Page 11 of Call Me Mrs. Taylor

“Why not?”

“Too tame.”

I laugh, leaning forward slightly. “Don’t let the drink fool you, babe. There’s nothing tame about me.”

He swallows hard, and I can tell I’ve thrown him off balance. Good.

“So…I’m thinking I want you to order for me.”

He smiles. “That’s a lot of pressure. Y'all can barely decide what y’all wanna eat on any given day. Now you want me to guess?”

“I don’t want you to guess,” I say. “I want you to look at that menu and decide what I’ll like. I trust you.”

His brows furrow. It’s so cute.

“You trust me already?” he says.

“Shouldn’t I?”

He gives a slow shrug. “I mean, yeah, but you don’t know me, yet. Women are usually more cautious.”

“What have we already established about women and me?”

He smiles sheepishly like my students when I ask them a question they’re supposed to know the answer to. “You’re different.”

“Look at you. So attentive.”

He laughs. “Alright. Answer this for me. Do you have any allergies?”

I shake my head.

“Do you eat meat?”

“Ilovemeat.”

His eyes darken, and I know he received that exactly how I intended it. I push my menu to the side and let him puzzle over his choices. The waiter returns with our drinks, then takes our dinner orders. After, Ace turns his attention back to me.

“So what do you do?”

“I’m a teacher,” I say quickly.

“What grade?”

“Third.”

“How you likin’ it?”

“It’s cool,” I say, then I pivot to something less boring. “Do you wanna get married one day?”

The question lands about as softly as a grenade. His forehead creases, his shoulders stiffening. For a second, he looks like he might get up and run out of here, and I realize I probably shouldn’t have asked that question.

I don’t know if it’s that raggedy ass Y chromosome, or American men, or maybe just black men, or if perhaps there’s even some other identity that’s unknown to me that makes the question so offensive to these idiots. If anybody should run screaming at the thought of tying one’s self to someone else forever, it’s women. Yet here I am, eagerly anticipating the day Ace slips a ring on my finger.

But, whatever.

New tactic.

“I only ask because it seems like every man I meet wants to tie me down.” I smile seductively. “Personally, I prefer to live in the moment and see where things take me.”

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