Page 141 of The Bet
“Shall I give Erminegard your number, darling?” his mother asked, turning to him.
“Only if you want me to talk dirty to her.”
“Xavier!”
“You shouldn’t make ridiculous suggestions, Mother, and I won’t give you stupid answers. Shouldn’t you propose a toast, dad?” he suggested, wanting to get this evening over and done with.
His father raised his glass, and proposed that everyone do the same. “Congratulations, Tobias, Savannah, and you Jacob. This is quite some news.”
“And it’s for your ears only, dad, remember,” Tobias reminded him.
~ ~ ~
Cara had fallen back on the bed when Izzy had told her that Xavier was taking her out on their first official date.
“I knew you liked him!” she’d countered, indignantly.
“I didn’t at first. But he grew on me.”
“Why is it that you have all the luck?”
Izzy turned around and made a face, “If you think I’ve had all the luck,” she said, “you haven’t been listening to me.”
“Have fun,” Cara had called out, as she left the house.
She had thought it was sweet when he had called and told her they were going out for dinner, ‘to get to know one another better.’
“But we already know one another,” she’d replied.
“I want to do it properly.”
That had made her laugh. “How do you normally do it?”
“Backwards.”
She’d tried to second guess him, “You mean, bed, dinner, and drinks?”
“Bed, usually, and sometimesafter a few drinks.”
Xavier had picked her up and told her they were going to a hip new restaurant in the city. He’d risked picking her up in his Ferrari, telling her that it didn’t seem right going out on a date in his BMW.
“But you don’t like vegetarian food,” Izzy said.
“I’m open to trying new things.”
“All because of me?” She cocked her head, pretending to be all shy, and overdoing the fluttering of her eyelashes. She didn’t usually do shy, because it wasn’t her, and the way Xavier was looking at her, he knew she was being facetious.
“Maybe,because of you.Maybebecause veggie food doesn’t taste as bad as I thought it would.”
And so they had gone to a newly opened restaurant where the line had spilled out onto the street. Xavier marched up to the front and they were allowed straight in, and shown a table over in the corner, in an area that was raised slightly above the floor level. Maroon silk tablecloths dressed round tables, and black candle holders showed off mustard yellow candles. They ordered food, shared starters, and talked, and stared at one another, and he told her about the get together at Tobias’s earlier.
“It was that thing that Jacob accidentally let slip,” he told her, peering around discreetly, “And it can’t get out.” She nodded, understanding, and touched that he hadn’t told her in as many words, and had honored his brother’s request for the news to remain secret.
After dinner they walked around Central Park, talking and enjoying one another’s company, and then he drove her home. Her heart sank when he suggested he take her back to her place, because she knew that Cara would be at home, all eyes and ears and waiting to find out.
He dropped her off, then surprised her by turning down her offer to come inside, and so they sat in the car, and talked some more.
“You’re not the womanizer I imagined you to be,” she said.
