Page 89 of Your Fault

I ignored the comment as we walked out into the lot.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked as she took her keys from her pocket.

“I’m the one who rented the car, Nicholas,” she said.

“Sorry, babe, I drive,” I said, snatching them before she could react.

I was surprised she didn’t argue, instead shrugging and going around to the passenger side.

I let her choose the music, which meant we were listening to trash from the eighties the whole way from the hotel. The weather was nice, even if it was cooler in San Fran than what we were used to in LA. Lots of people hated the steep streets there, but I thought they made the city special, the hills and the colorful houses, so varied and pleasant to look at.

I wanted to bring Noah there. I wanted her to see so many places… Since we’d been going out, I’d only been able to take her to the Bahamas, and that was a vacation to forget.

I put that out of my mind, parking the car at a restaurant I’d found before, when I’d had to spend a week there.

“This isn’t McDonald’s,” Sophia said, unbuckling her seat belt.

“I don’t eat at McDonald’s,” I said, turning off the car and laughing when I saw her scowl. “Come on, Soph, these are the best burgers in the city. If not, I wouldn’t have brought you here.”

She frowned in disbelief and slapped me on the arm. “I told you before, don’t call meSoph.” She got out. I did, too.

“Sorry, Soph.”

I cracked up when I saw her face after that, but then I decided to drop it. A waiter greeted us and sat us on the other end of the restaurant. I didn’t like that; I thought he thought we were a couple and wanted our privacy, but since I couldn’t actually read minds, I decided not to argue.

She made another comment about her beloved Big Mac, butshe ended up having to swallow her words because, as I’d told her, the burgers there were to die for.

“So you guys are going to move in together,” she asked after a few minutes of chitchat and shoptalk. This was the first time Noah had come up. “To spite her parents?”

“Her mother, you mean,” I said. “It seems everyone’s forgotten that she’s an adult and can make her own decisions.”

Sophia nodded, but she didn’t seem convinced. “She’s a little girl, Nick,” she said, taking a sip of her drink.

“Maturity isn’t some fucking number. It’s all about your experiences and what you’ve learned from them.”

“No one’s saying otherwise, but you can’t forget, she’s about to start school. She’s going to want to do things, like any girl her age, and unless I’m mistaken, you’re a typical controlling boyfriend.”

I rested my elbows on the table and my chin in my hands. “I take care of what’s mine, that’s all.”

She didn’t seem to like those words. “That’s a pretty chauvinistic way of looking at things. You don’t own her, Nick.”

“Is it time for Feminism 101, Soph?”

“As a woman trying to make my way in a company whose leadership is a hundred percent male, I could teach you a few things about that, but that’s not what I’m saying. Your problem is trust: if you were really sure she was in love with you, you wouldn’t be trying everything in your power to get her to move in with you despite your family’s wishes. I just think it’s a dumb move on your part.”

“She needs me and I need her. There’s not some secret justification there. You just don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Sophia shook her head and stared at me. “I know one thing. There’s no way in hell I’d want to be your girlfriend.”

“Every girl wants to be my girlfriend,” I said. She started laughing, and I grinned. It was obvious I wasn’t close to the ideal boyfriend, but hey, I tried.

That gave me an idea.

“So you’ll see just what a good boyfriend I am,” I said, taking my phone out and going onto the net. “What do you think about blue roses? Pretty, right?”

Sophia rolled her eyes as I scrolled through floral arrangements.

“Precious,” she said, taking a sip of her drink.