died, and suddenly she was trying to tackle it all. She was always trying to make things better for us, and before we got here, I didn’t really know what it felt like to have more than one person to talk to, someone to trust.”

“I imagine it was hard to lose your mother.”

She nodded. “Harder for Gabriella. I had a different relationship with our mother. After she had our magic stripped, I never forgave her. I felt like a part of me was taken away, and I was given a crappy answer as to why she did it.”

“Which was?”

“To help us blend in.” She stirred her drink with her straw. “We were moving, and she wanted us to blend in better. I was already using my magic, so it felt like someone flicked a light off. It was just gone.”

I could see the pain cross her face. “Everyone thinks that I will get my magic, but Gabriella and I aren’t the same. She might have defeated the odds, but I won’t. I don’t feel anything.” She shook her head. “I am not like my sister.”

I frowned, hating how she always looked down on herself. I didn’t understand. She stood up for Gabriella without issue, but couldn’t do the same for herself.

“Besides, you married me because you were asked, and I imagine the reason you asked me to dinner was to seduce me, get me to be nicer in the house.”

I ground my teeth together, suddenly irritated. “Do you honestly think that’s true? That I did any of this to seduce you?”