Like a Fox by J.M. Sevilla Read Free Book Online Page A

other.
    I’m woken up again by Vic sliding out of bed, softly kissing my lips.
    I hear him getting dressed in the dark, “Are you leaving?”
    “Work.”
    “What time is it?”
    He brings over my phone and I check the time: four-thirty in the morning.
    “You wake up earlier than I do.” Five is when I wake in order to be at the café by six. The crowd doesn’t come in until after seven, but Sammy and my dad like the company.
    “I despise the morning,” Vic confesses, and I catalog it with the other minuscule facts I know about him. “But if I’m going to be spending my evenings with you, I need to get work done.”
    “And what is it you do?” I question half-heartedly, not expecting him to answer.
    “Once you know, you can’t unknow, and you can’t tell anyone.”
    “What will happen if I do? Will you have to kill me?” I tease.
    “No. I don’t harm what’s mine.”
    Mine . One word, thousands of butterflies.
    I sit up, fully awake now, bringing the sheet up with me.
    He comes over and brings it down, “Don’t ever hide from me.”
    “Answer my question.”
    “Which one?”
    “Both.”
    “I won’t tell you the first until I know I completely have you, and if you tell, you’ll put my life in danger as well as your own.”
    “Why my own?”
    “Being with me is dangerous.”
    Vic leaves me with that. I listen to him exit the house, then I scramble off the bed and go to my window that faces the street, watching him cross to his place.
    What the hell am I to make of that? Why did he even have to go and say that? Can’t he just pretend to be some standup guy so I don’t go mad with curiosity and possibly have to let go the one guy who has ever made my body and mind feel so alive and electric?
     
     
    ~~~~~
     
     
    “Oh. My. Goddess,” my sister exclaims as we watch Vic leave after his morning breakfast. He really does have the most scrumptious ass. “You were loud last night. I’ve never heard you before. You had Flynn blushing.”
    I shrug, not the least bit embarrassed after years of having to listen to the two of them.
    “What happened to your no sex until the tenth date rule?”
    “He makes me forget myself.”
    “Good.”
    I look over at my smiling sister, “Good?”
    Maya nods, “Yes. Those are the best ones. The ones that make you lose all inhibitions and be reckless.”
    I shrug again, not entirely convinced, scared of the way I already feel for him. Like if he asked me to elope right now, I’m not entirely sure I’d say no. How crazy and stupid is that? We’ve only had three dates, during one of which not a single word was spoken. I shouldn’t feel this way this fast.
    Maya grabs the plates that are ready, “What was up with the iced tea?”
    I smile. I had brought Vic an iced tea this morning. He had given me the same confused look as Maya (he has me continually thinking of ways to catch him off guard in order to get an emotion out of him). My only explanation to him was “free refills.” The left side of his mouth had curved for a fraction of a second, revealing a smile I’m so desperate to see. He drank it back like it was water, and I refilled it four more times before he left without a goodbye. He had, however, made eye contact for a brief moment. It was a start.
    “You’ve got it bad,” Maya teases, poking my cheek and the corner of my mouth that is still smiling. “You’re becoming a lovesick puppy.”
    “Pretty stupid of me, huh?”
    “No, not as long as you don’t lose yourself in the process.”
    She left me to ponder her statement while she delivered the food.
     
     
    ~~~~~
     
     
    “Mom?” I ask a few hours later as I lounge in one of the big comfy chairs we offer by the display case, a leg draped over an arm, bouncing up and down.
    She takes a step back from the display, a hand covering her mouth, and the heel of her toe tapping the floor as she evaluates it, “Hm?”
    I watch her switch two books and step back again to examine the change while I