Page 42 of Blinded By Hate
Seventeen
Jaclyn
Present
“Can I get the Pasta alla Norma and the kid’s pizza please?” Natalia asks before giving the menu to the waiter.
“I’ll just get the tomato soup.” I set down the menu and he takes it.
“Can I get you guys anything else? Maybe drinks from our specialty menu?”
Natalia raises an eyebrow at me. “I’m good. Thank you. The water is fine.”
“I’ll get a glass of your best wine. White, please,” Natalia says.
The waiter nods his head and then leaves our table.
It’s the next day.
I couldn’t sleep all night because all I could think about was Hayden and the feel of him.
The way his lips caressed mine and how his warm, rough hands held my face, making me feel like I was special and delicate.
I’m not going to sit and lie and say that I don’t miss him because god, after yesterday I miss him. I miss how he would hold me and touch me.
But then the memories of that night come back into my mind and I’m back to wanting to protect myself and my peace.
I may not be happy but at least I’m at peace.
But at what cost?
“So who’s coming?” I ask Natalia while sipping on my water.
Lilah is sitting next to her, watching something on her tablet instead of paying attention to our conversation.
She is kind of like Junior.
He is always wanting to watch TV or a video on his tablet or my phone. I sometimes don’t let him because I hate how focused he is on that. Sometimes I let him watch TV while we eat but only on rare occasions. Most of the time I want to talk to Junior about his day at school, what he learned, what he did, or how he got along with his friends and classmates.
Natalia arrived in Italy this morning and immediately wanted to have lunch. She also said a few people will be joining us which makes me assume it’s my old friends from college.
“Chris is coming with Max, Max’s boyfriend, and Kayden.”
I widen my eyes because how in the hell does Max have a boyfriend? “I didn’t know Max had a boyfriend.”
“They started dating like two or three years ago. After you left, he kind of hit a dry spell I guess, saying no one attracted him and he was just bored. But one night at a club he met Martin, his boyfriend, and they both got drunk before hooking up.”
“I would have never guessed he would run that way. He always seemed so cocky with girls.” I chuckle lightly and Natalia nods her head.
She looks behind me and her smile widens. “Speak of the devil.”
“Well if it isn’t Jaclyn Marie fucking King.” I turn my head and see Max. My smile widens and I stand up before bringing him into a hug. “Knew you couldn’t stay away from me forever, diner girl.”
I laugh and let go of him. I take a good look at Max and notice a major difference with him. He has short, platinum blonde hair instead of dark brown hair. He looks good with this hair color. I would never expect him to rock light colored hair but it looks charming on him. It fits him really well.
“You look great, Max. I love the new hair.”
Max smirks. “Me? You look just as beautiful as I remember.”