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“Maybe we should come back.” She shakes the skirt of her dress. “I’m not really dressed for spaghetti and marinara sauce.”
“It’ll wash out.”
She frowns again. “I don’t think this is the washable type, and it’s my friend Lauren’s favorite. I don’t need special treatment.”
“If you spill, we’ll get the same dress remade or we’ll buy Lauren a new dress.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. Whatever you want, you get. Whatever you don’t like—” I mimic the host’s previous action.
“We throw away?” She laughs.
Or kill.
three
MILANA
This date is going well. Too well, in fact. I might have been wrong about those dating app things. I’ll be the first to admit that I might have been a bit judgmental. J is sweet, and I don’t foresee him kidnapping me or sending me a dick pic. For the first time in my life, the idea of someone sending me one doesn’t make me cringe. Not that I’m going to do anything with it.
“I’m not sleeping with you. I don’t do that kind of thing,” I blurt out.
“Should I come back?” I jerk my head up to see the server is standing there. I can feel my cheeks getting warmer by the second.
“Let the chef pair the wines for us.” J’s eyes stay trained on me. “If that works for you.” I nod my head, happy that the restaurant is dimly lit. It will help to hide the fact that my whole face is now red. I wish I could stuff the words back into my mouth.
“You don’t like sleeping?” he teases me when the server is away from the table.
“I’m used to not sharing a bed.” Lauren’s might be twenty feet from mine, but we still have separate beds. “But you know what I mean.” I wiggle my eyebrows.
Could I be a bigger dork? I can’t say sex. Just put it out there like a normal adult. You know, those people who have boundaries and make them clear. Lauren and I don’t really have those.
“Enlighten me.” His teasing smile only grows. I roll my eyes at him. I’m surprised at how comfortable I feel with him. I’m being playful and teasing back.
“I’m not like, you know—” I drop my voice, “gonna give it up tonight.” I want to make myself perfectly clear.
“Tonight,” he repeats. The one word rolls over his tongue, making me question myself. I suppose we could have sex. He’s handsome, and a girl can’t be a virgin forever. No! Get it together. That’s not happening.
“Or tomorrow,” I add quickly for my own sake really.
I start to tell him that it’s never going to happen, in fact, but the server is back with our drinks and a plate filled with tomatoes and mozzarella with some balsamic drizzle all over it. He places a basket of freshly sliced bread and butter down too. “Okay, maybe the day after tomorrow. But that’s not a guarantee,” I tease, but J doesn’t laugh. His attention is on the server now.
“That is all,” he tells the server to make him depart as quickly as he showed up. “Just so we’re clear, Milana.” He pauses to pick up a piece of bread and starts to butter it. “I don’t expect anything from you tonight or tomorrow.” He brings the piece of buttered bread to my mouth. I open and take the bite. “Sexually,” he adds as I chew.
“But you expect something else?”
“A second date.”
“We’re not even done with the first.” This one has only begun. It could still go terribly.
“There'll be a second,” he says with such confidence. A confidence I wish I could possess myself. To be so self-assured. It’s hard to argue with that when he then brings a bite of the mozzarella and tomato to my mouth. Him feeding me is not only sexy as hell for some reason, but I can’t make a mess either. It’s a double bonus.
I close my eyes and savor the sweetness of the tomato and the tang of the balsamic as they hit my tongue. I can’t help the moan that escapes my mouth. I swear I’m in first date heaven. The gods have smiled down upon me for once.
“Maybe I’ve been missing out on this whole dating thing,” I admit.
J’s hand pauses before he gives me another bite. “Is the app on your phone?” I lean in and steal my bite before I launch into how I got set up on a date with him. “So the app is on your friend's phone?”
“Yeah, she didn’t trust me with it. Thought I’d cancel. What about you? Why are you on a dating app? You don’t seem like the type. But I guess I don’t know the type. Lauren didn’t let me do the whole swipe thing. Isn’t that the thing? You swipe one way if you’re interested and swipe another if uninterested.”
