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My jaw nearly hits the floor.
“Wait... two thousand? As intwo thousand peopleare waiting for a reservation here?”
“Apparently.”
“What did you do to get a damn table?” I ask. “Drop your family name into the conversation with the host?”
“Something like that,” August replies with a wink.
“Oh, that’s bad of you.”
“Look, there are a lot of issues and problems that come with having my last name,” he explains. “I might as well use its advantages.”
“I just can’t believe I shot ahead of two thousand people,” I remark, shaking my head. “It feels like I’ve won a race I didn’t know I was participating in.”
“I forgot how funny you are, Emma,” August says.
“There’s a lot more jokes behind my pretty face,” I remark slyly.
August chuckles at that.
“Well, slow down your horses. Let’s look at the menu and see if it truly is a place worth beating a small army to get in to.”
We browse through the menu. It doesn’t even have the prices listed beside any of the choices – a real mark of somewhere very, very expensive. Even I’m not too working class to understand that. I’m just glad I ain’t the one paying.
The server comes to take our order and, when they leave, August comes in with the first proper question of the night, directed straight at me from across the table.
“How’s your life been?” he asks.
“In what way?” I ask warily.
“Well, I haven’t seen you in years,” he says. “How has life been since I last saw you?”
I smile.
“It’s been shit,” I retort.
“Oh, really?”
“What else do you think, August? I am a cleaner at a hospital. Look, I don’t want to be negative, but truthfully, things have been an...uphill battlethese last few years.”
“You were always an optimist, though,” he remarks. “Always ambitious.”
“Yeah, I was.”
“What about those amazing dreams you always had?” August asks. “Do you still want to perform Swan Lake on stage like you told me over and over and over?”
I sigh.
“I’m beginning to realize that was just a fantasy,” I reply. “A runaway teenage dream.”
“You could still make it happen,” he says softly. “Don’t ever give up on your dreams.”
I play with the corner of the table linen, avoiding his gaze.
“Thanks.”
“I mean it. Don’t give up, Emma. You’re talented. I remember your dancing. I remember how amazing you were. It would be a shame to keep it locked away.”
