He chuckled. “Greta. She’s always messing with my brother.”
That may have been true, but Sothea was the hotter of the two. At least in my eyes.
“Yeah, I kind of felt like I was intruding there for a little bit.”
“Don’t feel bad. They love eyes on them, or they’d be more private.” He grabbed the bags and brought them inside, where we sat at a little table.
I told him what we had, and he picked a soup and sandwich. So did I, and we ate as I told him about my morning. There wasn’t much to tell other than about Bunny Foo-Foo not liking the way my clothes smelled like someplace else, and how she made it known, crying at the washing machine in front of the pile that was waiting to be washed.
“Yeah, cats are like that,” he said.
“You like cats?”
He shrugged. “I like your cat.”
Worked for me. My rule was to never have someone in my life who didn’t like Bunny Foo-Foo. She was there first, and we were a package deal. They didn’t need to think they were the best cat ever, but they had to have someone like them.
The problem with impromptu workday lunches was that they had an end time. With his one o’clock appointment, our end time came much too soon. At ten of one, he apologized and helped me gather up the leftovers to bring downstairs for the others.
“There’s no need to apologize. We didn’t have a date set up or anything.”
“Yeah, but I wanted it to be longer,” he said. “How about this? How about it’s not goodbye? How about it’s, ‘I’ll see you for dinner,’ and this time, we’ll really go out?”
“Yeah, I’d like that.” Having something to look forward to did help.
“You know what else I’d like?” I was never this bold, but for some reason today, I had the courage. “I’d like, maybe, if it’s okay with you…a kiss.”
He reached out and brushed his palm against my cheek. “I’d like nothing more.”
Gone was the embarrassment as his lips met mine. It was an all-too-brief but magnificent kiss.
Chapter Nine
Sothea
Finally, we were going on our dinner date. Altan had selected one of the restaurants I’d shown him—not the one where he got the takeout because he wanted to try somewhere new, and I was so looking forward to spending the evening with him and having a good meal. The Korean place he’d first wanted to go to was the final decision. I picked him up at his apartment and drove to the restaurant.
“Can I tell you something?” he whispered as we waited to be seated.
“Of course.”
“This is the first restaurant of this kind I’ve been to. I don’t even know what to order.”
“That’s all right. I like that you picked a new adventure. I can help you if you like, or the server will.”
“Or I can just point to the menu.” His eyes sparkled. “And really have an adventure.”
“That’s true. You can do that.”
And he did.
It was so much fun to sit next to him in the booth and watch him talk to the server. He didn’t ask for help, just pointed, but the server had his own methods for being sure people enjoyed their food. When Altan asked for a dish, he asked questions like, “How much heat do you like?” and “If you like grilled eel, that’s a perfect choice.”
I’d heard good things about this place, and they were right. Both our meals were delicious, and the atmosphere was quiet enough to talk and hear one another, but lively and fun as well. We did not have eel, not this time, although we planned to make a second trip in the near future and joked about tryingsomething like that.Expanding our culinary experience,we called it.
“Where shall we go now?” I asked him as we walked toward the parking lot. “Want to do something else?”
He stopped, faced me, and lifted his face. “Kiss me and take me home with you.”
