wasting ink on you

Part 3: His new favourite story

Juliet POV:

​I didn't just walk out of that waffle shop—I practically ran.

​The cold evening air hit my face, but it didn't help. My cheeks were still burning from the combination of the singing waiters and his gaze. Especially his gaze.

​"Just an attraction," I whispered to myself, the words feeling like a sting. I had heard him say it to his friend as I was grabbing my bag. He said it so easily, like I was a shiny toy in a window that he'd already decided not to buy.

​I hopped onto my old, creaky bicycle, my heart still doing gymnastics. "Who does he think he is?" I grumbled, pedaling as fast as I could toward the suburbs. "Coming into my spot, wearing a suit that costs more than my college tuition, and acting like he owns the air I breathe."

​I reached my house—a small, slightly peeling cottage that looked even smaller compared to the black SUV I'd seen earlier. I wiped my face, trying to look "normal" before I walked inside.

​"I'm home!" I called out, tossing my bag on the sofa.

​"In the kitchen!" my dad yelled back.

​I walked in and stopped dead. The air was thick with the smell of vinegar and something that made my eyes water instantly. My dad was standing over a massive pot, wearing chemistry goggles and thick rubber gloves.

​"Dad... why do you look like you're making a bomb?"

​"It's not a bomb, Juliet! It's the Moretti Special Ghost Pepper Chili!" he shouted, waving a wooden spoon. "You're twenty-one now! You need a meal that builds character! A meal that says 'I am a woman who can handle the heat!'"

​I looked at the bubbling red liquid in the pot. "I think that meal says 'I am a woman who wants to go to the hospital,'" I deadpanned.

​Suddenly, Maya poked her head out from behind the fridge, holding a glass of milk like it was a weapon. "I told him, Lily. I told him this was a bad idea. My tongue is already numb and I only licked the steam."

​I sat down at the small wooden table, my mind drifting back to the waffle shop. Back to the blue eyes that looked like ice but felt like fire.

​"Just an attraction," I thought again, picking up my spoon. "Fine. Let him think that. I'm never going to see him again anyway."

​Julian POV:

​I sat in the back of the SUV, staring out the tinted window as the city lights blurred past.

​"You're awfully quiet," Leo said, glancing at me from the driver's seat. He shifted gears in the Lamborghini, the engine roaring in the lane next to me. "Still thinking about the Waffle Girl?"

​"Her name is Juliet," I said, my voice cold.

​"Oh, so we're on a first-name basis now?" Leo laughed, pulling up to a red light. "Man, you're slipping. You said she was just an attraction. A 'temporary distraction,' remember?"

​I tightened my grip on my phone. "She is."

​"Right. That's why you've been staring at the same page of that contract for twenty minutes without turning it," Leo teased. "Just admit it, Julian. She got under that expensive skin of yours."

​I didn't answer. I looked down at my hand—the one that had brushed against her wrist. I could still feel the phantom heat of her skin. She was so different from the women my mother tried to set me up with. She didn't want my money. She didn't even want my attention.