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In spite of the cold I took a seat at one of the sidewalk tables. It felt like a slab of ice under my butt. I shivered,but stuck it out.
"Hey, Loco Girl!"
Shout out "Hey, Gorgeous!" or "Einstein," and I don't budge. But this one had me at "Loco." Go figure. I looked across the sidewalk to see Daniel's face, so much like Frankie's, framed in the window of his Jeep. I felt a sad little tug in my chest.
"You are aware it's only forty degrees out there,aren't you?" he asked. I shrugged. "Meeting someone?"
"No," I admitted.
"Then get in.Your hands look like wax. It's seriously creepy."
I looked down at the hand gripping the blindingly cheerful cup.He was right.
He also got out to open the passenger's-side door for me. I was a little charmed, until he pointed at my partially eaten cheesesteak in its wilted paper wrapper. "You are not bringing that thing into my car. It's an abomination."
I eyed the cigarette he'd dropped in the gutter. He did his teeth-baring thing. I tossed my cold meal in the trash, knowing I wouldn't have eaten it anyway. The inside of the Jeep wasn't all that much warmer than out. "Here." Daniel took off his black leather jacket and held it out for me. It was heavy and smelled a little bit like a burned cookie. It went on over my own coat; the sleeves went past my fingertips. "You look like frozen-"
"Don't say it," I muttered as I settled into the battered seat.
"You have no idea what I was going to say," he shot back, grinning. "Something rotten in the state of Marino?"
"And you ask that because...?"
"Really? It's four in the afternoon, and instead of being with Sadie and my brother or at home, eating something colorful, you're sitting outside by yourself here.Not exactly rocket science.
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