"Yeah, it was fun," I say, casually, like it's something I do every day. The truth is I haven't eaten out since that night. The night Rob took me out, pretending everything was fine, pretending he wasn’t angry I’d found out. The next morning, I ended up in the hospital.
"Raine, what's wrong?" I feel Miles' hand on mine and look up at him.
"What do you mean?"
"You got all serious all of a sudden. You almost looked scared."
"Sorry." I force out a smile. "I was just thinking about something."
"What were you thinking about?"
"Nothing. Ready to go?"
"Not really. I know it's been a couple hours but I'm not ready to say goodnight yet."
"A couple hours?" I look down at my wrist but there's no watch there. I used to have one I found on the street but I lost it. "We've been gone that long?" I panic, worried about Gladys. I scoot out of the booth. "I have to go."
Miles hurries to get up. "Hold on."
I don't wait for him. I race through the restaurant and out the front door.
Miles catches up to me on the street. "She's fine."
"You don't know that."
"I'm sure Shelly checked on her."
"She didn't. Shelly hates us. She only puts up with us because Zoe is her boss and the one who hired her." I walk quickly, looking left and right and behind me, like I always do when it's dark and the streets are empty, to make sure I'm not going to be attacked.
"How long has Gladys been on the streets?" Miles asks.
"A couple years. Her husband got really sick and all the money they had went to pay for his meds. When he died, there was nothing left."
"Did they have a house?"
“They sold it to pay his medical bills. They were renting an apartment but Gladys ran out of rent money after he died. She was in a lot of debt. Had to sell her car. She had nothing left and no family so she ended up on the streets."
"If she survived all that, then she's tougher than you give her credit for."
"She's old and she's sick and I promised to take care of her." I leave it at that, not wanting to talk about it. Taking care of Gladys is my job and I don't want him telling me otherwise.
When we get to the alley, I race over to the tent and unzip it. Gladys is inside, curled up in the blanket, sound asleep. I quietly zip the tent and stand up, turning to Miles.
"She's sleeping."
"See? I told you she'd be fine."
I nod. "So um, thanks for dinner. I'll see ya around."
"It's not even nine. You want to go do something?"
I'm about to tell him no but then my mouth blurts out, "Like what?"
"We could take a walk. I could show you were I live. We don't have to go inside. I could just show you the building, in case you want to drop by sometime." He smiles, that damn smile that makes me agree to things I shouldn't agree to.
"I guess we could do that."
"Are you cold?"
"A little but I'll be fine."
"I have a sweatshirt in my car. Let's go get it."
I follow him to the car. Being a lawyer, I thought he'd have some fancy expensive car but it's just a basic hatchback that's probably ten years old.
"Here." He puts a gray hoodie around my shoulders. "Is that better?"
"Yeah. Thanks." I slip my arms into it and wrap the soft fabric around me, wishing I had one just like it. My one and only hoodie is thin and scratchy and has a hole in the sleeve.
He chuckles. "You're swimming in that."
"It's a little big but it feels good. It's really soft."
"You can have it if you want."
"I've taken enough. I'm not taking any more from you."
"Okay, but if you don't want it, I'm just going to throw it out."
"Why would you throw it out? There's nothing wrong with it."
"It's old and I don't need it. I have more sweatshirts than I can wear."
"If you're throwing it out, then I'll keep it. It's so soft I might even sleep in it."
He looks at me and smiles.
Wait, did he trick me just now? Did he say he was throwing it out to get me to take it?
"I know what you did," I say.
"Then tell me, because I don't know what you're talking about."
"The sweatshirt. You tricked me into taking it."
He laughs. "I tricked you into taking an old sweatshirt I was going to throw out?"
"Yes. Because you weren't going to throw it out. It's too nice to throw out. Nobody would throw out a sweatshirt like this."
"If it was that great, it wouldn't be in the back of my car. It'd be in my closet."
That's true, so maybe he wasn't tricking me.
We cross the street and go down a block to the street that parallels mine. There's nobody around and I start to wonder if I can trust him. I feel like I can, but I felt that way with Rob and was completely wrong.
"Maybe I should just go home," I say, questioning my decision to spend more time with Miles. I want to, but I shouldn't.
"It's right here." He points to the building in front of us. "I told you it was close to the coffee shop."
He wasn't kidding. It's only a couple blocks away.
"Nice building," I tell him, noticing how new it looks. It can't be more than a few years old.
"Yeah, I like it. And I like being close to work. I can walk there instead of taking my car."
I stop as we approach his building. "You could've walked to the coffee shop tonight."
"I could've, but I brought the car because I thought we'd be driving somewhere for dinner. I get why you didn't want to. We haven't known each other long but I can assure you I'm completely harmless. You could ask Greg if you don't believe me. We could call him right now if you want."
"Who's Greg?"
"My best friend from back home. He's known me my whole life. Knows me better than anyone. You want me to call him?"
"No. I think I'll just head home."
"You sure? We could walk some more."
"I walk all day long. I don't really need more exercise."
"Yeah. Sorry, I wasn't thinking about that."
"It's fine." I look up at him and my heart beats faster. It happens whenever we're close like this and I look at him. It's why I keep keep looking away.
"I almost forgot," he says. "Your backpack is upstairs. I was going to bring it to you tonight but I was in a hurry and left it. Do you want to go get it?"
"Um, I don't know," I say, not sure I should go in his apartment. I really want to trust him, and part of me does, but the other part is telling me to run. But I really need my backpack.
"I'd go up and get it myself," he says, "but I don't want to leave you here alone on the street." He glances at his building. "I'll tell you what. We can go in together and you can wait in the hall while I run in and get it."
I nod. "Okay."