Page 63 of Rogue's Path

***

Two hours later, I’ve heard more about cakes than I ever wanted to know. It would be easy to make one of my characters a baker. Only now, he’d be a tattooed guy in a heavy metal band.

“So where would you ladies like to eat next?” Bear’s eyes never leave her face.

At least I don’t have to worry about him being hopelessly in love with me while I’m playing kissing tag with his gang member. Club member. Whatever it is they’re called. I haven’t done research on motorcycle clubs in a long time, and all that was just superficial for a side character.

“A gyro sounds good to me. What do you think, Dylan?”

“Sounds good.” Thankfully, we've each been taking a bite while Bear finishes the rest.

It’s the best way to do this. He never seems to fill up. It must take a ton of fuel to run a man like him.

“I’ll be right back with one.” Bear gives her a smile before walking off.

“He’s really sweet.”

On you. “Yeah, he is.”

“And his ideas for new cakes are insightful.”

That I wouldn’t know about because I zoned out and started imagining a novel about two minutes into your conversation. “They are. Will you be trying some of them out?”

“Absolutely. Especially the one with the white chocolate…”

My brain loses focus of her words as a man carrying an armful of red roses walks down the street.

He’s coming straight at me.

What am I going to do? What if he has a weapon? I need to protect Cordelia.

There are too many people around. He won’t be able to kidnap me.

This is all about him controlling the situation, showing me he can find me no matter where I am. How did he find me? I’ve been completely off-grid staying here. I took three different modes of transportation to get to Cordelia’s house just for that reason.

The guy carrying flowers stops twenty feet from us as a man says, “I’ll take one of those roses for my girlfriend.”

A vendor. It’s not my stalker. This guy is just selling flowers. It makes sense with all the couples wandering around.

Those red roses just took a year off of my life. Death by roses. I’m not even ready to consider a title like that. One day…

“So what do you think?” Cordelia looks at me expectantly.

Think? All I could think about was death, destruction, and how to avoid it. There’s no way I can tell her any of that.

Bear walks over to us with a gyro wrapper in his hand. “Got it. The line was long.”

Food to the rescue!!!

***

“We have just enough time before the movie starts to try one more thing. What haven’t we tasted yet?” Cordelia’s eyes roam the cute booths.

Not much. “I don’t think we tried those chocolates.” They’re small enough that they might actually fit in my overstuffed stomach.

“I’ll go grab some. Be right back.” Cordelia dashes off, leaving the two of us together.

Bear turns to me. “Your friend seems really nice.”