I took a step toward her. “Why not?” I was going to need a very good explanation. Otherwise, I would take her home now, and we’d figure out the rest there.
She was looking everywhere but at me. Her gaze caught someone who’d just parked, and she gave him a little wave as they walked past us to the elevator.
“I eat a lot.” Her words were so quiet as she took another step away from the elevator. “It’s embarrassing.”
This—this—I could fix. I stepped in front of her. Instead of ducking down to look her in the eyes like I usually needed to do, I only had to tilt my head a little. “I got kicked out of an all-you-can-eat buffet once and asked never to come back.”
“No.” Her gaze finally darted to mine. “You did not.”
It wasn’t a lie, except I hadn’t been alone. She’d been with me. We’d both gotten kicked out. “I did.” I stood straight again. “I have an off-the-charts metabolism. On one of my slow days, I eat probably three times what a normal professional athlete eats.”
She searched my face to see if I was joking, but I wasn’t. Not about this. All werewolves required a large calorie intake. It was the cost of the magic to keep both our forms alive.
“Well, then you eat more than me. It’s just…” She chewed on her lip a little. Something she always did when she was considering what to say or how much to tell a person. She’d give a little sigh when she figured it out, and then she’d start talking.
So, I watched her and waited for that little sigh.
And then she sighed, and I held my breath so that I would hear everything that she said.
“My friend—she’s always disgusted,” she said finally. “And I stopped eating out. I sometimes ordered two things, and then people stared. So, I stopped doing that, but then I’m hungry again in like two seconds, and…”
She ordered two things? Like two entrees? Or like a salad and an entree?
I had so many questions, but I didn’t want to freak her out. But even if it was two entrees, she needed more than that. I needed more food than Tessa, but she could still easily pack away three entrees every meal.
If she’d been cutting down this hard on all meals across the board, maybe it wasn’t the magic that was doing this. Maybe she just needed someone to show her how much to eat.
“Come over. Please.” I reached for her hand, holding it gently in mine. Now that I’d seen all the way through the magic, her hand felt like a bag of loosely bound twigs. “I always cook a ridiculous amount of food.” I thought of something that might do the trick. “I double-dog dare you to try to eat more than me.”
Axel was always double-dog daring me to do stupid things, and from what he said—it’d been something that he and Tessa used to do all the time.
If she was the same girl, she wouldn’t be able to turn me down.
She looked up at me, biting her lip again. She was seriously considering it.
And then she pulled her hand free from mine to tug at her hair—pulling it down from her messy bun before slopping it back up.
There she was. My Tessa. She always messed with her hair when she was trying to make a decision.
“Please.” I gave her my best smile.
“Okay. But I’m warning you, I eat a lot. I can pay you back for all the food if you—”
What? “No.” That wasn’t happening. “You can’t pay me back.”
Her eyes widened, and she took a step back from me. “But I eat—”
I stepped closer to her. “And it’ll be my pleasure to feed you.” I cut off her protest. I wasn’t taking no for an answer. Not now.
I gave her another big smile that I hoped seemed genuine and not at all desperate. “Co
me over. Eat until you’re not hungry anymore. I swear you won’t shock me.”
She was chewing on her lip again, and I knew that she was about to agree. She just needed a little push.
I moved out of her way but followed her as she walked to her car. “What’s your number? I’ll text you.”
The gate to the garage creaked as it opened for another car to enter down the ramp, but I could hear her just fine as she listed it off. I typed it into my cell and texted her a simple “hello.”