"You should make Ida a resident art-retreat helper," he said slyly.
I almost choked on my wine. "Ida is a treasure, but she does like her alcohol."
"And her dildos," Archer said casually.
"She was happy with the nude modelling session."
The servers set down the first course. We were given crusty bread with an herb butter spread, briny oysters, and a shaved pear and endive salad.
Archer sprinkled some of the vinegary sauce with little bits of onion and pepper on the oysters. I picked one up, and we toasted oysters.
"Cheers! To winning tomorrow."
I ate the oyster in one go.
"That was strangely erotic," Archer said.
"You should see what I can do with a hot dog," I told him with a wink.
"You know," he said. "If your art retreat ever becomes really big, I'm sure we can find some room for you to host it in the exhibition space in the conference center."
"I don't know. I'm sure it's expensive."
"I'm not going to make you pay to use it, Hazel," he scoffed.
"I don't need your charity," I shot at him. Immediately I felt bad. Archer had orchestrated this nice evening. I needed to stop being such a whiny little girl and enjoy it.
I took a sip of wine.
Keep it together, Hazel. This is the nicest date anyone has taken you on and will probably ever take you on. Do not ruin it by being a weird, awkward harpy.
"Hazel, I'm not trying to be dismissive," Archer said. "I like you. I feel like we have a good thing going here. Just enjoy it, and go with the flow."
"Right."
Confidence in one hand, chardonnay in the other.
The tension broke as the server brought out a cold pasta with glassy noodles and tempura fried shrimp, okra, and lotus. I crunched a piece of the fluffy tempura fried vegetables. The batter was slightly sweet, with a finish of salt, and the lotus root was still crunchy.
"This is a really nice summer dish," I said, picking up a forkful of the noodles and dipping them in the small bowl of miso soup.
"Not to be totally uncultured," Archer said after making sure the servers were out of earshot, "but I hope they bring more food than pasta and oysters, or we're going to have to stop at McDonald's after this."
"I thought you might eat me out instead," I said, loving the way his eyes widened slightly in surprise. "I'm sure the servers won't be back for a little bit."
60
Archer
"You're a terrible tease," I told Hazel in a low voice. "Unless youdowant me to get under the table right now and eat you out."
"I'm not going to be kicked out before the main course," she said. "And I'm not sure how we would explain that one."
"I could say I lost my cufflink," I suggested.
"I think it would be really hard to lose a cufflink up there."
"Maybe," I said. "Although if you were wearing edible underwear, you could have the excuse that it was just stuck in it or something."
