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I lean forward, angling my head. “You think so?” I challenge, my smirk growing into a devilish grin because I can’t drag myself away from the way her blue eyes heat and sparkle. We went from strained and a bit tense and awkward to fun and flirty in a nanosecond, and I’m digging the hell out of it.
Maybe this is what I needed to drag me out of today. Her.
“I think we’ll find out after we order.” She bobs her head to the left, indicating our waiter who now stands over us. “But I’ll tell you this, choose our sushi wisely or this thing is over before it even begins.”
“Who says I want it to begin?”
A coy smile curls up the corner of her lips as she rims the empty wine glass of her place setting with the tip of her finger. “Oh, I think we both know you do.” She sits back and waves a hand toward me. “Order away. I’m into everything.”
Hell.
I order us a massive boat of several different kinds of sushi, some edamame, and then I pause. “Gyoza?” I pose to her.
“Pork and pan-fried?” she counters.
I give her a look. “Is there any other kind?”
“Not for me there isn’t.”
I look back up at the waiter. “We’ll have an order of that and two doubles of Don Julio 1942. One large ice cube in each, and keep those coming, please.”
The waiter leaves and my pretty companion wiggles in her seat and then drops her elbows onto the table. “Tequila?”
“You’ve never had it with sushi?”
She shakes her head.
“I hate sake.”
“Same. But I usually go with white wine instead.”
“Then tonight, it seems, you’re living a bit on the wild side.”
The lights flicker once again as a massive rumble of thunder shakes the restaurant, making our empty place settings and water glasses rattle. It doesn’t appear to bother her in the slightest.
She runs a delicate manicured finger along her chin, her nails black and shiny. “You should be warned, that’s not just tonight. I always live my life a bit on the wild side if I can help it, and I promise that’s not an exaggeration. I’m a lot. Just ask the last guy who fell in love with me after I warned him not to.”
Something darkens her features at that, but I don’t bother exploring it.
“Hmmm.” I tap my lip, my gaze dancing about her face. “I can tell you’re younger than me. He was a boy, right?” I shrug indifferently. “I’m not worried about it.”
But even as I say the words, something odd hits me. A twinge. A warning. Like I’m calling myself a liar, which is ridiculous.
She studies me, liking this game we’re playing just as much as I am. Not only is she beautiful, she’s exciting. Different. Intelligent. Quick-witted. Just sitting here, I have to fight through the pheromones she’s putting off.
I’m helplessly fucking magnetized.
“No,” she says as if she’s come to some conclusion. “I imagine you have the reverse problem. Gorgeous. A bit mysterious. Not afraid to dine alone, threaten a man, and call a woman you’ve never met before yours.” She’s delighting in this now, giving me a long once over, sticking on my chest and arms, before dragging her gaze back up to my face. “Oh yes. I can see it all now. You have women falling at your feet. Am I right?”
“You don’t expect me to answer that do you?”
She laughs, the sound light and sweet like spun sugar. “Definitely not. It was one hundred percent rhetorical since I already know the answer is yes.” She laces her fingers together and rests her chin on them once more. “So tell me, stranger, are you a one-night-only sort of guy?”
“Depends. Are you a one-night-only sort of girl?”
“I am now,” she declares with a scrunch of her nose that makes the tiny stud glint against the light. “Who has time for love and relationships?”
Unfortunately, not me. At least that’s how it’s been since I started med school, and before that, it was random groupies after random shows we played. I was eighteen when Central Square started touring and twenty-two when we fell apart. But now that two of my best friends have found love and are happy and I’m in my thirties, I can’t help but start to want that for myself.
