Page 27 of A Fool's Game

I jump as the words come over my shoulder, much closer than I expected him to be standing all of a sudden. “Uh, you two can set the table if you want.”

When it’s ready, I dish up pasta, sauce, and bread onto three mismatched China plates and let Gem help me deliver them to the table. Another bottle of wine, red this time, fills the glasses.

We settle into what I think is a comfortable silence as everyone tucks in. Gem starts making her famous food appreciation noises, and I smile as I watch the sounds wash over Ainsley. He’s got his eyes locked on her lips as she closes her eyes and tilts her head back, letting out a long, low moan.He must feel me watching because his gaze meets mine—and then drops quickly to his plate.

Unsurprisingly, the quiet will no longer do. He dives inheadfirst.

“So, you cook all day at work and then come home and cook?”

It’s a painfully cliché statement that I wouldn’t usually justify with a reply. But Gem’s now watching me as well, mouth full of bread, sharp eyes not missing a blink.

“This,” I motion with my fork to my nearly untouched plate of pasta, “is cooking. What I do at the university is a means to an end.”

He wants to question me on that, I can feel it coming, but Gem jumps in.

“That’s right. You two work together?”

I told her everything that I know about his situation and how he’s been in the kitchen for the last week, so she’s fishing for his side of the story. I can’t say I’m disappointed. I’m keeping up my end of the bargain and being nice, but I can still enjoy watching him squirm.

“Yeah, I’ll be there for a few months getting some community service hours in.”

I’m impressed that he doesn’t try to lie. The last thing I’d want to admit on a first date—if that’s what this is—is that I recently got arrested.

And I know I’m supposed to be on my best behavior, but I push my luck. “What’s the story with that? All it says on your paperwork is that you have two hundred hours to complete. It doesn’t say why.”

His gaze turns icy as he levels it at me, and I don’t blame him. He chews slowly and swallows, taking a long sip of his wine before answering.

“I was at a Greenpeace protest. They needed someone to chain themselves to the anchor of a whaling boat so it couldn’t leave the dock, and I volunteered. The cops came with bolt cutters andhandcuffs.”

Gem nearly chokes on her wine as she sputters out, “Really?”

I just scoff. “I should have known it would be the most pretentious, yuppie fucking story?—”

“Shoplifting,” he says quickly, cutting off my rant.

“Excuse me?” I manage.

“It was shoplifting. That’s what I got arrested for. It was stupid and I wasn’t really shoplifting at all, but here we are.”

Gem and I reach for our wine in unison.

“You’re going to have to come with a better story than that,” I say.

He sighs, setting down his fork and taking up his own glass. “It was at the end of spring quarter last year. I stopped at the market down the street from my apartment to get a drink on the way to class. I got one of those fountain drinks from the machine, but when I got to the counter, the line was really long. I was going to be late for an exam, so I just left. I figured I’d stop by on the way home and pay. I thought the guys who owned the place kind of knew me. I guess the people in line saw it happen and made a fuss, so the owner called the cops.”

I want to laugh much louder than I actually do.

“Isn’t your dad a lawyer? He couldn't make that go away? It seems like something a judge would throw out,” Gem says, shaking her head, unsurprisingly livid on his behalf.

Ainsley shrugs. “The judge we got was feeling a bit less than sympathetic toward rich guys trying to make legal trouble disappear, I guess. We probably would have won in court, but the plea deal they offered would wipe it off my record once I completed volunteer hours, so we went that route. The word shoplifting doesn't look good on a permanent record, and I’m sure there would have been plenty of times I wouldn’t get to explain how stupid it all was.”

“Well, at least you got a good volunteer position at theschool. You could have ended up on a road crew or something.” Gem’s adorable enthusiasm fades as neither of us jump in to agree with her.

Finally, Ainsley nods. “I’m very lucky to have somewhere to do my hours that works with my school schedule. I’ll be done in time to apply for summer internships and that’s what matters.”

“And Taylor, you must be happy to have some extra help. You’re always saying how short staffed the kitchen is.”

I hold eye contact with Ainsley as I take a sip of my wine before answering. “I don’t want to talk about work.”

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