Too close for my own good. I feel her breath on my skin, and when her eyes search my face, it’s almost like she’s caressing me with the tip of her finger. I stifle a shudder. When she’s steady, I move away.
“Still scowling,” she says.
I shake my head, not wanting to start on a rant.
“What?Talk to me,” she insists.
“Fine. I just don’t get you people from LA. Why can’t there be a banger tamale place here? Why does that automatically mean Maria should pick up and bring it to LA, where there are probably already a hundred good places to eat? Why can’t she do her thing here and have that be enough?”
Her eyes widen, and her mouth gapes like I’ve slapped her. I immediately feel guilty for sharing my pet peeve. “Forget it. My issue. Never mind.”
“I-I’m sorry. I never really thought of it that way.” Her forehead creases, and she seems upset, which was not my intention. The brash, lawyerly facade disappears, and she looks lost.
“It’s not your fault. Everyone thinks that way.” I want to kick myself for making her upset.
The creases disappear at least. She hobbles up from the bench to stand in front of me and looks up so our eyes meet. I prepare myself for some smart girl lecture about food culture or whatever. The woman seems to have an answer for everything.
“I don’t want to be ‘everyone.’ Thank you for giving me some perspective.”
It’s not what I’m expecting, not at all.
“Sure. No problem,” I grumble.
“And thank you for taking me to the clinic.” Tessa stands on the tiptoes of her one good leg and kisses me on the cheek. She almost topples over again like a fawn trying to learn to walk and forgetting she doesn’t know how. I grab her elbow and help her over to the one empty table on the patio and tell her not to worry about the menu. Meanwhile, my cheek feels like she’s seared it with a torch from one kiss.
I start to reconsider my commitment to one-and-done. Maybe we could be two-and-done.
“Trust me on this. I’ll order us a few things, and I promise you'll be happy.”
“Big stakes, cowboy. Okay, I’m going to trust you.”
“Cowboy?”
“You tell me. You wear the hat. You ride the horse. Looks like a cowboy to me.” She raises her eyebrows at me, and her blue eyes pin me like lasers. It's probably part of what makes her a good lawyer.
I roll my eyes, but I don’t hate the nickname. “Whatever.”
We’re at the front of the line, so I order my usual. They know exactly what that means, and I add a couple of extra sauces onto the plate so Tessa has options. In under a minute, the tamales are on a platter, which I take out to the table.
“This one has corn and cheese. I know it sounds boring, but it's like street corn with elote seasoning. Fucking delicious.”
I point at the next one. “This one is basic carnitas, but Maria raises the animals humanely, and I swear it makes for better meat. The other one is chicken, pasture-raised, and this one has a mole sauce that’s the kind of nirvana people write poems about.”
When I look up, Tessa is grinning at me like a little kid who’s been given frosted donuts for breakfast by a devious uncle while her parents are out of town. It’s a smile worth all of the pain-in-the-ass aspects of this woman.
“So in brief, you like it here.” The smile turns to laughter.
“What? Why’s that funny?” I ask.
“I've just never seen somebody so delighted over a plate of food before.”
“Really?” I ask. “Then you haven't been eating with the right people, or you haven't been eating the right food.” I point at the plate. I want her to try everything before I dig in.
Tessa picks up a fork and stabs a chunk of the mole and pops it into her mouth. Immediately, her face dissolves into a mask of pleasure that brings back every fond memory of her lying beneath me. A part of me wants to sweep the food right off the table and see if the real thing lives up to the memory.
But I have self-control, so no.
I pick up a fork and take a bite of the chicken, dipping it in a healthy coating of salsa. It’s so damned good. I watch her take careful bites from our shared tamales, dip them in sauce, and pop them into her mouth. Each time, she closes her eyes as shechews and shakes her head like she can’t believe food could taste this good.
