Page 111 of Mud, Love, and Chemistry

I chuckle. “Cheers, then.” Clinking our glasses together, I take my first sip of a crisp and refreshing Chardonnay. “Mmm. This is good.”

“It is,” Sam says before tipping his glass up to finish off his pour.

“Whoa, slow down. We’ve got a whole dinner to get through.”

“Yeah, and another entire bottle of wine.” An excited grin takes over his face. “Don’t worry, I took an Uber here.”

I shake my head. “Okay, whatever you say.” There’s no way I’m drinking two bottles of wine in one dinner.

“So, Brynn,” Sam says as he pours himself another glass. “How have you been?”

The nonchalance of his question catches me off guard. “Um, fine.” The lie tastes bad on my tongue, but I don’t want to get into all the angst I went through in the past week. “You?”

“All right, I suppose.” He lifts his glass to the smirk on his lips. “Hard to tell when I don’t see my nemesis all week.”

A blush rises in my cheeks, so I pick up my glass. “Why would that make a difference?”

“Well, without you to argue with, I can’t tell whether or not I’ve lost my snark.”

I laugh, nearly spitting out my wine. “I’m sure your snark is intact.”

“How can you tell?”

“Hmmm. We need something to argue about.” I purse my lips and fold my arms. This is the perfect test. I’ll show Lisa that Sam and I would never work as a couple, because we can’t ever agree on anything. I just have to pick the right topics. “We’ve already established that you’re wrong about DC being better than Marvel, so…”

Sam hangs his head as his shoulders bob with laughter.

“Ah, I’ve got it. How do you feel about pineapple on pizza?”

His face scrunches with playful curiosity as he shakes his head. “I’m going to go with no way. Fruit doesn’t have any place on my pizza. What do you say?”

Well, that backfired. “The same,” I say quietly.

“Give me another.”

I take a long draw of my wine as I think. “Do you read?”

“Are you asking if I like to read?”

I nod.

“Yeah, actually, I do.”

“Okay, physical book or e-book?”

A sly grin spreads across his face. “That’s actually a harder question. E-books are nice in terms of convenience, but nothing can ever replace the way a physical book feels in your hands, you know? The sound of the pages when you turn them, the smell…”

My mouth falls open as I listen to him. His words combined with the whimsy in his eyes make this moment surreal. He’s describing exactly how I feel about reading. I need more wine.

“It’s kind of magical,” he says with a shrug.

The goosebumps rising on my skin dissipate when the server brings our food.

“Here you go. Bon appetit,” she says.

I tilt my glass up and finish the last of my wine, a warmth spreading through me. When I lower my head, I find Sam staring. “What?” I ask.

Shaking his head, he says nothing as he refills my glass. He then empties the bottle into his own glass. “Should we go ahead and drink the free one, too?”

---