Ezra made a face.“Oh that’s hard. I’m sorry. What’s his field?”
“Uh, sales,mostly.”
“What does hesell?”
“Everything.”
He laughed,thinking I’d made a joke. “What?”
“He sellseverything. Or he’s sold everything. At least once. This has been somewhat of atheme my whole life. He sells something. He gets fired. He tries to sellsomething else. Eventually he gets fired. He’s… I don’t know how to explainhim. He just, he’s not a very good worker.”
“Your parents arestill married?”
I exhaled a longsigh. “Yeah. They hate each other, but they’re still married.”
Nodding in empathy,he said. “At least they’re trying.”
“I don’t know ifthat’s true,” I told him. “It’s hard to tell with them.”
Ezra let out a slowbreath. “You know, when my mom was dying, I didn’t know who my dad was. My momnever told me. So the whole time she was sick I believed very strongly that ifmy dad had been around, she would have been able to survive. I just knew that ifhe’d been there to take care of her instead of me, she would have been fine.Which is a heavy burden to carry as a kid. But then I met him, and I realizedI’d been wrong. He wasn’t the kind of father that would have shouldered burdensand made things better. He was a taker. He wasn’t just sick physically, therewas something wrong with him on the inside. But there was nothing I could doabout it. By that point, he was going to die no matter what. I either had toaccept him as he was and be thankful I had finally gotten to meet him and knowhim or I was going to have to live with never getting to know my dad. I madethe right choice. Our parents aren’t perfect people. They’re as human andflawed as we are. Which means they’re as likely to mess us up as they are tonot.”
I felt myself smileat his truth. “Wise advice.”
He lifted oneshoulder. “You still turned out fine, Molly Maverick. I’ve been very impressedwith everything you’ve done for the websites. I think your social mediastrategy is really going to make a difference. I already have some people onit. And the cooking classes were a genius idea. Wyatt is really excited aboutthat.”
That lifted myspirits. “Yay!”
His lips kicked upin a teasing smile. “If you’re ever ready to leave STS just give me a call.I’ll have a job waiting for you.”
“Oh, really? How’syour health care?”
His grin widened.“Excellent.”
The door buzzed.The food was here. Ezra paid for it, even though I offered more than once sinceI’d been the one to ruin dinner, but he wouldn’t hear of it.
We spent the restof the night laughing over Kung Pao chicken and Mongolian beef, fighting overthe last crab Rangoon, and talking about every other single thing.
He made me thinkand listen, and I was surprised with how open he was. We’d ended up on thecouch flirting and teasing and becoming something more than friends… somethingmore than a casual kiss.
Not that we didn’tkiss.
Because we did.
When we’d gottentangled in each other’s limbs and our words had run out, he’d kissed me on mycouch like he’d been looking forward to it all night… all week. And then he’dkept kissing me. He’d kissed me long and thoroughly until I’d been greedy formore of him, more of his touch.
Until he’d somehowmade tonight the best first date I’d ever had. Even though I’d started thenight by destroying supper.
He’d finally pulledaway sometime after midnight when it was impossible to keep our bodies andhands and minds from trying to push us past kissing.
I’d walked him tothe door where he’d kissed me again and promised another night like this.
“Come see me atBianca this week,” he’d demanded. “Thursday night. Give me something to lookforward to.”
At this point I’dbeen drunk on him and his sinful mouth and the best conversation so I’d nodded.“Okay. Thursday.”
“Goodnight, Molly.”
“Goodnight, Ezra.”
