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He felt bands of jealousy squeeze around his heart. “Oh? And what is a date with Mikey Jones usually like, then?”
She thought about it. “I’ve mostly dated boys I was friends with first.” She shrugged, then, looked into his eyes. “You really want to hear this?”
It would kill him to hear, kill him not to. “Yes.”
“Well, I guess a movie. A walk along the pier. Dinner – but not somewhere like this. Maybe tacos or a pizza slice. One time I went on a first date with a guy to a carnival. We ate Pluto pups and I threw up on him on the roller coaster. Never heard from him after that.”
“Squeamish fool,” Loucas said under his breath.
“What did you say?”
“I asked if any of these lazy men, too lazy and simple to properly romance you, ever turned into serious relationships.”
She let out a small laugh. “Not everyone has your financial resources or, erm, experience, at their disposal.”
“Is my experience going to be a problem for you, Arnaki? Is it truly something you cannot move past?”
The candle flickered between them. She swallowed. “No.” Her voice was a whisper. “I’m leaving in six days. I’m not going to be here long enough for it to matter.”
He forced himself not to react.
“I’m glad. Because I cannot dip into the past and undo historical liaisons, no matter how much I would wish it, if it would please you.”
She sighed. “You have an incredible ability to make anything sound romantic as heck, d’you know that?”
She had the ability to make him recite love poetry. It was wholly new to a man who kept an amount of personal distance between himself and his lovers, emotionally.
“So that is a no, to my question?”
“What question?”
He paused while three waiters swooped in and cleared their table. Each had a set task. One cleared the sorbet cups, one refilled wine glasses, and the other used a flat bladed knife to scrape any errant crumbs into a small stainless steel vessel.
“Serious relationships?”
“None,” she promised.
“How is that possible?”
“What do you mean?” She queried, sipping her wine again.
“I can’t imagine any man easily letting you go.”
“Careful, Loucas,” she interrupted. “You’re getting into heart break territory now.”
He frowned. “I only mean that I see you as the exact opposite to me. Where I shy away from any hint of commitment and permanence; any emotional ties make me run a mile, you seem built for the whole shebang. Marriage, babies, happily ever after. White picket fence. Maybe a horse. Certainly a puppy dog that you would call something like Spot.”
She giggled. “You really think that’s my style? Shows how little you know me. I’m terrified of horses since I was thrown off one as a child, and I’m allergic to dogs. Which is sad, because I love them. As for marriage and babies, I just haven’t met someone that made me want that.”
“You are only twenty six. There’s still plenty of time.”
“I know.” She smiled. “I don’t really think about it. Work takes up so much of my time. And then, there are my brothers. Four men who interrogate any man who dares to want me in their life.” She grimaced. “They’re good guys, but they don’t seem to realized I’m a woman now.”
“And such a woman,” Loucas agreed on an exhalation of breath.
Her breath caught in her throat. Her lungs were burning with the exertion of inflating and deflating themselves. “Loucas,” she ran her hand along his thigh beneath the white linen of the table cloth. “I don’t need anything else to eat. Can we go now?”
Relief spread through his body. He was standing before she’d finished her question.
