“I just thought it would be nice to share a little bit nicer dinner than at a bar,” Grey said with a small shrug. “But, I mean, we can always go down there now, if you’d prefer. I’m sure they’d be able to bring our orders there instead.”
Lauren smiled and shook her head as she tried to ignore the way her stomach fluttered at the idea of Grey wanting to spend a nicer evening with her than simply going out and hitting a bar for a quick meal. “This is great, really.” She looked over the railing at the crowd that was beginning to fill the plastic chairs that sat between Pusser’s bar and the marina now that a band had begun playing. “Maybe after dinner we can go down and listen to the music, have another drink or something?”
The idea of spending more time alone with Lauren sent a pleasant thrill down Grey’s spine, and she winked at Lauren as she nodded. “I think that can be arranged, Ms. Murphy.”
Lauren cleared her throat softly as she reached for her drink, hoping a generous swallow of the cocktail would cool the heat that she could feel rising up in her cheeks in response to Grey’s flirty wink. “Good.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“BEST DRINKING STORY…” Lauren drawled, smiling as she took a sip from her third Painkiller. They had come down to the bar over an hour ago, and were seated at a small, slightly wobbly plastic table near the boardwalk that ran along the water’s edge. Music from the two-man band set up to the left of the bar filled the air, and occasionally one of the tourists filling the tables around them would find the courage to get up and sing along with them. “I don’t really have one.”
“Bullshit,” Grey chuckled, shaking her head. “Everybody has a drinking story.”
Lauren rolled her eyes. “I have one, but it’s not crazy or anything—just one of those ‘you had to be there’ type funny stories.” Seeing Grey nod expectantly, she sighed. “Fine. Back when I was in my final year of culinary school, my girlfriend at the time and I spent our spring break touring Britain. After doing the whole London thing for a week, we hopped a train north to Edinburgh.”
“Because haggis is amazing?”
“Ha ha, no. It’s not as bad as everyone makes it out to be, though.” Lauren grinned at the way Grey’s face twisted in disgust. “It’s kind of like black pudding. Anyways, we were on our way back to the taxi queue at the bottom of the hill after exploring thecastle, when we saw a sign for The Witchery. Being the culinary geeks that we were, we had read about the bed and breakfast’s restaurant, so we decided to go check it out. We wandered through a corridor that led to a little courtyard, and ended up in a vestibule that was elevated above a stunning dining room. Painted ceiling, french doors overlooking a private terrace, it was amazing. If you’re ever in Edinburgh, youneedto go there.”
“Sounds like it.”
“Anyways, we ordered a bottle of wine with our dinner, which later became two with dessert, and, well, you’ve seen how clumsy I can be…”
Grey arched a brow in agreement as she lifted her glass to her lips. “Are there knives involved in this story?”
“No.” Lauren chuckled and shook her head. “So, clumsy ass that I am, I knock the bottle of wine off the table with my elbow, and it shatters on the floor, spilling what had been a rather excellent Pinot Noir all over the place. Our waiter comes running over with a stack of towels in his hands and we’re both apologizing and everybody’s watching us, and he just looked at us, grinned, and said, ‘What a waste of perfectly good alcohol’ as he started cleaning up the mess.”
“What a waste of perfectly good alcohol,” Grey repeated with a laugh.
Lauren nodded. “Exactly. So we start giggling like mad because, well, we’re both pretty well toasted, and, that was it. I wasted perfectly good alcohol.”
“Aww, that’s cute,” Grey drawled, smiling at Lauren over the rim of her glass.
“Shut up,” Lauren muttered, rolling her eyes. “I told you it wasn’t a good one. So, your turn. Best drinking story.”
Grey sighed dramatically. “Junior year of college, a bunch of us went out to dinner at Benihana’s before a concert.”
“Which concert?” Lauren interrupted.
“Does it really matter?”
Amused that Grey obviously did not want to reveal that bit of information, Lauren grinned and nodded as she lifted her glass to her lips. “Absolutely.”
“’N Sync,” Grey admitted, and laughed when Lauren spit her drink all over the table. “Don’t be wasting perfectly good alcohol!”
“Oh my god,” Lauren chuckled, shaking her head as she reached for a napkin. “You really went to an ‘N Sync concert?”
“It was for my friend Cody’s birthday and he had a massive crush on Lance Bass and yeah, we took him to see ‘N Sync. Anyways, do you want to hear the rest of the story, or do you just want to tease me about the concert?” Grey retorted, feigning annoyance.
“Can’t I do both?”
Grey laughed and shook her head. “No.”
“Fine,” Lauren huffed. “Continue.”
“Thank you, your majesty,” Grey murmured sarcastically. “So, we went to Benihana’s for dinner before the concert. We all knocked back like 3 shots of tequila before the chef ever came out, and by the time he actually started cooking, we had polished off another shot and were working on bottles of Sapporo. We were, needless to say, not feeling any pain at that point.”
“I’ll bet.”
