Page 141 of Share with Me

“Sorry. I’m learning to be thankful for everything God has given me, for life, salvation, my family, you.”

“Good to know.” Ivan rubbed the back of Brinley’s hand gently. She had such smooth skin. No scars anywhere that he could see. “I’m surprised at how soft your hand is considering you do house renovations.”

“I don’t do them myself most of the time. I have Toby to do all the work for me.”

“Toby?”

“Tobias Vega. He’s my GC—general contractor.” Brinley chuckled. “He hates me now. He’s having a hard time getting along with my interior designer.”

“If they don’t get along, why put them together?”

“They have to get along. They’re the best people I have. I’m sure they’ll figure it out. I want to move into my new house ASAP.”

Ivan sat back as the soup came. Brinley had opted to have her salad served at the same time as Ivan’s main course. They said a blessing for the food and then Brinley told Ivan not to wait for the soup to get cold.

“Want some of this?” Ivan’s spoon was in midair across the table.Hope this isn’t breaching any table manners.

Brinley leaned forward over the small table and sipped. “That’s pretty good.”

“More?” Ivan asked, somehow remembering the cookie pieces that Brinley had fed him in his basement not long ago.

“No, thanks.” Brinley dabbed her lips.

“Maybe you can show me your new house,” Ivan asked in between spoonfuls of delicious soup.

“Yes, as soon as it looks like a real house inside. It’s sort of partly gutted right now. If you want to see what a war zone looks like, we can see it as it is.”

“No hurry. I’d like to see it when it’s done, though. I’m visual that way.”

Their main courses came and then it was all about eating as Ivan made a big show of eating his lobster sans shell, like he was swallowing gold foil, which incidentally was sitting on top of the intricately plated dish. He decided to save the gold foil to remember this evening by. No need to mess up his digestive system.

“Don’t make me choke, Ivan.” Brinley was trying to hold it all in as she munched through her beef steak salad.

When Ivan saw the dessert he offered part of it to Brinley. “I didn’t say half, okay? I saidpart.”

They ate the whole dessert with nothing to spare.

“I’m going to pop this dress,” Brinley whispered.

“Next time wear a stretchable one.”

“Good idea.”

When the guest check came, Ivan nearly fell off the chair onto the shiny, polished floor. Even the speck of dirt he spotted on the floor by the table where the server had passed must’ve been expensive.

The numbers were unmistakable. They were three figures long and twice as much as he had expected to fork out tonight on the new credit card. He had been using that credit card to pay his bills for this month. He was sure there was a couple of hundred dollars left on there, enough for this meal and the tips.

Maybe he shouldn’t have ordered that lobster dish. He couldn’t return the gold foil now. Who put gold foil on dishes, anyway?

Maybe it’ll just go through.

I’ll deal with the overdrawn charge tomorrow.

Maybe he could call his friend, Sebastian, and get an IOU. Ivan retrieved his disposable phone and texted Sebastian.

I’m at your restaurant with my girlfriend. Short of money. Can I get an IOU? Pay you back.

No immediate reply.

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