Page 35 of Love Legacy

I push his shoulder, blushing and rolling my eyes. “Come on, we need to go. Don’t want to miss our dinner reservation.”

He takes my hand, leading me out the door. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that…”

After driving to the nearest small city, thirty minutes from campus, we pull up in front of a darkened building. “Did we miss our reservation? This restaurant looks closed.” I check the time to make sure we weren’t too late. We were twenty minutes over, but the restaurant doesn’t close until nine PM, and it wasn’t even eight PM yet.

Elijah just smiles. “You still haven’t figured it out yet? Come on, Naomi.” He gets out of the car, coming around to open my door. He takes my hand, walking me to the front door of the closed restaurant. Elijah pulls a set of keys out of his pocket,using them to unlock the front door and holding it open for me. “After you.”

“How did you? Why do you? Huh?” I sputter out, confused.

“Just go inside, Naomi,” he says, slightly exasperated. He follows me into the restaurant. It was dark, one table in the middle of the restaurant set for two, tea candles lit to provide ambiance and some gentle light. The only other light in the restaurant coming from the door to the kitchen. There was a bouquet of roses sitting on of the restaurant chairs.

“The restaurant was closed for a private event earlier today, but I got the chef to come in to make dinner for us. My dad may or may not own the place,” he says, walking over to the table pulling out my chair and picking up the bouquet. “These are for you.”

I take the roses, sniffing them. “These flowers are beautiful. Thank you.” I sit at the table, Elijah going to sit across from me. He drapes his suit jacket over the back of his chair, grabbing the bottle of wine from the bucket next to us. “Wine?”

“Yes, please.”

He grabs two glasses, pouring the white wine for both of us, sliding a glass across the table to me. “So your dad owns this place?”

“And a few other buildings and businesses downtown. And the athletic center on campus,” he says simply, taking a sip from his glass.

“Wait, your last name is Holton? Elijah Holton, as in the Holton family trust that’s behind Telecor? We’ve talked about some of your family’s business dealings in my Strategic Management class.”

He nods. “Yep, that’s my family.”

“So is this your idea of a simple first date then? A private dinner at your dad’s restaurant?” I poke fun at Elijah.

“Just the women I’m interested in taking things further with.”

“I mean, it’s only a first date. I think it’s a bit soon to ask me to be your girlfriend.”

He cocks his head, studying me curiously. “Is that what you think this is? Me asking you to be my girlfriend?”

I nod. “What else would it be?”

He chuckles. “I’m not looking for anything serious, Naomi. Maybe some casual sex, go on a few dates here and there. No-strings-attached fun.”

I nearly spit out the wine I was sipping. “That’s a good one.”

“It wasn’t a joke.”

“You think that just because you did all this, I’m going to sleep with you?”

He shrugs. “That’s usually how this works. I wine and dine the woman I’m seeing, sleep with her, spoil her for a little bit, and then we go our separate ways when I’m ready to move on.”

I thought Elijah was a nice guy, sweet even. But deep down, he’s a disgusting pig. “You’re disgusting. I had no intention of sleeping with you, regardless of how this night went, and I certainly won’t be doing it now.”

“Come on, Naomi, don’t be like that. I’m not trying to find my wife, it’s just dating. I have no interest in continuing anything beyond school.”

“If you had listened to anything I said during our first date, you should’ve known I’d never say yes, Elijah.”

“Well, you’re a fool if you think a man would do all this without the promise of sex afterward.”

“Then maybe I shouldn’t be dating men!” I say, my voice raised as I grab my purse.

“And there it is. I knew there was something going on between you and that dyke Sage,” he says, looking at me with disgust, never once rising from his seat at the table.

I gasp, surprised by his cruelty and blatant homophobia. Clearly, I had him all wrong. “You know what, Elijah? Fuck you. You can rot in hell.”

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