Chapter 24. I Don't Love You

Both seated inside a different restaurant from last night, Ben watched Belle devour the dish in front of her. He couldn’t stop smiling because it had been so long since he sat with someone, a woman who was willing to be as free as Belle was as she ate the spaghetti she ordered.

She didn’t even remember he was there with her; the food was delicious, and she was hungry, that was all she knew as she ate on.

She sucked in a strand of spaghetti into her mouth even though her lips were pressed together. Some spaghetti sauce stained her lips when she did that, so she reached for the table napkins in the middle of the table, and that was when she remembered Ben was sitting with her.

Her right hand was on the napkins like she was frozen. She looked up slowly, and he was smiling, that genuine smile that she had noticed was rare and scarce to the public. She was grateful th