As Grayson starts driving, he puts his hand on my thigh.
"I love you," I kiss his fingers.
"I love you, too, baby," he rubs circles with his thumbs around my hand.
"Can I make out with you?" I grin at him.
"I thought you wanted to watch a movie?" He cocks his eyebrow at me.
"I can multitask," I smirk.
"Mm," he smiles.
I lean onto his shoulder and close my eyes.
"Are you hungry, baby? We can stop at Five Guys before we go," he says.
"Kind of," I bite my lip.
"Alright," he smiles. "I'll get you some food."
We pull up to Five Guys and he gets out. He opens my door and throws me over his shoulder before walking inside.
"Oh, my beautiful girlfriend," he rubs my back.
"What are you doing?" I giggle
"Holding my future wife," he sets me down at one of the tables. "Wait here, baby. I'll get you your food."
"Okay," I smile.
Future wife. Future fucking wife.
Fuck yeah.
I watch as he walks away and rest my head on the table.
Debbie and Jack walk in and I get tense. I hide my face in the hoodie I'm wearing and flicker my eyes between them and Grayson.
"No, no, no," I clamp my hands together.
Why the fuck do they keep ending up everywhere we go?
Grayson grabs the bag of food and comes walking toward me. I watch as Jack sees him and narrows his eyes. He starts walking towards us and my fingers start trembling.
"Gray," I whisper as he sits down. "We have to go—we—we can't stay here."
I try to get up and Grayson grabs my hand.
"What's wrong, baby?" He looks at me concerned. "Why are you shaking so much?"
"He's here, Gray, we have to go," I try to pull him with me but he looks around. He sees Jack and he goes stiff.
"This asshole," he growls.
"Come on, Gray. Let's just go," I pull him to the car.
He opens my door and helps me in.
He starts walking around to the driver's side and Jack comes out and starts talking to him.
Grayson ignores him and gets in the car.
"Fucking bitch," Jack shouts.
I put my hands under my thighs to try to calm myself down.
Grayson reaches over and takes one of my hands in his.
"It's okay, baby. You're okay," he squeezes my shaking fingers.
I nod and swallow the lump in my throat.
We pull up to the movies and Grayson parks. He turns in his seat so he's facing me.
"We don't have to go if you don't—"
"No—no, I do," I shake my head. "I just—yeah, I do."
"You just what, baby?" He pulls me into his lap and I wrap my arms around his neck.
"I don't understand how he keeps finding us everywhere we go. How the fuck is that possible?" I whisper.
He runs his fingers over my back soothingly.
"I don't know, pretty girl," he kisses my head. "I'm so so sorry he's doing this to you, baby."
I take a deep breath and inhale the scent of him.
"Are you sure you still want to watch a movie?" He asks quietly.
"Mhm," I murmur.
"Alright," he kisses me and gets out of the car. He sets me down on the floor and I take his hand.
"What are we going to watch?" I ask as we walk inside.
"That depends," he raises his eyebrows at me. "Are you planning to sleep through it?"
"I don't always sleep through movies," I stick my tongue out at him as we wait in line.
"You kind of do," he smiles.
I shake my head, smiling softly.
"Do you want a soda? Popcorn? Candy? A slushy?" He pulls my back against his chest.
"Can I get a slushy?" I grin up at him.
"What flavor?" He asks.
"Blue," I hum.
"Blue isn't a flavor, Emmy," he sighs.
"It is too," I protest.
"You can't taste blue, Emmy. That's not—"
"Okay, whatever," I pout. "You know what I mean."
"I'll get you your blue-flavored slushy," he says against my ear.
"Thank you," I kiss his cheek.
When we get to the counter, the guy working looks at me.
"Which movie are you seeing, darling?" He smiles.
"Uh, I'm not—"
I look up at Grayson and he glares at him.
"Love, which movie?" I grab his hand.
"The one at 1:30," he says, wrapping his arm around my waist.
"I wasn't exactly calling you darling," the guy says.
"Really?" Grayson says sarcastically.
"I was talking to this gorgeous girl," he looks me up and down.
"I'm not interested," I smile weakly.
"Just the tickets?" He says, ignoring me.
"Popcorn and a slushy," I say.
