“Yes. Elle’s one of my best friends,” Ruby told her.
“Too cool. Can I get you guys started with something to drink? A bottle of wine?”
Flynn gave Ruby a questioning look. “Wine?”
“Yes, definitely.”
They selected a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, and Marlie left them. Ruby and Flynn studied their menus in silence for a minute, the rhythm of their conversation having been interrupted.
“So, I was under the impression all your siblings worked for the family business,” she said finally.
“The rest of us do. Pippa had a bit of a falling out with my parents a while back.”
“Because she’s gay?” Ruby asked quietly, hoping she wasn’t prying into things that were none of her business.
Flynn nodded. “That was certainly part of it, although Pippa was always more taken with the restaurant industry than hotels, truth be told.”
“Have they reconciled, Pippa and your parents?”
“For the most part. My parents can be a bit old-fashioned sometimes.” Flynn’s expression was pained. “It’s not an excuse. There’s no excuse.”
“I’m sorry,” Ruby murmured. “I don’t mean to pry.”
“You’re not. I’m the one who brought you to my sister’s restaurant on essentially our first date.” He winked at her.
“It’s just…” She couldn’t not tell him, not when it was such an important part of who she was, but it was a conversation that hadn’t always gone over well with her dates in the past. “I’ve been in Pippa’s shoes, although luckily my parents were much more supportive.”
Flynn’s brows drew together. “You’re…?”
“Bisexual,” she told him. “Most of the time, especially lately, I date men, but I had a long-term girlfriend in college. We were together for two years.”
“I had no idea,” Flynn said, still looking somewhat shell-shocked, but whatever she saw on his face, it wasn’t anything unpleasant. “Thank you for telling me.”
“I hope it doesn’t bother you.” She’d gotten mixed reactions from men she’d dated in the past, everything from awkwardness to inquiries about a threesome, but women had often been just as uncomfortable. Sometimes, Ruby felt caught in a weird in-between place with her sexuality.
“It doesn’t bother me in the slightest.” He reached out to grip her hand where it rested on the table. “If anything, it adds to your intrigue, and I don’t mean that in a weird ‘lesbian fantasy’ kind of way. I just…I really like you. You’re different from most women I meet, a little bit quirky and just one-hundred-percent comfortable being yourself.”
Ruby opened her mouth and closed it again. She took a sip of water from the glass in front of her. “Well, thanks, I think. I wish I saw myself as confidently as you do.”
“You don’t?” he asked, looking genuinely surprised.
“You’re seeing a different side of me here in London,” she told him. “Usually, I’m the predictable, nerdy girl with the laptop and the spreadsheets, remember?”
“You keep telling me so, but I don’t think I could ever find you boring.” He leaned forward, grinning conspiratorially. “And I happen to find nerdy incredibly sexy.”
“Do you?” She hardly recognized her own voice, it sounded so breathless…soflirty.
“Absolutely.” He stroked his thumb back and forth over the palm of her hand. “But I think I find everything about you sexy.”
“Now you’re just flattering me.” And she was helplessly smitten with this man she’d spent only one day with.
“Perhaps,” he admitted. “But it’s also true.”
“I’m a gamer,” she told him, going for broke. “Pretty much the extent of my social life is meeting up with my local online gaming group to play together.”
“Still sexy,” he told her.
She lifted her eyebrows. “Seriously?”
