“Miss, are you okay?” Someone addresses me from behind, but I don’t have time to turn around and ask for the restroom. Instead, my mouth opens and the most ungodly sound releases from the pits of my very soul, I swear.
There are gasps of shock all around me, but I could care less. The pressure in my chest is finally gone, and I can breathe without feeling like I might drop dead of a heart attack.
A few seconds in and once the relief has settled in, I realize what I just did. I look at the people at the nearby tables and smilenervously, wondering how weird it would be if I just ran out of here now. I mean, how much worse could I make this?
Then, like a knight in a shining armor, Alex appears at my side.
“Come with me,” he says.
I let him grab me by the hand, and I follow him through the tables until we reach a hallway that’s a bit out of the way. He stops walking when we reach an elegant door with a sign on it that I can’t focus enough to decipher.
“The restroom is right through there.” The gentle smile he gives me about cuts me at the knees. He pushes something into my hands. “Here’s your purse in case you want to freshen up.”
I am so grateful that I want to kiss him. That’s why, I don’t even think when I lift myself on the tips of my toes and press my lips against his cheek, one of my hands resting on his shoulder.
“Thank you.”
Worried that I might be giving him the wrong impression, I step back, and then turn around and walk into the restroom.
Rushing to the sink, I place the purse on the counter and turn the faucet on. I wet my hands with cold water before placing them on my overheated face.
“I can’t believe I did that,” I mumble to myself.
That applies to both me burping in the middle of the most elegant restaurant I have ever been in, and also sending some very mixed signals to Alex by kissing him just now.
“It was only on the cheek,” I tell myself. “A friendly peck. It doesn’t mean anything at all. And he knows that.”
I continue giving myself a pep talk as I use the toilet, grateful that there’s no one else in here. While my stomach is suddenly very noisy, I don’t clog the toilet, so there is a God after all.
I walk out of the stall, wash my hands again, then attempt to fix my makeup. I don’t have everything with me, but at least my mascara is not running, and the eyeliner is still in place.
“Better?” Alex, back to his cocky self, smirks at me when I walk out.
Rolling my eyes at him, I let him help me with my coat, which he obviously retrieved for me. A bag is dangling by his elegant fingers, and I’m assuming that’s our leftovers from the disastrous dinner we just had.
“We’re going to exit through the back door,” he tells me once I am ready to go.
“Oh…” I glance around us, expecting for someone to jump out and tells us we’re not allowed to do that.
“I didn’t think you’d want to walk back out into the restaurant and deal with all the stares.”
A small snort of embarrassment mixed with amusement escapes me.
“So thoughtful of you,” I say.
I follow his lead when he walks toward this back exit he mentioned, taking a deep breath in when the cool air from the outside finally hits my lungs.
“Thank God that it’s not summer and I can take a deep breath in without worrying that I’d be inhaling some toxic crap,” I murmur.
Alex shakes his head and takes my hand as he walks us down the dark alley until we make a right, then we’re finally out onto the busy street from which I entered the restaurant when I got here. That’s when I notice Alex’s shoulders shaking with laughter.
“What’s so funny?”
He stops in the middle of the sidewalk, people rushing all around us, a couple mumbling obscenities at us for blocking the way.
“I can’t believe you burped like that in the middle of a three Michelin star restaurant.”
I roll my eyes at him, but I can’t help the chuckle that comes out. “I did try to make it to the restroom.”
