Read Online Love on the Ledge by Zoraida Cordova - Free Book Online Page B

I find cosmetic surgery, I’m oddly interested in the way he talks about it. “That’s the strangest thing I’ve heard all day.”
    The waitress sets down my guac on the table, and Xandro helps himself without asking. I want to remind him that the chips are made out of corn, but I decide not to.
    “Ever since I was little I loved to draw perfect faces.”
    I shove a giant helping of creamy guacamole into my mouth.
    “I’m not talking about the Golden Ratio or that symmetry bullshit, but more along the lines of helping people achieve the person they want to see when they look in a mirror. Everyone has that person. Though there are exceptions.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, I turn people away when I think they don’t need work. For instance, if you came into my office and wanted to change something about your face, I’d decline.”
    I’ve met surgeons who tell me I might want to shave a centimeter or so off the slight bump on the top of my nose, and maybe for a little while I believed it. In a weird way, Xandro is giving me a compliment.
    “Well, thank you for not taking my hard-earned money for something so frivolous.”
    He smiles. “I mean it, Sky. You are exceptionally beautiful. I have clients who would kill for your eyes. It’s a particular shade of green and gold. Your forehead is not too big or small. Your cheekbones are perfection and your jaw line is incredibly defined. Then there’s your lips. I could try a thousand times and not get the exact fullness of your lips. Your mother was right, you’re just as beautiful as I remember.”
    Part of me wants to take my face and put a paper bag over it. It’s not that I don’t think I’m attractive. It’s that I hate being analyzed. Still, since I’ve deprived myself of a shred of romance all summer, I can’t help but flutter all over. It has nothing to do with him. Words have a power all their own.
    “Thank you,” I say.
    “I’m just speaking the truth. My eyes are fixed on you.”
    “Why?”
    “You’re gorgeous. We come from the same origins. We have similar families. It seems like fate.”
    “I’m not looking for anything right now.”
    He leans over and places his hand on top of mine. “You might think so now, but I think you’ll change your mind.”
    Our food comes just in time because the fluttering just turned to panic. Xandro watches me eat with that infuriating smile across his face.
    “At least you’re doing something you like,” I tell him, trying to bring the conversation back to careers.
    “It’s the best of both worlds.”
    I can’t imagine how peeling back someone’s skin and shaving down their bones or injecting ass fat into lips is something to love, but to each their own.
    Then, he says the one thing I’ve been dreading since my mom shoved us into his red Maserati. “Your family tells me you’re recently single.”
    I chew my steak taco extra long, imagining the ways I could get back at them. Diuretic in their breakfast mimosas?
    “Yeah,” I say, sitting up straighter, as if better posture is the thing that’s going to make me look like I’m keeping my cool. I go through my catalogue of things to say, but this is a stranger. I don’t care if we crossed paths back in the day. I don’t care that my mother and family think he’s the best thing since sliced bread. Sliced bread isn’t even that good. “Things end.”
    “That’s bleak. Well, now that we’re neighbors again, we can go out and catch up again.”
    There’s nothing to catch up on because we were never really friends. “I’m going to be really busy planning the wedding and all.”
    “I’m sure you’ll have some downtime now that you’re not working,” he says. His confidence in asking me out makes my skin crawl. “Besides, didn’t you hear? I’m invited.”
    I want to order some more wine but I can feel the headache blooming at my temples, and that would only make him order another drink as well.
    “Your mom says you don’t have