Page 4 (1/2)

He grins, "What? I have the cleanest date in to I’ve never felt so safe in all my life" He points with his free hand and I notice we are still holding hands, "I know a quiet place down the road Very clean Owner has OCD, so the service is slow but the place is immaculate"

"Okay" The waro away He’s the cure I sigh Quietly

He pulls me into pace with him "So is it as bad as Howie Mandel’s?"

I snort, "It’s not what you think I’ermaphobe"

He looks confused, "You are so"

I shake erms I was raised to be clean" I don’t tell hi up

He et scrubbed with boiling water like Mo like that" The sis, "My uncle Frank is a surgeon I get it He went through a vodka phase once He had bottles of it in every bathroolance down at me, "The crowds are hard too New Mexico is probably pretty quiet Boston’s not exactly quiet"

"What kind of surgeon" We need to talk about him

"Orthopedic"

"Wow"

He doesn’t sound interested, "Yeah"

"You takingit in the fa so intense, but it’s too far beneath the surface for me to see it "I’m in business What about you?"

"Journalish school We did a lot of earth sciences pieces Trying to be proactive about the environment But I’m a freshman, so we’ll see"

The Town Car pulls up as we round a corner Stuart clioing to Chicken Lou’s" He looks pissed His dark eyes are storry Yowza

I don’t want to explain the car or the driver to Sebastian I scowl and shout across the street like a psycho, "Go hoht you were on a date!"

"Had to end it early" He’s speaking through his teeth

I roll e crowd" I pray he gets it withoutto explain

Sebastian looks down at h It’s nervous and I shake my head, "No God no Stuart, this is Sebastian Stuart is a friend ofbrother"

Stuart looks less than impressed

Sebastian sonna eat here You wanna conores hio away" I turn and pull Sebastian to the door I al at it Thankfully, Sebastian grabs it quickly, "Letokay?"

I look back at Stuart and nod "He’s really over protective"

"Who are you going to call?"

"My…uhh inside my mind I’ve never said the word uhet in the car He watches He alatches It’s creepy

He isn’t creepy, but his job is

My phone vibrates the reat and I can see the sparkle and shine in every corner The servers are clean, with their hair pulled back and greased to their heads Everything is white linen and ih relief, but then I notice how everyone else is dressed We look like slobs I look down at rimace

He must have seen the look in ot how fancy this place was You okay here?"

I nod, "I’ I don’t care I feel like an idiot but whatever"

"Me too" We are still holding hands It’s weird for me to hold hands with anyone After my panic attack it’s nice More than nice He’s like a hero I feel rescued The right way Like he is a prince and not a dictator My knight in shining armor He cured the lonely

Chapter Three

"We ate and talked and ate soood I didn’t look like a pig" I’ It’s a first

Shell rolls her eyes, as she applies my toenail polish, "I don’t kno you eat that et fat"

"Sprints But yeah, we ate and talked He is so sweet He never tried to kiss me or tried to touch me, except the hand and that was after he did the sani I super liked hi

She scowls up at me, "One date and you’re in love? I told you to have dinner You girls are all the same You hold out and the first boy you let in you love him You need to test drive this shit and date a few others This is too fast" Her tone is edgy It hurts a little