“Too good to hail a cab?” she teased in a low, soft voice like she didn’t notice how the people around her had stopped talking above a whisper. Stopped moving like their orbit had been disrupted by a celestial body with more gravitational pull.
Bryn belatedly registered the words coming out of Vivian’s perfect mouth. “No, I just didn’t want to have to wait?—”
Vivian stopped the rush of nerves primed to take over Bryn’s mouth and talk a mile a minute with a lopsided smile. “Then let’s not continue waiting,” she replied without the barrier of sarcasm.
The restaurant was dark and crowded. Bryn slid into her seat with her back to the dining room, guessing that Vivian would be more comfortable with her back to the wall. Menus arrived, but before Bryn could crack hers open, Vivian ordered a bottle of wine in the sexiest Italian Bryn had ever heard. Not that she’d heard much in person.
“Don’t worry, you can order whatever you like. It’s a versatile wine,” Vivian said when the server left, as if that was the reason for her staring.
Grinning, Bryn leaned forward. “And here I thought you’d definitely order a bottom.”
Vivian rewarded her terrible joke with a single, sharp, hard exhale.
“God, I’m so nervous,” Bryn confessed after they’d ordered dinner.
Wine glass to her lips, Vivian furrowed her brow. “Why?”
Bryn took an undignified gulp of wine. “Don’t you get nervous on first dates?”
“A date?” Vivian’s eyes widened. “Is that what you think this is?”
If it weren’t for the playful energy swirling around Vivian like an addictive perfume, Bryn might have morphed into a dust cloud of shame. But Vivian was swirling the rich red wine in her glass, and resting her chin in her hand, and gazing at Bryn like a birdwatcher spotting something unexpected through her binoculars.
Bryn leaned back, attention fixed on Vivian’s dark eyes. Synapses firing and nervous system so alive she was on the verge of seeing new colors, Bryn chuckled. She played with her tie, enjoying the way Vivian couldn’t help watching her fingers against the fabric.
“Are you saying I shouldn’t have willingly constricted my own airway for this?” She slid her finger over the tie’s simple knot. Vivian’s eyes tracked her every movement. Her unwavering attention was immediately intoxicating.
“Far be it from me to tell you how to dress.” It wasn’t what Vivian said, but the way she looked at Bryn when she said it that felt like nails scraping the back of her neck.
“When’s the last time you went on a date?” Bryn asked after the arancini appetizer arrived.
“Date is such an amorphous term.” She put down her glass like a taunt. Like a lioness toying with a mouse for sport. “What does it even mean?”
Bryn was no mouse. She grinned before asking, “When’s the last time you made plans with a person you were interested in seeing naked?”
Surprise was the color rushing to Vivian’s cheeks, making her almost too beautiful to look at. But Bryn couldn’t look at anything else.
Vivian settled back into her effortless ease before she stated, “I hadn’t heard that definition before.”
“Well, it kind of gets down to the point.” Bryn shrugged.
“Is that the only reason you spend time with a person? To see them in the nude?”
Bryn’s pulse jumped and she immediately regretted her choice of words. She didn’t want Vivian to think that was all she was interested in. She opened her mouth, desperate to get her foot out of it, but Vivian spoke first.
“If only nudity weren’t the easy part.” Vivian leaned forward. “Meeting someone I actually want to know…” She pinned Bryn down with nothing but her pause, making her a willing captive. “I can say it’s been quite a while.”
Bryn’s throat was so dry, she poured the rest of her wine down it but didn’t find any relief. She wanted to know more about Vivian. Wanted her to answer in long paragraphs and not skimp on the details. But she understood how important it was to pace her curiosity. How critical it was to move at Vivian’s speed.
“I get that,” Bryn replied sincerely. “Dating can be exhausting.”
Bryn stepped up to the terrifying vulnerability plate first. If she wanted to get to know Vivian on a deeper level, she might have to show her first that depths weren’t always drowning hazards.
“The last time I went on a date was with a woman I met at a bar,” Bryn said.
“How retro.” Vivian made a gesture that meantgo on.
“She was so cool.” She waited for Vivian to refill her glass and earn yet another gentleman point. “A bartender. Tattoos. Those piercings people get through their dimples. You know, like, that kind of hot where it’s like… annoyingly effortless?”
