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“Your waiter will be right with you,” she said.
Bernadette immediately turned to me with a look of curiosity on her face. “You were saying something about a job?” she prompted.
“Let’s enjoy dinner a bit first, and then we’ll talk business,” I promised.
“Okay,” she sighed, but didn’t argue the point any further. I was glad of that, as I didn’t know how long I would have been able to hold out against her if she really asked for me to tell her what was going on with the job. When it came to Bernadette, I just couldn’t find it in myself to refuse her.
Our waiter arrived then with our menus and a smile. “Let me know if you have any questions,” he said. “Can I get your drink orders to start?”
“Yes, we’ll take a bottle of this one.” Not wanting Bernadette to know how expensive the wine that I was getting for the two of us was, I pointed to one of the more expensive ones on the menu. The waiter smiled and nodded.
“A very good choice,” he said with a nod.
“I’ll also take a glass of water, no ice please,” Bernadette said with a sweet little smile.
“We can certainly do that.” As the waiter smiled back at her I felt something that might have been jealousy boil up within my chest. I didn’t like the look he was giving her; couldn’t he at least give us the courtesy of assuming we were on a date?
But also …we weren’t. And I had no right to control the people that Bernadette was interested in, or who showed interest in her, even as her best friend. It just wasn’t my place.
The waiter left, and the two of us were alone again at that romantic little table with some decisions to make regarding what we wanted to eat for the night.
“This all looks so good,” Bernadette said as she browsed through her menu. “I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to choose.”
“If you want to try a few things, I could always send you home with leftovers.”
She shook her head, but there was a shy smile gracing her face. “Oh no, I couldn’t do that. I’m already letting you do enough by buying me dinner. I can’t imagine how expensive the bill would be if I sampled a few dishes.”
“You know money is no object, right?” I reached across to grip her hand, but she just looked down at her lap.
“I know. I just feel bad sometimes, you know?”
I laughed. “You don’t have to, but I guess I do understand just a bit.”
“It’s not about ‘have to’ or ‘don’t have to.’ Sometimes it’s just the way of things. I feel bad if I let you buy me too much, and you saying that I don’t have to isn’t going to change that.”
“I know, but I have to at least try.” I gave her a wink. “Otherwise who would I be, letting the beautiful woman across from me not know the joys of everything she wanted to try on the menu?” I took a second to consider the situation, then added, “Tell you what, if there are two things you would like to try, I’ll order one and you can order the other and then we can split them both.”
“That sounds lovely, thank you,” she said, with a smile that made me want to order everything on the menu, just for her.
I was glad that I had ordered wine for the two of us, because it looked like I was going to need it.
Our waiter came back shortly with our wine and the glass of water for Bernadette. He then took our orders and the two of us enjoyed our wine and some light conversation while waiting for our food to come.
When it did, we were both hungry and ready to dig in.
As we shared the two dishes that we had ordered, I couldn’t help but think that if we were a couple, I would be leaning across the table right now with a bite on my fork to feed her; asking her what she thought as I stared at her with a dreamy smile.
But to do that would be entirely inappropriate given our circumstances, and I wasn’t about to cross that boundary. Not before she gave me some indication that she felt the same way about me. I was too invested in our friendship to ruin it over some silly longing in my chest.
Once we both had a fair amount to eat, I turned to her with a smile and raised my wine glass to my lips. As I set it down, I asked her, “Shall we talk business now? Or would you like to enjoy your food a little longer?”
Bernadette set down her utensils, leaning forward with an eager look on her face. “Let’s talk business.”
I smiled, holding back a laugh at how cute she was like that. “All right, business it is then. You see, I was thinking about how best I could help you with your situation, and then I realized I know of an opening for a position that would at least help for the time being, in terms of supporting yourself. Pays pretty well, too.”
“You do?”
“Yes. In fact, it’s actually working with my company in an assistant or secretarial type of position. I know it’s not exactly ideal, but I figured it would do until you found something that was suited to your major.”