"Which slushy?" He smiles again, his eyes going to my lips every few seconds, and I feel myself losing my patience with him.
"The blue one," I grab Grayson's hand. I look up and his jaw is clenched and his eyes are narrowed.
"Sure, darling," he says. He hands me the bucket of popcorn and slushy. "That all?"
"Yes," I say.
"Alright. $23.71," he runs his fingers through his hair and I catch a glimpse of a ring on his finger. This dipshit.
"Yeah, I'm definitely not interested," I say, moving closer to Grayson.
"Your brother doesn't need to speak for you," he cocks his head.
"He's not my brother, dickhead, he's the love of my life. How old are you, thirty?" I arch my eyebrow at him and he narrows his eyes.
"I'm twenty-four," he says.
"Yeah, and I'm not," I narrow my eyes at him.
"It doesn't matter, darling. I think you look my age. That's all that—"
"And I think that if you really need to be looking at a girl, you should go home to your wife," I snap.
He narrows his eyes at me and I hand him twenty-five dollars. He gives me my change and I take Grayson's hand, pulling him with me.
"Asshole," I mutter as we walk away.
I look up at Grayson and he still looks tense.
"Love, what's wrong?" I reach up and cup his face.
"Mine," he pulls me into his arms and tucks his face into my neck.
"Yeah, yours," I run my fingers over the back of his neck.
"My gorgeous girlfriend," he grumbles, starting to rant to himself. "Mine. Not a fucking movie theater worker who thinks he's a fucking cowboy. 'Oh darlin', watch ya need?' That's fucking ridiculous. Thinks he belongs in the goddamn Wild West."
Why is he acting like this?
"Gray, what's wrong? You know I'm—wait, are you jealous?" I gasp, fighting a grin.
Thinks he belongs in the goddamn Wild West.
His Texas accent is absolutely ridiculous.
"Mm," he groans.
"Love, why are you jealous? Nothing happened. I didn't even want anything to happen. I'm yours forever," I kiss his cheek and he takes a deep breath.
"But he kept looking at you," he pouts.
"Gray, do you know how many fucking times I've watched other girls look at you?" I murmur. "So many goddamn times. I don't like it either. Not at all. Actually, I fucking hate it. But I know you don't care. You only ever look at me. I don't care how many times guys try to flirt with me. They can look all they want. I'm only looking at you."
He sticks out his bottom lip but already he looks more relaxed.
"There's no other girls looking at me," he scrunches his nose.
"Yes, there are. In fact," I look around and nod at two girls checking him out, "those girls are right now."
He turns around with narrowed eyes and I smirk when one of them blushes.
Grayson turns back to look at me and mumbles, "they're not very—"
"Hey," the other girl says, twirling her hair around her finger. "I'm Brie. I think you're really—"
"Did you know that this gorgeous woman right here took my virginity?" He announces proudly—and a little to loudly—as he throws an arm around my shoulders.
"Oh my God," I mutter under my breath.
"I—um—I'm sorry, what?" She stutters.
I clear my throat and look down as the people standing close to us start snickering and whispering.
"Yep. She did. Along with all of my other firsts. Including, first girl to ever make me want to get married. Or have kids. Or believe that high school relationships can actually last. Or believe in soulmates."
"Well, could I still get your—"
"Okay, clearly, home girl, you can't take a hint," Grayson sighs.
Home girl?
Who the fuck is this guy?
"I'm taken, and I've got the hair tie to prove it," he holds up his wrist to show her my rubber band I didn't even know he had.
The look on this girl's face is priceless, and it takes everything in me not to burst out laughing.
She stands there with her mouth hanging open for a couple of seconds before she turns and walks away.
"What the fuck was that?" I turn to Grayson, a giggle bubbling up. "Cowboy? Wild West? Virginity? Marriage? Kids? Soulmates? Home girl?"
"That was a lot," he blinks.
"Yeah," I laugh.
"Come on, let's go watch the movie," he grabs my hand and leads me to the theater.
We walk inside and find our seats.
Grayson hands me my food and I eat quickly, before moving onto the popcorn and slushy.
I climb into Grayson's lap and he holds me tight.
"Don't fall asleep, baby," he whispers in my ear.
"I won't," I lie.