Page 105 of Infatuated as They Come
“Dinner’s what we agreed on.”
“Well, I didn’t really agree. It’s your idea.”
“It’ll be what we do every year. A nice dinner out like you deserve.” And if it was at the country club, it wasn’t free. It definitely wouldn’t be low budget either, but that was the whole point. “At some place you’re used to.”
“But you just want to go to the club because it’s classy.”
“Well, it is, right?”
“Well, I guess, but…”
“But?”
“I don’t really like it there,” she mumbled.
“Yes, you do.”
“I do?” She lifted her head off my shoulder. “Wouldn’t you rather do something where it’s just us two? Where we get to spend some alone time together? I miss those days…”
I sighed at her words. I missed that too. Her and us and everything. “I just wanna take you somewhere nice. And shit kept getting in the way in New York, but now we have some free time, don’t we? So… let’s just go out tonight, and then next Christmas we can do it again, and the one after that too…”
“This is about my dad, isn’t it?” she asked. “He said something to you.I know it.”
“He didn’t say anything,” I lied. “It’s got nothing to do with him.”
“Then why are you taking me to some place I hate? Some place I know you wouldn’t even enjoy?”
“Because… This is what happens in your world, right? Country clubs and fancy places and all that. I don’t know why you’re acting like this.”
“Because you won’t listen to me. What did he say to you?”
“Nothing.”
She moved to stand up. “Let me go talk to him.”
“No, don’t talk to him,” I said, gently grabbing her hands. “Can we just do this dinner? Please?”
“I don’t even like that place.”
“Well, it’s better than driving around and looking at Christmas lights, isn’t it?”
Something flashed behind her eyes, and it looked like pain and hurt, and I wanted to punch myself for making her look like that, for making her feel anything that ever dimmed the light in her eyes. “I like that stuff,” she mumbled. “And I was really looking forward to doing something like that with you.”
My thumbs rubbed across the soft skin on her hands as I pulled her into my lap. “I just want us to do something special.”
“We do special stuff all the time.” Then she looked down at the floor. “We used to do special stuff all the time…”
I frowned at her. “Used to?”
“I just meant…” She still avoided my eyes. “Nothing. Forget I said it.”
“I know I haven’t been around lately. I’ve been at the studio a lot and I hate every second that I’m not with you, but it’ll be different when we get back home, back to New York,” I said, still rubbing circles against her hands. “I swear it’ll be different when we get back.”
“You deserve to focus on your art and whatever makes you happy,” she said, finally meeting my eyes. “I won’t get in your way.”
I leaned in, pressing my lips to hers slowly. “You make me happy. And that’s why I thought it’d be nice to take you somewhere different. Somewhere special that isn’t… low budget.”
“You’re using that term again,” she grumbled.
