Annabeth bit her lip. Once again, Norris was making an assumption; once again, letting him make it wouldn’t technically be lying. “Their playlist has songs associated with every winter holiday. I’m sick of them all.”
And that’s true,she told herself. But it felt distinctly misleading to not tell him the real reason why.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “We can go wherever. It’s fine. I put up with them every day at work, what’s a little more?”
Norris folded his arms across his chest as if he was going to go personally head-to-toe with the entire holiday canon. “This is our first date. I want it to be great! I don’t want it to involve anything you have to put up with.”
His sweetness warmed her heart. “Yeah, but I don’t want to make you wander eternally around the pier, like we’re on some ghost ship doomed to sail the seas for all eternity, forever unable to find land.”
“Unable to find land that isn’t playing annoying music.” He looked deeply into her eyes. “I have a Jewish grandma. Let me talk to Auntie Esther. I think I can get her to lay off the music. Wait here.”
Norris opened the door, releasing a blast of “Hanukkah in Santa Monica,” then closed it again. A few minutes later, he opened it triumphantly. The sound system had switched to Taylor Swift.
Annabeth followed him into a booth, amazed. “How did you do it?”
Leaning across the table, he whispered, “I told her your grandma got run over by a reindeer on Hanukkah.”
“You did not,” she said, laughing. “Seriously, what did you say?”
“I told her the truth,” he confessed. “I said it was our first date and I really wanted it to go well, and you’re a barista and you have to listen to holiday music all day at work and you’re sick of it.”
Looking into his open, honest face, she felt a pang in her chest. He was so kind and considerate and straightforward. She might not have lied, exactly, but she also hadn’t told the whole truth. Maybe she should confess.
At that, every magazine article she’d ever read, not to mention every bit of advice she’d ever gotten from female friends and relatives, rose up in her mind, shouting,Never talk about your exes on a first date! Never tell stories about your horrible breakup on a first date!
“You’re the best.” She picked up the menu. “How do you feel about splitting the deluxe smoked fish platter?”
“I feel excellent about that,” he replied.
Once they’d put in their orders, Norris said, “I have a very important getting-to-know-you question that I kept meaning to ask, then getting distracted.”
Annabeth waited to be asked if she had any siblings, or where she’d gone to college, or what her favorite movie was. She hoped it wasn’t going to be about her last relationship... and then she hoped itwould.If he brought it up first, then she’d know he was okay with talking about it. Warily, she said, “Go on.”
“What’s your favorite fish?”
“Ah!” Now that was an entirely un-fraught subject that she was delighted to talk about. “Of course there’s lots of fish I love—clownfish are amazing, obviously, and of course everyone loves sharks.”
“Not the people who got eaten by them.”
“All non-eaten-by-sharks people love sharks,” Annabeth conceded. “And whales. Who doesn’t love whales?”
“And sea horses,” he said. “Don’t worry, I won’t feel like you’re unoriginal if you say it’s sea horses. They’re hard to resist.”
“I adore sea horses,” she admitted. “Also leafy sea dragons. But my absolute favorite is theOgcocephalus darwini.The—”
“Red-lipped batfish!” Norris exclaimed. “An excellent choice.”
I think I’m in love,thought Annabeth.He stood up to a roomful of ravening, uncaffeinated customers for me. He walked all over a pier and talked to Auntie Esther of Auntie Esther’s Deli for me. And he knows the scientific name of the red-lipped batfish. It’s as if we were made for each other.
Her mind said,Don’t get ahead of yourself. You’ve only just met.
Her heart said,Don’t screw this up.
Her mouth said, “They have bright red, human-looking lips. They have a horn with a glowing tip. They have fins that look like legs and they walk on the ocean floor. They’re fish that are bad at swimming. They’re like the pugs of the ocean.”
“With lips like an old movie star,” Norris said.
Annabeth puckered her lips and did her best Gloria Swanson imitation. “I’m ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille.”
