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Ben tried not to wince. “Can you just see if they have those latkes?”
“Sure thing,” she said and hurried off before Beau could speak again.
Ben turned toward his date, who was looking at him with slightly narrowed eyes. “Latkes…?”
“Chanukah dish,” Ben started, but Beau waved him off.
“I know what they are. I didn’t know you were…uh. That.”
That. Ben felt whatever respect he had left for Beau start to crack, on the verge of shattering. “I am. Raised Orthodox, but I don’t really practice.” He felt something twist in his gut. Why was he explaining any of it to this man?
“Well. That’s whatever. I mean, it’s not like we’ll get married or have kids,” he said, and inwardly, Ben laughed because damn straight they wouldn’t. Beau picked up his drink and took a long sip. “Will your parents freak out about you dating someone like me?”
Yes, Ben thought, but not for any of the reasons Beau was thinking. One of the great things about his parents was that they were allergic to arrogant assholes who treated waitstaff like shit. He smiled. “They only care that I’m happy.”
Beau snorted. “That old crock of shit, eh?”
Ben had no idea how happiness could be considered a “crock of shit,” but it was obviously not worth asking. “What about yours?”
“Oh. WASPs,” Beau said, waving off the question with a dismissive hand. “They do the whole church on Sundays thing, but they’re not really up my ass about it. And my brother and sister are both married with a grip of kids, so they stopped hounding me about a wife and grandkids years ago. So you won’t need to worry about nagging when you meet them.”
Whenhe met them?
Ben had no idea what to say. He didn’t want to let Beau entertain the idea that there would even be a second date, let alone any sort of meeting the family, but he also didn’t want to encourage the man to cause a scene. A small part of him wanted to get to the end of at least one date before Nova had to intervene just to prove that he was capable of having at least one thing go right.
“Well,” Ben started, but the server appeared a second later with an apologetic look on her face and a plate of very distinctly not latkes in her hand.
“Sorry. The owner said he can put the latkes together, but it’s going to take a while, so he wanted to send this out. On the house,” she added.
Beau, who had tensed, relaxed back in his chair as she set the food down. It was the sampler Ben usually ordered when it was obvious he didn’t feel like dealing with eating bar food on his date, which almost made Ben laugh.
“Anything else at the moment?” she asked.
“This is great, thanks,” Ben said in a hurry.
She raced off as Beau leaned forward and poked at one of the wings. “At least we’re not paying for it.”
“It’s not bad,” Ben defended, though in all honesty, he hadn’t had much of a chance to eat anything apart from the latkes and cookies Nova had made him. But he was feeling a little feral and protective, which was definitely new, though not entirely unexpected.
Beau shrugged, then picked up one of the wings and took a bite, chewing a few times before grabbing his napkin and loudly spitting it into the paper. “What the fuck?” He lifted his hand and started snapping his fingers.
Turning in his seat, Ben searched the bar, but Nova was nowhere to be found. God, he was probably in the back frying the fucking latkes that Ben wasn’t even hungry for. “I’m going to use the restroom,” he said in a rush.
Beau waved him off. “Go for it. I’m going to send this crap back and demand they make us something edible.”
Hurrying down the hall, Ben slipped into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. His heart was racing, and he was ready to call it quits. Nova wasn’t in the room, so he couldn’t give the signal, but it wouldn’t hurt to send him an SOS text.
He propped his hip against the sink, then reached into his pocket before realizing his phone wasn’t there. Horror stole over him. Had he seriously left it? He didn’t want to go back out there, but he wasn’t sure he had much choice.
Turning to face the mirror, he stared at his reflection. He looked tired—dark bags under his eyes, and his wrinkles were more prominent. His hair was messy from the snow, and even after dragging his fingers through it, it wouldn’t sit right.
Fuck, maybe he could just slip out and get his phone later. If anything, it was a damn good reason to come back and see Nova without a date hovering over him. But he wasn’t a coward. He’d go back out there, grab his phone, and tell Beau that it wasn’t working.
It was simple.
Easy.
It wasn’t like they’d made a commitment to each other. This was a first date, and there was no way Beau thought it was going well. He’d probably even be relieved that Ben was willing to pull the plug so early and quit wasting their time.
