That was a good starting point, right?
Okay.
I was smart.
I knew a lot of weird facts.
“You said your family was Italian, so what if we used Leo as a short nickname for lion. The Italian word for lion isleoneand I think lion suits you very well.” He was also strong as a lion too. “You’d be my lion when we were out in public.”
Guarding me from real people because they were weird.
“Do you speak Italian?” Master’s head cocked. “Was the guy who taught that at the co-op hot too?”
Ugh.
“Let’s stay focused on your in-public name and not get distracted by silly things. But yes, I should put being able tospeak Italian on my resume.” That was a much better thing to focus on. “I might need help figuring out what else should go on a resume.”
“We’re going to circle back to that job thing eventually.” Master shook his head but I didn’t want to know what he was thinking. “Okay, besides you being highly intelligent when you’re motivated to learn, I think you also have wonderful ideas.”
Whew.
“Thank you, Leo.” My lion. “Oh, that didn’t come out weird at all.”
Master grinned as he reached across the table and took my hand. “Then we’re set with my name in public.”
“A lot of subs online talked about struggling with that, so it’s not just me.” I was pretty sure I was reminding both of us that it wasn’t out of the ordinary, but Master didn’t seem to think it was odd.
“Names are hard. Other people have to label us before anyone knows the kind of people we’ll turn out to be. Sometimes they’re idiots and sometimes they just do their best but it’s not quite right. I don’t see anything wrong with tweaking that as you get older to make it fit.” Master was very confident about that, but he was confident about everything.
Still, I liked that way of looking at it.
“Well, my label does not fit.” It could’ve been worse from what my grandmother said, but I wasn’t sure who I could trust anymore. My parents were so tuned out it was possible they hadn’t named me at all. “So we need to put that on our to-do list too.”
Master nodded and was back to his confident expression. “I’ve been thinking about that.”
Good.
I had the best Master.
“Thank you, Leo.” Ha. I did it again. “What have you been thinking?”
“That you’re adorable and that I’m ready to go home and have some private time with you.” Master smirked when something about his tone sent a shiver through me. “Let’s head home and curl up together as we finish this conversation.”
Yay.
“I think that’s a very good plan.” Especially if it came with naked cuddles of some sort. “Private time should always come at the end of a date.”
“At the end of a very good date.” Leo seemed pleased about that but his smirk made me shiver again. “You have clothes for the other house so I can confidently keep you longer and we had a wonderful meal with great conversation.”
We’d mostly played something close to Twenty-Questions to get to know each other in practical ways but those were important too. Knowing his birthday, favorite pasta shape, and the types of sauce he liked were very important details.
“And I got to have my first date all the way through to the end.” That was amazing actually and I was starting to see why some people liked dates.
He even paid for the date and I hadn’t needed to apologize to the waiter for any drama.
“This is weird.” Sitting in the front was strange. “I think I belong in the back in my seat.”
Master hummed as his gaze flicked to the rearview mirror before he reached out to take my hand. “I thought about putting you back there but I wasn’t sure if I should. This was supposed to be our date and I thought that might mean vanilla seating arrangements.”
