TROUBLE, A New Adult Romance Novel (The Rebel Series) by Elle Casey Read Free Book Online

delivers to me are surprisingly easy to eat.   Normally I’d have to choke down any food from a place like this, but for some reason today my appetite is back.   It’s been missing for several months.
    “I’m going to have to take you here more often,” Colin says, taking a sip of his drink as he watches me over the lid.
    “Ew, why?   This place is horrible.”   I eat three fries at a time.   I can’t seem to keep from shoving them into my face.   My manners have abandoned me, and I just don’t care enough right now to do anything about it.
    “Because, it’s the only time I’ve actually seen you eat anything.   Maybe you need sodium or something.   I know you need some fat.”   He looks down at my legs under the table.
    I pull my feet in closer, sliding them as far under the seat as I can.   “You must be joking.   My legs are like sausages.”
    “You’re too skinny,” he says.
    My face heats up and I drop the fry I was about to inhale.
    “What’s wrong?” he asks, putting his drink down.
    “I don’t know if you’re mocking me or being serious.”   His comment makes me want to cry.   Either option is completely terrible.
    “I’m dead serious.   You hardly eat.   You’re supposed to be eating for two or whatever.”   He picks up one of my fries that fell out of the bag and throws it into his mouth.
    “I eat plenty.   And if I keep eating too much I’m going to weigh two hundred pounds after the baby’s born.”
    “So?   Curves are good.”
    As a girl who’s been battling the booty bulge for most of her life, this does not compute.   I roll my eyes.   “Please.   Spare me.”   This is crap guys say to girls just to make them feel better about being fat.   He’s not fooling me one bit.
    “I’m serious.   No guy wants to be with a stick figure.”
    “Lie. All guys want to be with a stick figure. Just look at the magazines and movies and TV shows.”   I throw the rest of the burger down onto my tray. Even the simple idea of my big old butt makes me lose my appetite.   I stopped looking at it in the mirror months ago, but my memory of it is still very clear.
    He shakes his head, like he pities me.
    “What?” I say, annoyed.
    “You girls … so clueless.   TV shows and magazines put those chicks on there for you girls , not for us guys.   Give me a girl with some meat on her bones any day of the week and I’ll be a happy camper.”
    I huff out a breath of annoyance.   “Colin, I have news for you.   Just because you have that face of yours and all that, it doesn’t mean you can just say what you want, when you want, to whomever you want, okay?   There’s such a thing in the world as manners.   You should learn some and use them.”   I start balling up my garbage, annoyed that he’s forced me to lecture him.   I don’t even know that my lecture made sense.   He gets me all messed up in the head when he starts looking at me like that.
    “I have manners.”
    It irks me that he’s not at all put off by my admonishments.   He really is nervy the way he just sits there and smiles all sexy-time at me.   He knows way too much about how to charm women; it’s downright annoying to be manipulated like that.   Women with meat on their bones.   As if.
    I can’t let it go.   “Really? You have manners?   Because I haven’t seen any.”   I work to get the bun out of my teeth without anyone noticing.   My tongue is doing gymnastics inside my mouth, acting as a sorry excuse for a toothpick.
    “I bought you lunch.”
    “That’s not manners.   That’s pity.”
    “I open doors for you.”
    “No, you don’t.   Not all the time.”
    “Anytime you don’t beat me to the punch.”
    I have to stop and think about that.   Does he open doors for me? I can’t recall if he does or not.   Maybe a couple times he has.   I’ll have to pay better attention.
    I continue my laundry list of his faults.   It’s making me feel better about chastising him