I eyed him skeptically as he helped me out of the car, taking my hand. His odd reaction to what I’d just told him left me puzzled. We’d said I love you more times than I could count over the past two months since I’d moved in with him. He was the sweetest, most caring relationship I’d ever had. Of course I would say all of those things to him. Ordinarily, he took it in and responded with some sweet sentiment of his own.
Tonight was different.
He seemed stiff and yes, nervous, which was totally out of character for him.
“Is everything okay?” I asked as he guided us to the door of the restaurant. I didn’t even notice that Brutus’ car was the only one in the parking lot.
However, I did take note when he pulled the door open, and we were greeted by the beautiful hostess, welcoming us in perfect Spanish. Gazing around the dining space, I squinted in confusion.
“Why are we the only ones here?” I asked.
“Because I rented out the place.” He sounded so casual about it all. Brutus placed a hand on my lower back and steered me to follow the hostess.
I gasped as we came to our seats in the middle of the dining area. The other tables and chairs had been pushed aside or removed. At the center was a lone green picnic bench. I looked around and noticed the paintings on the wall of different locations in Mexico, one portrait of Frida Kahlo and a few images of vibrantly painted sugar skulls.
It all was reminiscent of Mexico, which made sense. But it looked almost familiar …
“I requested they make up the place to come as close to our first date as possible.”
My eyebrows nearly touched my hairline. I looked around the dining space again and saw it. It closely mimicked the restaurant's decor where we stopped the first night in Tulum and had the most fantastic pork belly tacos.
“What are you up to?” I asked Brutus, eyeing him.
“I couldn’t fly us to Tulum for one night,” he said, regret lacing his tone. He helped me sit before he moved to the opposite side of the bench and took a seat across from me.
He stretched out his arms, opening his hands for me to take, which I did.
“You have to work in the morning, and I know you wouldn’t want to be away from the coffee shop so soon after opening.”
“Plus, you have to work, too,” I added.
He kissed the inside of one of my wrists. “I would’ve taken off.”
I scoffed. “Babe,youtake a day off? The same man who went half a decade in between taking vacations.”
He shrugged. “That was BM.”
“BM?”
“Before Mia.”
I tossed my head back and laughed when he winked. “We’ve discussed how ridiculous you look when you wink.”
Brutus was the only man I’d ever known who couldn’t wink. He looked so funny trying to do it. It wasn’t sexy at all, but it was endearing whenever he attempted to because I knew he did it to make me laugh.
“Made you laugh. That’s all that matters.” He grinned.
“Thank you for recreating our first date.” I hadn’t thought of it as a date that first night. We had just been traveling all day and were hungry. He’d given me a ride to Tulum, so it felt natural for us to stop and eat. But, thinking back on it, yeah, it was our first date, I guessed.
“Your drinks,” our hostess said.
We hadn’t even ordered anything. Our hands pulled apart to give the hostess room to place the drinks in front of us. I looked down and recognized the mojito which was the same drink I had that first night. Brutus had the exact type of Mexican beer that he’d ordered.
“To memories,” he said, holding up his beer.
I clinked his bottle with my glass. “To memories.”
“New and old.”
