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Chapter 31: The Price Of Winning

Chapter 31: The Price Of Winning

ROSE POV

Rose realized Adrian wasn’t beside her when the sound under her own feet stopped matching two sets of footsteps.

She slowed and turned.

He was a few steps back, phone out, thumb moving over something that had apparently swallowed his entire attention span.

She waited, arms crossed, giving him three full seconds to notice on his own.

He didn’t.

Her eyes dropped briefly before she could stop them, catching the definition beneath his shirt.

She’d seen him without one during the massage. That wasn’t new.

What was new was the fact that she’d looked a beat longer than she needed to.

Adrian finally glanced up. Their eyes met.

She looked away first, on reflex, and found something suddenly very interesting about the sidewalk two feet to her left.

"Why’d you stop?" he asked, catching up.

"You weren’t keeping up."

She turned and continued walking. He fell into step beside her.

Groceries came off her shoulder the second the door shut behind them. She dropped the bags on the counter, kicked off her shoes, and started unpacking.

Then she remembered.

"You brought your food, right?"

Adrian nodded toward the ceiling.

"Your apartment’s upstairs." A beat. "Go get it."

He looked at the groceries. "Can’t it wait?"

"How else am I supposed to compare your food?" She was already pulling ingredients from the first bag. "Go."

He went.

The door clicked shut behind him.

Rose reached for the next bag and caught herself humming. She stopped. That was strange. She looked around the kitchen. Nothing had changed. Yet she was in a genuinely good mood.

She wasn’t entirely sure when that had happened. She decided not to investigate. The kitchen was going to get hot anyway.

Rose changed into a soft white singlet and the red shorts she’d bought for exactly this sort of weather. She glanced at herself in the mirror.

Fine.

She reached for her perfume. One spray. She paused. Then added two more.

Rose stared at the bottle.

That was unnecessary.

She set it down and caught herself fixing a strand of hair. She stopped halfway through.

It was her house. She was allowed to want to look good in it, just for herself.

She left the mirror alone and went back downstairs.

Chopping gave her hands something to do.

Unfortunately, it gave her head plenty of room to wander.

The grocery store came back first. Adrian tapping his card before she could argue.Then that strange word.

Cashback.

She still didn’t understand what he’d meant by it. People didn’t usually mention cashback while buying pasta with that kind of expression.

Whatever it was, Adrian clearly didn’t want to explain.

Fine.

She wasn’t going to interrogate him over groceries.

The oil started to shimmer.

Rose poured in the onions and stirred until the sharp smell softened. She looked around the kitchen.

She was standing in her apartment, cooking dinner for a guy she’d met beside a dumpster yesterday.

Yesterday.

She’d been asking if the moving truck outside belonged to him.

Now she was cooking for him. Somehow, that no longer seemed strange. That was probably the stranger part.

A knock sounded at the door.

Rose wiped her hands on the towel and checked the stove. Then, almost automatically, she checked herself.

Her perfume was still noticeable. Good.

She frowned.

Why was she checking that?

The knock came again. She opened the door.

Adrian stood there with his container in hand, and for a second neither of them said anything.

She caught his eyes move down. Brief, barely there, then back up to her face. She noticed.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"You were checking me out."

"I was." He admitted it, plain, like denying it would’ve been the more embarrassing option.

That threw her more than an actual denial would have.

"But..." He said, his voice comfortably calm. "You look really pretty."

She paused.

"Thanks." The word came out quieter than she’d intended. She stepped aside. "Come in."

Adrian walked in. She shut the door behind him.

Pretty.

The word lingered. She didn’t know why.

Plenty of people had called her pretty before. Adrian hadn’t sounded like he was trying to charm her, though.

He’d just said it.

Rose turned back toward the kitchen before she could think about that any further.

Adrian took over the vegetables without being asked. Rose let him handle the peppers, watched him hold the knife for five seconds, then reached over and turned his wrist.

"Not like that."

"I’ve been cutting vegetables longer than you’ve known me."

"And somehow you’re still doing it wrong."

She corrected his grip once and returned to the stove. He tried again.

Better.

She didn’t compliment him.

A minute later, the onions started making him tear up. Rose glanced over.

"You okay?"

"I’m fine."

She slid the cutting board farther away from herself.

"You’re doing great."

His eyes narrowed.

"You’re enjoying this."

"A little."

He shook his head and kept cutting.That only made her smile.

Between chopping, stirring, seasoning, and Rose correcting his knife work one more time, dinner came together quickly.

By the time they plated everything, Rose had stopped pretending she wasn’t enjoying herself.

They ate at the kitchen island. She watched him take the first bite, unbothered rather than nervous.

She knew what she’d made, knew it was good. She was just curious what he’d actually say about it, specifically, out loud, to her.

He took a second bite. Rose watched him chew and he put his fork down.

"You win."

Rose’s smile appeared immediately.

"I knew it."

"You knew it?" Adrian paused. "That confidence is getting annoying."

"You’re just upset because I’m right."

She reached for her drink, still smiling.

Adrian took another bite, looking far less bothered than someone who had just lost a wager should have.

"You could at least look disappointed." She said.

"I’m eating your food."

"Is that a compliment?"

Adrian turned his glance to her. "Would it be bad if it was?"

She grinned, entirely too pleased with herself, and reached over to taste his instead. A small, deliberate bite off his plate before he could object to the audit.

"It’s good."

"Good?" He said. "You said it was mid before."

She smiled.

"Fine, it’s good." A beat. "Still not better."

She pointed her fork at him. "Don’t ruin your victory."

"You just said ’I won’"

"I said your food was good. Stand proud, freshman."

He shook his head. Rose smiled and returned to her plate.

For a few minutes, they simply ate.

The conversation came in pieces. A comment about the food. A complaint about the onions. Rose making fun of his knife skills again.

Nothing important.

Which was probably why she noticed how easy it felt.

There was no awkward silence to fill. No reason to keep checking the time. Adrian was just there.

And she liked that.

The thought arrived quietly enough that she almost missed it. Rose took another drink. Then she set the glass down.

"Oh."

Adrian looked over.

"What?"

She leaned back slightly.

"The wager." She said it slow, clearly enjoying herself now that the actual moment had arrived. "Almost forgot."

He paused.

"I wish you had."

Rose smiled. "One request."

Adrian waited.

She didn’t reveal it right away. Took another bite instead, deliberately unhurried, and let him sit in cruel anticipation.

"So what’s the request?" He said eventually.

She smiled, set her fork down, and finally let it land.

"Have you seen Yes Man?"

He thought about it. "No."

Rose stared at him for a second. "For real?"

"Apparently so."

"Hmm." She smiled and picked her fork back up. "Well. Guy in it decides to say yes to everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything."

"For how long?"

"A year."

He looked at her. She took another bite, unhurried. His eyes narrowed, suspicion settling in.

"I’m not doing a year," he said.

"I know."

"So?"

She swallowed, set her fork down.

"Three days." He waited. "You have to say yes to any request I make for the next three days."

Rose smiled. That should be fun.