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“Doing what?” The scent of fresh-brewed coffee wafted in her direction. It smelled pretty good, but it still didn’t seem worth the trouble.
He shrugged, leaning his hip against the counter as he cradled his coffee. “Some kind of engineering-type stuff? Like you do.”
She shook her head. “I’m a mechanical design engineer. Jinny’s a network systems engineer.”
He frowned as he blew on his coffee “What’s the difference?”
“Ask her about it,” Esther said. “Where do her parents live? What do they do for a living?”
Jonathan looked blank.
“Does she have any brothers or sisters? Where’d she go to college? Where’d she grow up?”
“I know this one,” he said. “Irvine. See, I grew up in Newport Beach, which isn’t that far—”
“You’re talking about yourself again. We’re talking about Jinny now, remember?” God, no wonder Jinny hadn’t been impressed.
He pressed his lips together. “Right.”
“Next time, ask her about herself and then shut up long enough to let her answer.”
He walked past her, carrying his coffee into the living room, and sank down on his ugly plaid couch. “I’m not very good at this stuff.”
Esther chose not to sit down. “What stuff?”
His eyes flicked up at her and then away. “Talking to women. I get nervous and can’t think of anything to say. Then I end up trying to fill the dead space by rambling about something lame.”
She felt a stab of sympathy. Making small talk on a date with a near stranger wasn’t her favorite activity either. It was part of the reason she didn’t do a lot of dating.
“That’s okay,” she told him. “You just need to plan ahead. Make a list of questions in advance and memorize them.”
“Like what?”
She ticked them off on her fingers. “What did she want to be when she grew up? What kind of music does she like? What’s her favorite book? What’s her favorite movie—and whatever she says, don’t argue with her or try to tell her she’s wrong.”
He looked up at her. “What if she is wrong though?”
“There’s no such thing as a wrong answer to a question of personal preference.”
His eyebrows twitched, and the corner of his mouth pulled to one side. “There kind of is though.”
Esther was not going to get into a philosophical debate, even if she sort of agreed with him. “Not for the purposes of this date. Do you need to be writing all this down?”
He scowled at her over the top of his coffee mug. “No, I’ve got it.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.” He sipped his coffee. “Have you looked at the script yet?”
“Not yet,” she lied. “It’s been a really busy week.”
His tongue ran over his upper lip, and Esther remembered what Jinny had said about him being a good kisser. He did have a nice mouth under that beard, now that she was studying him up close. Supple lips that were the exact right amount of full—
“So when do you think you’ll have something for me? I need to have something to show my adviser in a few weeks, and also I need to know you’re going to fulfill your end of the bargain if I’m going to keep going on these dates.”
Esther dragged her eyes away from his mouth. “Can I have a week?”
He didn’t look happy about it, but he didn’t argue. “Yeah, okay.”
