“Sweet or savory?” I asked him.
“Savory,” he shot back immediately, the anxiety that had been written on his face slowly evaporating.
“Light or heavy?” I asked my next question, already knowing what I was going to order him.
“Light.”
“He’ll have the three cheese bagels with French onion cream cheese.” I whipped out my card to pay for us before Law could protest.
“You’re supposed to let me take care of that,” he admonished me, but I shooed his hands away from reaching for his wallet.
“Not when it’s clearly your first bagel ever.” I grabbed for my card and the two bags the clerk handed me and pulled Law out of the shop with my free hand. When we reached outside I handed him his bagel and dug into mine, savoring the first bit of chocolate and cinnamon. The flavor combination soothed my sweet tooth. I watched Law with hooded eyes devour his first bite. The moan that escaped from him caused more than just my core to clench. My heart did so too.
This man was a complete mystery.
“To the park?” I asked as Law took another bite. He only nodded vigorously and then followed closely to me as I led the way across the street over to the park. This was why I loved where I lived in New York. You could take a cab or subway, but you could still always get to where you wanted to go by walking.
We walked in silence as Law took in his surroundings. I watched as he looked across the park where people were having picnics, tossing Frisbees, playing with dogs, running, walking. Anything you could think of happened in this park and I was getting to show Law a little bit about the city I grew up in.
“As much green as I see in Alabama, this is quite breathtaking,” Law finally spoke up after finishing his bagel, crumpling up the brown bag and tossing it into the next trash can we walked by. I had already demolished mine, but had let Law quietly enjoy his. “That was also one of the best things I have ever eaten.”
“You sure about that?” I wiggled my eyebrows at him and shot a wink over. I swore I had never seen a man blush so fast in my life, but Law sure did recover quickly.
“Oh, you’re going to pay for that.”
I took off at his words, sprinting across the grass, but Law caught me only after five steps, his whole body engulfing mine. I heaved against his chest, letting my breaths even out with him.
“God, I wish we weren’t in public.”
Law’s words whispered against my ear and I shivered in his arms. I wished for the same thing. I turned in his arms and pulled out my phone I had stashed in my back pocket. We still had an hour. That was all we had left. I looked up into Law’s eyes and I could see in him what I was feeling inside of myself. Dread.
Neither of us wanted to leave this moment we had created.
“Walk with me?” I asked and took his hand. Law silently followed me as we made our way through the park. His arm came around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him.
“This place must be lively during the holidays,” Law commented on the amount of people in the park. It was normally busy, and today was no exception, but he was right. The park became more packed during the holidays, but watching families come together was one thing I loved when I walked the park.
“We’ve come here a few times to do picnics and to practice. The terrain helps understand more where you’ve got your footing wrong.” I pointed toward a group of dancers off to the side. You could find anyone out here and the best part was that everyone left each other to do their own things.
“I should have taken you here for our first date.”
“What?” I whipped out of Law’s arm and stopped him with a hand. “No.”
“No?” He raised an eyebrow in amusement.
“No,” I said more sternly. “Our first date was perfect.”
“Just perfect?” Law leaned into me, egging me on.
I knew what he was doing and I was falling right into what he wanted to hear. He wanted to know I thought our first date was more than perfect, that it was the best damn first date I had ever been on.
“It was magical.”
Law stood and boasted his chest out in pride.
I placed a hand on his chest and stood on my toes to reach up to kiss him but only reached his chin. “Lean down!”
“Nope.” He stood there stoically and placed his hands at his sides, with his fists on his hips. He looked like a superhero. The dating superhero.
