Culinaria L'amore

Culinaria L'amore Chapter Thirty-Five

"What? Am I being too forward or do you still nee-"

I cut him off. "Friends?"

Garrett's eyes seemed to melt a bit, his steely grey turning into a molten silver as he tightened his hold on my hand and shook it deliberately.

"Friends."

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Garrett's POV

Damn it! If only she knew.

I watched as she seemed to tremble the second Angela and Alonzo were out the door, and I couldn't help but want to slap myself in the face, kneel down, and beg for her forgiveness. The look on her face was forlorn, sad, resigned, the way it looked at her father's funeral way back when and I hated knowing that I was the cause of it.

When she hesitantly said that she had heard my conversation with Toben, I felt frozen and... almost hopeful. To get away from Mira's sharp claws and incessant blabbering, Toben had dragged me off to the kitchen to cool off, muttering something about a man to man and throwing a venomous glare in Mira's general direction, one that she didn't notice. Then we had spent the next half an hour just... talking.

If Kirsten had heard the first twenty minutes of the conversation where I proclaimed my love for her to Toben while angrily punching the refrigerator to relieve my stress and anger, maybe we wouldn't have been in this current predicament. We could off run off to China or something, away from the institute, my demanding father, and a child that I was almost certain didn't belong to me.

Damn my honor! If only I was as lowly as some scum and refused to care for Mira while she was pregnant, showering all my love for the woman I cared about instead of falsely praising the psychotic bitch. For the time that I had been in contact with Mira, all she had done was complain, bitch, moan, and had caused three of the Bianchi residents' servants to resign from position when she threw a glass of ice water at one of them in the car.

"Truce?" I asked slowly, trying to gauge Kirsten's reaction as I stretched out my hand for her to shake, surprised that my hand was trembling for apprehension.

She placed her warm and thin hand inside of mine and immediately... it felt right, like that was where it belonged, in mine, as cheesy as that sounded.

"No."

Immediately, my sides started hurting and my feelings were torn between sadness and resentment for Mira and myself. She had given up on me and there was nothing to salvage the relationship between the two of us. However, before I could apologize and run off to grab a beer and drown myself in self pity and loathing, she muttered in a small, melodious voice, "friends?"

For now, that seven letter word would have to suffice.

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Kirsten's POV

I laughed loudly at something Garrett said as we sped on the highway after a long day at the institute. The windows were down, the seventy degree wind, strange for December in Colorado blowing through the open vents. It had only been a couple of hours since we had proclaimed our renewed friendship and already I was beginning to feel longing and regret.

Garrett opened his mouth to say something, but just then, my phone rang in my pocket. Slipping it out and groaning mentally at the caller i.d., I picked it up and answered.

"Hey Harrison."

From the corner of my eyes, I could see Garrett stiffen and grip the steering wheel tighter, the car speeding up to seventy-five.

"Kirsten! How are you?" Harrison's cheery voice rang through the phone.

"I'm great, how are you?" I replied politely, my gut suddenly hurting as I became aware of the man besides me and the man on the other side of the phone. Guilt made my stomach seize.