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I smirk, finding her eyes again to reassure that I'm not angry. “Well, that’s what she said. It's supposed to bring me good luck.”
“Oh.”
“You see that stone… that's a ruby. I know it doesn't look like much, but somebody made this ring, maybe hundreds of years ago. It's the sort of thing that would've signified a very important person. Probably the best craftsmanship they had at the time. But now, it just looks kind of cloudy and dark. But I knew I wanted it… it's kind of beautiful.”
“I just wanted to get to know you better.” Her cheeks flame.
“Oh, Kita, I want to get to know you better too. I have not been able to stop thinking about you at all. Take the ring. It’s yours.”
She gasps slightly. “Really? You're not mad?”
“How could I be mad? Seems you were meant to find it.”
She blushes fiercely, her hand drifting up to press against her cheek as her smile widens. I can see how happy I've made her, and it makes me want to give her more things.
The waitress comes and goes, then brings back our food in short order. I barely notice anyone else in the restaurant anymore. All I can see is Kita.
After we order, the sommelier brings us wine list to sample. After squinting at her dubiously, he pours her a glass of a fairly lovely Chardonnay. She sips that delicately, her throat instantly flushing.
“You like it?”
She nods. “It's very good.”
We talk about all kinds of things, the conversation moving swiftly from topic to topic. As time goes on, she opens up more and more, telling me about trips to Russia, her early life with her mother, training as a gymnast until injuries threatened her career. How sad she was to leave it all behind.
“Ah, I knew it.”
She puts down her fork and knife, chewing slowly. “What did you know?”
“The first time I saw you, I knew you were a gymnast. I could tell by the way you move your ankles.”
She squints at me playfully. “The way I moved my ankles? Are you telling me I do something weird with my ankles?”
I sort of get a little giddy, trying to hold back my laughter. In a way, that is sort of ridiculous thing to say. But in another way, it's totally the truth.
“Yes. I can truthfully tell you that the first thing that I fell in love with was your ankles, Kita.”
She sniffs, almost flinching at the word. Fell in love with. Yes, I guess I did just say that out loud.
But I want to just kind of breeze past that. I don't want to frighten her off. Someone her age can't possibly know how easy it is to know when you found something. She will take more convincing, and I'm sure I'm up to the task.
“Okay, tell me a secret,” she says playfully. She wrinkles her nose adorably.
“A secret?” I say, bristling automatically and then reminding myself that she's not any kind of military threat and I can relax. “What kind of secret?”
“Oh, any kind,” she replies breezily.
“Is this some kind of test?”
She winks. “Of course it is some kind of test.”
I shake my head, amazed at how thoroughly I'm enjoying her banter.
“Okay… Let's see. I have… not been with a woman in five years.”
Her eyes widen. “Really?”
Suddenly I'm a little shy. Was that too much information?
