Tucker sighed. “You’re right. I’m a creature of habit, more so than I ever gave myself credit for, it seems. I just like what I like.” He shook his head as he continued to drive. “The thing is, I really did take you there because I thought YOU would enjoy it too. It was the first time I’d ever thought about whether or not the woman I brought with me would like it.”

I rolled my eyes, because that just seemed a little insulting, if not to me then to the various women who were apparently an afterthought to him. I didn’t know how to wrap my head around that. Even Carlos, as my fuck buddy, was more than an afterthought. If we had ever agreed to go to dinner, I would have made sure it was somewhere he would have enjoyed the food. Not because I wanted more from him, but because I respected him enough as a person to want to see that his experience was a good one. I couldn’t fathom just going through the motions and not caring about what the other person thought. Then again, it was a very popular, fine-dining establishment, so I doubted those other women went unimpressed.

“I know what you’re dealing with, and I don’t want you to think this was all just some fucking joke to me, Mina. It wasn’t. I already explained to you why I’ve done certain things, all the women I’ve been seen with, in the recent past. You need to understand that I never lied to any of them. They knew what they were getting with me.”

“I guess that’s part of the trouble,” I admitted. “I have no clue what I’m getting with you, or why you’re even trying anymore.”

“I know and that’s my fault for not making it clearer, and for being stupid enough to take you to the same place where I took everyone else.” He shook his head again, as if even he couldn’t believe how idiotic he’d been. Then again, maybe I was just projecting my own feelings on him about that.

“Are you going to turn around at some point? I spoke to you, so technically, we don’t have to continue this drive to nowhere.”

Tucker laughed. “Maybe we do. It seems to be the only way to get you to speak to me tonight.” He sighed. “Rightly so, I get it.”

“Tucker, this thing between us, it is complicated, it started on the wrong foot from the very beginning, and maybe there’s just no salvaging it. I understand the problems you were having and why you jumped on this situation and went through with it. You now know why I did the same. We both had issues that drove us to make an incredibly rash decision that we might not have made under normal circumstances. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to work out for us in a healthy, real way?”

“Maybe, we’re letting those past rash decisions dictate the fact that it won’t work, instead of actually trying to move past all of it.” I nodded because he was most likely right about that.