Page 78 of Forked (Frenched 2)
“Yes, it is. Now go away.” I tried to shrug his hands off me and move around him, but he held on tight.
“No. You’re going to stand here and listen to me.”
“I already heard, Nick. You lost your phone while you were off on your rendezvous with your little hottie chef girlfriend. I saw the pictures online. She lick your plate?”
His dark eyes clouded with confusion for a moment, and he let go of me. “You mean Alex? She’s not my girlfriend. She’s a classmate from the Culinary Institute that’s on the show now. She’s dating another friend of mine, a chef I worked with in New York.”
“Oh yeah? Well, why wasn’t he her date for that event?”
“Because his name isn’t associated with the show. I have to do a certain number of press events for the network, Coco, even if I don’t want to. And she wasn’t my date. We went as friends.”
“Then why’d you say that, about how she can lick your plate anytime?”
“I never said that.”
“I saw it as a photo caption!” Even I had to admit that sounded a bit silly, but I couldn’t let it go. It hurt to see those things written about him.
“Come on, Coco.” He rolled his eyes. “Those people just make shit up when the truth isn’t juicy enough. Yes, we dated a little in the past, but it wasn’t serious, and we certainly are not dating now. I support her on the show, that’s all. Look, I hate that stuff too.
But my contract is up at the end of the year, and I’ll be done with it.”
“Fine,” I snapped, annoyed that he appeared to have a decent excuse for all those photos. “That still doesn’t change the fact that you up and left in a heartbeat and didn’t call me all week long! I get that you lost your phone, but friends have phones, Nick. And there are Internet cafes. Post offices. Fucking messenger pigeons.”
“I’m sorry…I don’t know what else to say. You’re right, I should have tried harder.”
“And you said you were going to be home Wednesday.”
His cheeks colored slightly. “I had to do something else, and I didn’t end up getting home until Thursday. I just figured I’d see you when I got back, but now I realize that’s not good enough.”
“Hell no, it’s not. You don’t fight hard enough for me, Nick. You never have.” I tried to get around him again, but he grabbed my upper arms.
“Listen to me. I’m not perfect, and I don’t claim to be. I’m going to make mistakes, and you will too. But I love you. And I know you love me. Give me another chance, Coco. Let me make things right.”
I wanted to. Oh, how I wanted to. “It’s too late for that.”
He stared hard at me. And then, unbelievably enough, he smiled. “No. It isn’t.”
I blinked. “What?”
The grin widened. “It isn’t. You’re going to give me another chance. Maybe not right now, maybe not even tomorrow, but you will. Because we are good together, Coco. This is it for me, and for you. You’ll see.” He planted his lips on mine, and I was too stunned to resist, not that I’d ever resisted Nick’s kiss before. And this one was different somehow—I felt it from my scalp to my toes, a new charge in the air between us.
Then he let me go. He smiled at me, looking so happy I had to wonder if he was sane, and took off toward his car. It was the quickest I’d ever seen him move when he wasn’t on a run.
“Wait,” I said, flustered and hot in the shorts. “You can’t just—what are you doing?”
He turned around, jogging backward a few paces. “I’m fighting for you!”
“From over there?”
He grinned and got in his car without another word.
“Oh for fuck’s sake.” Confused, frustrated, and totally turned on, I went in the house and slammed the door before screaming at it. “And stay out!”
The next day, he sent me flowers at work. Two dozen breathtaking scarlet roses wrapped in green tissue paper, nestled in a box tied with a ribbon. The sight of them moved me a little before I came to my senses and blew a raspberry. Big deal, he sent flowers. He’s too late.
I opened the card, which said, “There’s a flower…I think she’s tamed me…” It took me a minute to realize he’d quoted The Little Prince, which I had to admit won him a few points.
But not the game.
