The Reclaimed Rose (Annalise and Steven)

Chapter 187

Sasha grinned widely, showing off her perfect white teeth, and then went ahead and piled more food onto my plate.

Seeing that, Zane wasn't about to back down, either.

Before long, there was more and more food being piled onto my plate. It soon looked like a small tower.

I could see they were still trying to outdo each other, so I couldn't help but ask, "Do you two really have to play Jenga with food on my plate?"

That made Zane pause, but Sasha still wasn't satisfied and dropped two more pieces of meat onto my plate.

I laughed helplessly. "Do you think I can eat all of this?"

Sasha smiled encouragingly. "I believe in you. You can do it!"

I crushed her enthusiasm with a smile. "You can believe in me all you want, but I'm not turning into a bottomless pit!"

Zane calmly said, "You can ignore the food she gave you, but you'd better finish what I gave you."

Zane-the grown man-to show such a childish

they both reluctantly retrieved some of the food from my

ate, it was clear she still felt dissatisfied and hadn't given up. However, I shot

Sasha had backed down

...

frown crossing his face. With Jessica gone, he finally had the space to think-really think-about his feelings for

said he hated Annalise, but was

moments they shared. Nothing about it bothered him, not even

his

was about to take a moment to reflect-really think about whether, as his friends suggested,

It was Jessica.

and her cries of grievance came

he knew he had to be patient.

said, "I'm alone at

Annalise, a sudden pang hitting

Annalise had always seemed so stable and composed then, like she never let anything rattle her. In his mind, that had made her strong and independent. And that was

a

"Can I visit you