A date.
I’d never been on one of those.
Starting now seemed counterintuitive. A relationship wasn’t within my wheel of interests. Catering to someone’s wants and needs outside of the hospital seemed exhausting, as well as a headache I didn’t need to be inviting into my life.
I had enough to deal with at work, why invite more chaos into my personal life?
Marlow and Avery were both prime examples of how distressing getting into a relationship was. Overcoming outsideobstacles and internal dissension—the anguish never seemed worth it in the end. They’d both argue the happy ending far outweighed every second of mental strife, yet I failed to see that.
Terran leaned over to grab onto the inside handle of the door. “Hey, Silas?”
A spark ignited in my chest, beating steady at the sound of my name on his lips again. I failed to remember giving it to him.
Dr. Jacee’s doing?
“What?”
“Get in the car.”
With that, he yanked the door out of my grip and slammed it shut.
My hand trembled when lifting it up to my hair to card through the short strands, a slow breath leaving me.
An unsteady heartbeat.
That was new.
Terran appeared mystifiedwith each course that was placed on our table, more elaborate than the last.
The thing about living in a wealthy town like Ellington Heights was how there were no shortage of high-priced and extravagant dining places. Most of them catered to a certain crowd—bored affluent people who were all about ‘theexperience’ and willing to pay top dollar for it.
I, on the other hand, had no interest in the over-the-top spectacles, deciding to keep it rather low-key since taking Terran out wasn’t supposed to be some courting ritual to, hopefully, get me invited back to his place if I played my cards right.
Still, each dish he dug into, he seemed more pleased.
“This is insane. Are you seeing how easy it is to cut into this steak?” A thin slice was popped into his mouth, his lips puckering while he chewed slowly. “Mmmm.”
For some reason, it pleased me to watch him enjoy himself. Perhaps, money well spent, I supposed, that he was eating something from at least every course. Not at all a stranger to trying whatever was placed down in front of him and barely batting an eye at the weirder, more deconstructed dishes.
Or maybe it was my brain’s way of justifying not simply bringing him to some diner over in Edgewood because either way, at the end of the night, we’d still end up in the same place: my bedroom.
“Tenderloin does tend to be considered a melt in your mouth type of meat,” I replied.
He nodded while chewing, putting a hand over his lips in order to speak. “Goddamn.”
Without meaning to, a small smile fought to raise the corners of my mouth.
Unfortunately, Terran was quite charming. Even without meaning to be.
When he swallowed, he took a generous swig of his wine before carefully setting the glass back down. “You come to this place often on dates?”
“Why would you assume that?”
“You seem to know your way around the menu quite well.”
A snort escaped me while I carefully split my own steak in small quarters. “Is that your way of calling me stuck up?”
“You said it, not me.”
