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"So where are we headed?" I ask.
"My friend lives in Beacon Hill. But I was thinking we could grab a bite to eat before we head there," he says casually.
I side eye him. Grabbing a bite to eat sounds awfully like a date. I open my mouth to object, but he lays a hand on my thigh, rendering me speechless for a moment.
"It's just a bite to eat, Juliet. Don't overthink it," he says firmly.
I take a deep breath and resolve to stop acting so crazy.
"Sounds good," I tell him.
We pull up to a steakhouse called Abe and Louie's that I had heard about, but never dreamed I would eat at due to the cost. The inside of the restaurant makes me feel out of place in my second-hand dress and my scuffed heels. It's far too fancy for a girl like me.
The restaurant's dim lighting, cherry wood interior, and antique decor reminds me of Landon. He always had an eye for fine things, and this was just the place I could imagine my beautiful mobster holding clandestine meetings.
"Juliet," Liam whispers, bringing me back to the present.
I smile at him blankly.
"Where did you go?" he asks.
"Just admiring the decor," I tell him.
He stares at me for a long moment, and I feel like he's stripping me bare. Like he can see all the cracks and broken pieces inside of me.
"Ready to eat?" he asks, flashing me a smile that makes me feel more than it should.
Looking over the menu, I want it all. I had always eaten well with all my men, and my stomach growls thinking of the chance it has to finally taste some steak again. I have eaten far too much ramen in this life.
The waiter comes to the table, and I rattle off an order that I'm sure has Liam gaping. I sure hope he's paying because my meal isn't cheap. Making me like him even more, when I turn to look at him he doesn't make a comment or a weird face. In fact, he turns to the waiter and orders the biggest steak on the menu before turning towards me nonplussed.
"This is my favorite place to get a good steak," he tells me. "I've been coming here for years."
I just nod, and the silence feels awkward.
"So tell me about yourself," Liam says, going back to the old standby of all first dates. Not that this is a date. Definitely not a date.
"Not much to say," I tell him. "Just another waitress trying to pay my bills."
"I'm sure there's a lot more to you than that," he comments, peering at me intently.
I shrug my shoulders at him non-committedly. There's definitely a lot more to me than that, a whole host of lifetimes and loves that could fill a few dozen books.
"I'll go then, since you so politely asked," he tells me jokingly. I stick out my tongue at him childishly, and immediately want to punch myself. How dorky can I get?
"I'm the only son of the most wonderful woman in the world who single handedly raised me after my father left us high and dry. As I told you before, we lived in the poor part of Boston. After graduating from college, I started a business with my high school friends and got both myself and my Mom out. I enjoy the Sox, the Patriots, and long walks on the beach with gorgeous women," he says with a perfectly straight face. "Your turn."
I gape at him and think of what I could say. Just as I'm about to say something extremely lame like "I'm well-traveled," the waiter comes with our food.
It all looks more amazing than anything I've had lately, and I dig in. I scarf it down like it's the last good meal I'll have, which is a very possible thing since in my last life I was living off whatever animal I managed to kill. I'm pretty sure that I don't look up until my plate is all the way clean. I pat my mouth with my cloth napkin and look up to grab my glass. I freeze when I see that Liam is looking at me in shock. He looks so off guard that for some reason it makes me burst into laughter, the kind of laughter that comes from deep inside of you. The kind of laughter I didn't think I would experience again.
Somewhere in the middle of my laughter, Liam joins me. Our laughter over my ridiculousness is just what we needed to break the awkwardness that's been present since he picked me up.
Liam still has half of his enormous steak to finish, but he insists that I need to try it, along with the five extra sides that he orders once he sees that I'm basically starving.
One thing that I've gotten very good at over the years is making people talk about themselves instead of asking about my past. I pepper him with questions and find out that he was being modest when he talked about graduating from college. He actually graduated valedictorian of his class at Harvard, and his company is already valued at almost a billion dollars.
"What exactly does your company do?" I ask.
