this is just a hallucination, a cruel trick of my calorie-starved brain, but I could swear the light of heaven is s

, but I couldn't care less-matter of fact, I could plop a juicy

mears on my cheek where the third bite misses my mouth a bit, but the tast

the maître d', who's resumed his vantage point at the f

ack with a mou

the fifth is even better than that. My whole body

that I remember my whole "spread it out over three days" plan. As soon as I do

u

l, sort of-so you can think clearly, and you'll solve this. You made it through losing Clara, and you loved her, so

ually does the job. All credit goes to t

the bill on my table, and my

he check half a dozen times. But it

joke?" I ga

back over to me. "No part of this is a 'joke,' ma'am," he spits. He says "ma'am" the way yo

o be a joke," I insist. "Was there g

an actual

ort, "it's

ve no control over the menu, ma'am. Or the pri

want to just cut out my

a'

y need you to no

en, m

N

as a couple walks in off the street, bundled up against the cold, but beautif

l red from all the crying I've done over the last two days, and I'm yelling at this stu

think. Turns out it sme

for a pizza," I insist, my voice

e, that pale, grasping claw of a hand looming cl

the bathrooms and, at the very end of it, a black door marked EXIT. I trip my

into an enraged mask. "Listen here, you s

nces

's a man standing on the threshold. He's huge, tall enough to almost brush the ceiling, and broad enough to take up the whole

bout him te

anging immediately to contrite and submissive. "I

co-how fitting; a stupid name fo

elp but stare back. Those eyes are shockingly silver. Ful

asons I don't think I could ever

ngly white teeth, a devil-may-care je ne sais quoi that radi

kness I can't touch or na

xpected exactly that. "Are

ything, but then the undeniably loud rumb

ches at the noise. I'm pretty sure it'

o, "Put what Ms. Paige ate on my tab. She and I will also take a po

sco stammers. He bow

chances with him than with this handsome, terrifying man who gives orders lik

straight through to my soul. To every bad thing

in a tone of voice that says it's not real

ection to my earlier statement: ro

om smells