All Chapters of Too Late To Love Me : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Osborne's POV"You're serious.""I'm serious."Vanessa pulled a pen from behind her ear, grabbing a napkin from the stack beside the register. "You want her number because you're worried about her health.""That's exactly it.""As a friend.""As a friend.""Sure." She wrote the digits down slowly, clearly dragging it out just to watch me sit there. "You know, most guys worried about a sick coworker they met once usually just ask how she's doing through me. They don't ask for a direct line.""I'm not most guys.""No," Vanessa said, sliding the napkin across the counter. "You're apparently the guy who comes back two nights running to check on a bartender he's spoken to for a combined total of maybe an hour.""Goodnight, Vanessa.""Goodnight, friend."I didn't use the number that night. Or the next. I told myself there wasn't any rush, that calling too quickly would look strange, desperate even, and I wasn't desperate. Ari had a boyfriend. She was probably home right now, curled up with

Gerald's POV"I'm telling you, Gerald, she's got the most banging body I've worked with in years." Priscilla's voice crackled through my phone the day before, practically vibrating with excitement. "You're going to love her. Wait till you see her in the pieces.""You keep saying that about every model.""I mean it this time."I walked into the studio the next morning expecting another stranger, another face I'd forget the name of by lunch. Instead, I stopped dead just inside the door, staring at someone standing beneath the lights in the first look, already posed with another model, a mask covering half her face, hiding one eye.Ari.For a full second I genuinely wondered if I'd walked into the wrong studio.Her eyes found mine across the room, widening briefly before she caught herself, composure settling back into place almost as quickly as it had slipped. It was obvious, watching that reaction, that she hadn't known this was my studio any more than I'd known she modeled."Gerald!"

Gerald's POV"You're working from the dining table." I lingered in the doorway, genuinely struggling not to make something of it. "You never work from the dining table. I didn't even know you remembered where it was.""I know." Osborne didn't look up, his fingers still moving across the keyboard, the glow of the screen casting sharp shadows across his face."Should I be concerned? Is the office on fire? Did someone finally replace you with a more efficient robot?""There's a project taking up most of my time right now." His voice came out flat, distracted, clearly not interested in the joke. "That's all it is."I almost pushed further, almost asked what kind of project required this much focused, bleary-eyed intensity at eleven at night, surrounded by three empty coffee cups and a laptop screen he kept angling slightly away from me every time I shifted closer. But something about the tightness in his jaw told me whatever answer I'd get wouldn't be the real one, so I let it go, grabbin

Gerald's POVI didn't go back to the bar.I told myself there wasn't any point, watching a woman who already had someone, letting myself get pulled further into something that had no business existing in the first place. Instead, I buried myself in work, staying late at the studio, catching up on everything I'd let slip over the past few weeks.It helped, mostly. Until it didn't."Gerald, we've got a problem." Gia appeared in my doorway three days later, her expression already apologetic. "Simone just called. Family emergency, she can't make today's shoot.""We don't have a replacement lined up?""Not on this short notice."I pulled up my contacts, scrolling through the usual list of models I could call for emergencies, none of them available, all of them already booked elsewhere or out of town. My thumb hovered over the screen, and before I could fully talk myself out of it, I'd already dialed."Hey!" Ari's voice came through bright, fully recovered, none of the exhaustion from weeks

Gerald's POVI turned in my chair to see what she was looking at.Alex stood near the reception desk, still in the same easy confidence he'd worn at the studio. A woman stood beside him in a fitted red dress, her hand resting on his arm like it had been there before. She laughed at something he said and leaned in closer. He didn't move away.I turned back to Ari, ready for anything. Tears, anger, maybe a plate going across the room.She slid her hand out from under mine, picked up her fork, and twirled another bite of pasta."Ari.""Hm?""That's him. Alex.""I know who it is, Gerald." She put the bite in her mouth and chewed like it was the most interesting thing she'd ever tasted."Do you want to leave?"She laughed, short and bitter. "Leave? I've waited years to eat pasta in a place like this. I'm finishing it.""You don't have to pretend with me.""I'm not pretending. I'm eating." She took a sip of water. "It's really good, by the way. You should try yours before it gets cold."I l