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She grimaced. “I hate to say it, but sometimes I think my job is better than yours.”

“Oh, you mean nobody tried to bribe you with cheese curds for Percocet today?”

I smiled at the sound of her laughter.

“These are good,” she said, nodding at the food in her lap.

“Yeah. One of my favorite taco trucks.” I glanced at her. “I would have probably taken you here that night after the concert, you know.”

“Oh, great, I missed out on even more?” she said.

“Your fault for picking the guy who looks like an underwear model,” I said, squeezing lime over my carne asada.

“Would you have asked me out that night?” she said. “If I’d gone with you?”

I shook my head. “No. Definitely not. I probably wouldn’t have even asked for your number. Too shy.”

“So you would have given me the best tacos of my life and then just vanished after you dropped me off?” she teased.

I gave her an amused look. “Would you have gone out with me? If I asked?”

“After these tacos? Yes.”

“Ha.”

She finished her food and balled up her napkin. “I wasn’t really looking to date. But yeah, I probably would have gone out with you. I would have liked you.”

“I wouldn’t have asked. I was dealing with the stuff with my mom. And I would have been too intimidated.”

She guffawed. “Stop.”

“It’s one thing to offer you a ride home, it’s something else to ask you on a date. It would have felt too important and I would have chickened out.”

“You would have asked me,” she said dismissively. “If we went for tacos and we were hitting it off. And how intimidating could I be? I didn’t even have shoes.”

I cracked up. “No. But I would have gone into Donna’s hoping to see you. I would have gone in just to see you. I would have gotten the courage to ask you. Eventually.”

“And now look, you have no problem bossing me around.” She tilted her head. “See how far you’ve come?”

I made an indignant sound. “I don’t boss you around.”

“Christopher, I’m not even allowed to drive my car.”

“That is for your safety. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you,” I said, taking the last bite of my taco.

“So you’ve said.” She rested her head on the seat to look at me. “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you either.”

I gave her a soft smile.

“I would have found you online or something after you dropped me off and followed you,” she said. “Slid into your DMs.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah. The hard-to-get thing would have made me want you more.”

“Ha.”

“You intimidated me too,” she said.