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“Thank you. If you could make it extra special, we’d be really appreciative. As you can imagine, it’s a pretty big night.”
“Yes, yes, of course. Please let me know of anything you need.”
“You are outrageous,” I whispered, trying to smother my laughter as the waiter walked away.
“Just having a bit of fun,” he said with a wink.
I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from my bag and started drawing.
“What are you doing?”
“I sketch sometimes. Wait a sec.” I covered it with my hand so he couldn’t see what I was drawing. It was rough, seeing as I did it in about three minutes and it was more like a caricature than a proper rendering, but I was pretty pleased with it as I held it up to show him. “I believe this is what the kids these days call ‘surprised pikachu face’.”
“What the fuck?” He took it from me and gazed at it for a long moment. “Lucy, that’s amazing! It looks just like him.”
I’d drawn Sebastian’s face right at the moment when Dante had said it was my twenty-first birthday.
“We have to give it to him.”
“No way!” I hissed, reaching across the table to snatch it out of his hand. But he held it out of my grasp.
“It’s very flattering, he’ll love it.”
“Stop!” I said, laughing. “Give it back so I can tear it up.”
“What will you give me for it?”
“Huh?”
“In exchange. You want the napkin so badly, what will you give me for it?”
My eyes narrowed. “What do you want?”
“Jesus, Lucia, that’s a loaded question. Pun fully intended.”
“Don’t even think about asking for a blow job.”
“Dammit.”
“Okay, fine. How about I give you a kiss. On the lips!” I added, because I could see he was about to ask where.
“Done! You drive a hard bargain, my lady, but I can’t resist.”
I fully intended to give him just a light peck as I leaned over the table, but Dante being Dante wasn’t having any of that. He put his hand to the back of my head, drawing me close, and as soon as our lips met he opened his, running his tongue across mine. I probably should have pulled back, since we were in the middle of a very fancy restaurant. But I couldn’t help myself. I opened my lips, shivering as our tongues entwined, forgetting for a moment where we were. “You know something…” I began, when he finally let me go and I could catch my breath again.
“What?” he asked, handing me the napkin.
As I tore it to shreds, I said, “I remember my mom saying something about you that I’m just now learning is very true.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. She said you were the kind of kid that when you wake up in the morning and your feet hit the floor, the devil says,Oh shit, he’s up.” I was expecting him to laugh, but instead, a shadow flickered across his face, followed by a slight frown before he gave me a strained smile. Without thinking, I reached out and covered his hand with mine. “I didn’t mean to upset you, I’m sorry.”
“I’m not upset.”
I wasn’t convinced. Tilting my head to the side, I looked at him for a long moment, piecing together everything I knew about him, trying to figure out why such a lighthearted comment would have bothered him so much. “Is it because you don’t like who you were, back when my mom knew you?”
Surprise flared in his eyes, and then he nodded in answer.
