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Her eyes sayme. Thankfully her lips say, “I’ll have a sundae, please. The triple chocolate.”
“I’ll get the steak and chips, thank you.”
Once we’re alone again, I pour the water and place it in front of her. “You don’t want anything else to eat?”
She shakes her head. “You made me pasta. And ordered chips…”
“I don’t share my food.” I pause and lift my gaze to hers. “I don’t shareever. You want chips, you order your own.”
She places a hand over her chest and leans back in the seat. “How romantic.”
“You said yourself this isn’t a date.”
“It’s not.”
“Why fucking not?” I challenge.
She sighs and looks at the table. “Does there have to be a reason? Why can’t this just be fun?”
“It can be fun. But I also won’t treat you like it’s all I want from you.”
She bites her lip, her doubtful gaze shifting back to me. “Is it not all you want from me?”
My jaw tics. “No.”
She goes quiet for a beat. Just looking around the restaurant as she thinks. “Well, call it whatever you want. Just please don’t expect more than what I give you. It’s all I have right now.”
My eyes linger on her before I snigger, leaning back in the seat, baffled. I’m pretty sure I’ll be begging on my knees for whatever scraps she’ll give me by the end of the night.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
I’m needy.
Desperate.
But so is she. She wants more than a quick fuck. I can see it in the tortured gold flecks that make her eyes shine.
That, or I’ve got this all wrong.
“If this were a date,” she says a little quieter, her thumbs swiping through the water droplets on the outside of her glass. “Then you should know it’s my first.”
I shake my head. “What?”
“You’re my first date.”
My brain all but evaporates. “Scarlet, you’re twenty-nine years old.”
“It’s notthatshocking.” She looks at me as if my reaction is over the top. “You said you don’t date,” she defends.
“I’ve still dated. Back in college, when I was a boy trying to be a man—”
“Right. And that’s when I was experimenting myself. None of them ever wanted to take me out after. It was a ‘fuck ’em and chuck ’em’ mentality. The slogan was even written in the guys’ toilets on campus. Vile.”
“And since uni?”
“I left in the middle of my first year to be with my dad.”
“You’ve not been on a date in… ten years?”
