She laughed at that. Though, it was more relief than anything that made her do it.
He had not only stayed on the line—he was also still willing to be himself with her.
To be funny, in that deliciously dry and self-deprecating way.
“Nobody would think you were bragging about how much I want to fuck you after I spent half an hour having an orgasm because you said soil erosion.”
“I said more than that.”
“Do you regret it?”
“Almost. Not enough,” he said.
And oh, that was music to her ears.
“Thereisnonot enough.”
“Yeah. I think I know that, now.”
“So what do you want to do?”
She imagined many things in the silence that followed.We should talk on the phone moreorwe could start the meet ups againor even justI don’t know.
But he didn’t go with any of them. He waited just long enough for her to get to the edge of her seat, and then he said in his most casual voice:
“Take you out to dinner, honey. I want to take you out to dinner.”
Chapter Ten
She had absolutely no idea why he chose the diner for their date.The whole place looked like it had been recently condemned. Part of the tin can roof was tilting at an odd angle; she was pretty sure it leaked.The front door would not stay shut—instead it flapped in the wind like forgotten laundry.
And the inside was even worse.Every booth in the place was shedding stuff or peeling plastic, or both at the same time. The floor was sticky, the fluorescent lights bathed everything in a sickly glow, the waitress had a cigarette jutting out from between her mean lips.It was honestly hard to tell if you were supposed to dine, or die at the start of a horror movie.She was pretty sure this was where they’d filmedDinerSlasher.
But he didn’t appear to notice. In fact, he seemed almost pleased with himself.
Then, once they were in their death trap of a booth, the reason dawned on her:
He had wanted a venue that discouraged sexy feelings.
That was his purpose here, quite obviously.
And bygod,he had outdone himself.She couldn’t even touch her leg against his—whatever held the table in place was in the way. And there was no way to reach across to take his hand. The table top was so filthy she feared resting her arms on it.All she could do was look and talk, but even they were restricted.
He had raised his menu the second they sat, so she couldn’t see anything but faded pictures of pies and burgers.And though the juke in the corner was playing pretty quietly, the music coming out of it sounded like pennies caught in a blender. It screeched and moaned until it was all she could hear or think about. For a minute, she just sat there, trying to work out if it was Bono singing or a robot slowly being strangled.
Only after it ended could she say anything.
And she did not hold back.
“Did you…did you bring me here because it kills sex?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. This place doesn’t kill sex.”
“Yeah, I might need more convincing than that. I mean, just listen to that music.”
“I’m trying not to, to be honest. It sounds like the juke is giving birth to our terrible robot overlords. My fillings are actually starting to weirdly vibrate.”
“Exactly. Exactly. And check out this table.”
