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That caught me by surprise, and this time I had been drinking. It resulted in a spray of alcohol. Jonah was sitting in the splash zone, getting the brunt of it.
“Shit, I’m so sorry,” I said, apologizing and laughing as I got up with a napkin and went over to his side. I started to clean off Jonah’s shirt—thankfully there were no stains—and then softly cleaned his neck. And some was on his chin. And his cheeks. And then I realized I was standing next to him, while he sat, his face around level with my crotch, his head tilted up at me and his eyes on mine. Something in them seemed to reach out to me, like he was attempting to pull me in with his stare.
I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
Instead of fumbling for them, I went back to my seat. “Sorry,” I said again. Jonah was chuckling, his tongue stretching to the side of his lips where there was still a drop of alcohol.
“It’s okay,” he said, “I’d been wanting to try your drink for a while. Guess I should have just asked instead of willed you to spit it onto my face.”
Another laugh, both of us at a complete ease. “It’s a mango martini. It’s good.”
“Very,” Jonah said, nodding, his eyes practically glowing. “So, before you conveniently distracted me… I was asking about your dating life.”
“Ah, that’s right.” I set the drink down on the table. “Smooth and smoldering, I think you said?”
“I might have.”
“Well, after today, you’re also a smooth and smoldering detective,” I pointed out. Jonah smiled, that blush on his face. He took another drink.
“Your dating life?” he reiterated when he put his glass down.
“Right, right. My dating life is, how can I describe it… um, let’s see. A mess? Fucked-up beyond all repair? I’m kind of lone-wolfing life at this point. I’ve dated a couple of guys long-term, and by long-term I’m talking three months tops, but no one’s ever been able to keep things rolling with me. I’ve got no idea why, but I’m okay with it. I didn’t exactly have the picture-perfect family life growing up, and I think that’s kept me from settling for any guy with a dick who walks into my life. I know very well how wrong relationships can go.” It was my turn to look out at the street, full of passers-by and only getting fuller, even as the night grew longer. Clubs in Miami didn’t close until something like six in the morning, so the streets would probably never be empty.
“All right, I’ll counter you there.” He was grinning like someone who had gotten the upper hand in a duel. “Haven’t you thought about the flip side? About how amazing relationships can go?”
“Yeah, the good ones,” I said, a bitter acid in my bite.
“Obviously. I’m not saying go out and put a ring on the first dude you see. But… I don’t know. I’m a big romantic, obviously. I think there’s someone out there for everyone, as naïve and dumb as it sounds. You should keep your eyes open. Date with the intent of finding something, not somebody.”
Wow, Jonah wasn’t lying when he said he read a ton with phrases like those in his repertoire. “And you?” I asked.
“Me what?”
I cocked my head. “Did you find your one? In Wendy?”
“I… I don’t think I have, no.” He looked at me then, something different in those crystalline blue eyes of his. “I haven’t found that person yet, no.”
“Well,” I said, smirking. “Keep your eyes open.”
“And on my girlfriend?” His forehead wrinkled, lips thinned. “I don’t know… I’m going to have to talk to her. Maybe there is something we can work on. Something that’ll revive that dead spark of ours.”
With the way Jonah spoke about his girlfriend, I couldn’t help but wonder if the spark was ever alive to begin with.
We talked some more about Wendy before Jonah switched topics. He tried digging a little into my history, but I was much more interested in learning about him than sharing about me. There was an impenetrable wall put up around me when it came to my family and the past I had endured with them, and it was a wall that had been constructed for good reason. I wasn’t always so guarded, but after being burned bad once before, I had learned it was best to keep as much of myself to myself as I could.
Jonah seemed to have picked up on my discomfort. He changed topics to a recent superhero movie, and we chatted some more about our mutual love for the X-Men comics. After deciding on our favorite members of the team (mine was Iceman; his was Psylocke) and talking about hypothetical powers we’d have ourselves (mine was impenetrable skin and his was telekinesis), we decided to wrap up and pay our bill.
