Page 24 of Melt His Heart

“Your waiter will be right with you in a minute.” She says before nodding and heading off.

“These are for you,” Carson says, giving me the flowers and pulling my chair out. Right, so we’re definitely not on a date? I sit down and put the flowers in my lap. Carson sits on the other side of the table.

“Thanks…” I mumble, my eyes softening, looking down at the flowers. It’s the most beautiful bouquet of alstroemeria I’ve ever seen. I fiddle with the bow that’s wrapped around the stems.

“You can never have enough flowers besides…I really am sorry, Julian.” He says, snapping me out of my trance of everything that’s happening right now.

“No, Carson, it’s.. It’s honestly ok. We’re both athletes, I should have known…How busy we can get. I didn’t mean to be clingy.” I say, looking away, embarrassed.

“Clingy?” He chuckles, “That’s the last word I would use to describe you.”

And how would you describe me?

Is what I would ask if I wasn’t already running too hot right now.

“Anyways, so what do you like? Red or white? Sauce and wine,” He asks before I can get too lost in my thoughts.

“Oh…I usually like white sauces, red wines.”

“I figured that. You seem like the red wine type.” He laughs.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I scoff.

“It fits your broody moods.”

“Broody? Well, we can’t all be as unserious as you, I suppose.” I retort, rolling my eyes and settling the flowers down next to me in the booth.

“I suppose not.” He says, imitating my accent, “The world would implode if we did.” We both share a laugh at this.

The waiter comes over and introduces himself; he asks what drinks we would like to start with. I bite my lip nervously, pausing.

“I’ll have prosecco, and he’ll have your best cabernet sauvignon,” Carson says firmly.

“Of course, sir.” The waiter says before heading off to put the ticket in.

Warmth pools in my stomach while he scans the rest of the menu. I guess that does it for me; learning a lot about myself these days.

“Oh, I meant to ask, do you speak Korean?”

I noticed we only converse in English.

“Yeah.” Carson chuckles.

“You never speak it to me…” I mumble, shyly.

“Do you want me to? Sorry, it’s probably more comfortable for you, right?” Carson asks in Korean.

On second thought, maybe I shouldn’t have asked.

“Oh, don’t be sorry, I…Yeah, I was…I was just wondering, and I forgot to ask about it before.” I stammer back in Korean.

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah..” I say quietly, my cheeks hot. I think I like it way more than I should. As if I’ve never heard a man speaking our language before.

But it’s…Carson.

“I’ll speak it the rest of the night then.” He smirks.