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Floss picked up the menu, hiding behind it.
I opened my mouth to ask her what she liked to eat. Naturally, what actually came out was, "Are you allergic to anything?"
Fuck me.
Her head rose as she peered at me over the top of her menu. "Do you always open conversations like that? I did wonder about that form you sent me."
It was my turn to flush. I rubbed at the back of my neck. "Yeah. Sorry about that." I shut my mouth before anything else stupid fell out.
"You don’t date at all, do you?" Floss placed her menu on the table and studied me.
"Nope. Got my heart broken in high school. I haven't been able to risk it since.”
"Ouch." She winced for me. “First love always hurts. Wait, I should have asked— are you gay?"
A smile to show that I wasn't a frontage. "No. Should I have asked the same thing of you?"
"Probably. I did a little bit of experimenting as a teenager, but let's just say that I have plenty of eye candy with the local Ranger population constantly visiting the shop.”
My guts clenched at the mention that implied multiple visits. “Who?"
Floss laughed, the sound tinkling like a thousand bells to my ears. Blood rushed south again, leaving me heady. "You can't be jealous of that. My boss is married to a Ranger, and Jake appears to be attached to Andy at the hip. Are you gonna break up that bromance?" she teased.
She hadn't answered my question, but I kept that to myself. Floss had already called me out over jealousy, and this—all of it—was meant to be fake. Except it wasn’t. Nothing about this moment felt anything but true at all.
The waiter returned to take our orders, and we agreed on several tapas platters to pick at as we talked.
“It might be a mark against my record but hell, girl. I think I'd do just about anything for you.” The words slipped free, and I knew without thinking about them that they were true. There was a certain symmetry to that thought that aligned with my previous one. I reached out to snag a wayward curl, wrapping her golden strands around the tip of my finger.
“I thought—” she started and broke off, her eyes wide, lush pink lips parted.
I cursed myself for not taking a deeper taste of her when I kissed her before but that had meant to be chaste, not the blood thrumming sort tonight had devolved into. Or evolved. I had no idea where this sort of crazy was headed, but hell did I want to be along for the ride with her.
“Stop thinking, Floss. Stop stressing or worrying or...anything. Just go with it.” I’m sure I grinned like a loon, Dierks Bentley’s ‘5-1-5-0’ lyrics echoing in my head.
“Says the anxiety-ridden Ranger across the table.” She recaptured the curl, winding it off my finger. “You scare me.” But her answering smile belied the weight of her words.
“I scare myself most of the time. And probably half the people in the office, from what Andy said earlier.”
Her brow dipped as she freed her hair, though she didn’t move when I cupped my hand to her cheek instead, brushing the pad of my thumb across her velvet skin. “What did Andy say?”
“I try too hard and to just...”
“Let it go?” Her lips pursed, though her shoulders shook lightly.
I grinned ruefully. “Would you like me to sing it?”
“I mean, if you can sing?”
“Not in the slightest.” I broke the contact with her, thumping my chest as I pretended to launch into song with no actualintention, watching for the telltale disappointment that swept across her gaze.
Floss raised her own fingers as though to press them to her cheek, then dropped her hand. “No, please don’t sing.” Her eyes widened, her cheeks matching the pink of her lips.
I dropped the act, leaning back with my wine glass in hand, still watching her, learning her. “You’re pretty when you beg,” I said in a low voice designed to keep her on edge.
Floss grabbed her wine glass, using it as a shield as she took a long drink. She put it back down and clasped her hands together over the white tablecloth, her fingers pink and tense where they intertwined.
I hid a smile; I wasn’t the only one who was out of practice with this whole dating thing, fake or otherwise.
