Page 26 of Alpha & Omega

Fuck it. Surely, Harley didn’t expect me to be some gourmet chef. If he didn’t like what I made, we could do takeout, and I would save the meal for myself tomorrow.

I shoved the dish into the preheated oven and let it warm. Then I opened a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. I didn’t know shit about wine, either, but the liquor store recommended it. We served wine at Alpha’s, but people mostly drank beer and mixed drinks.

My heart leaped when a buzz sounded on the intercom from downstairs. Shit, why was I so fidgety? It wasn’t like me at all. I was confident, dammit! I went through extensive therapy to get there.

After wiping my hands on my jeans like some prepubescent teen, I went to the intercom and answered.

“Yo,” I said.

“Yo back.”

I smiled at Harley’s deep voice over the speaker.

“Hang on. I’ll buzz you in.”

Fuck… I needed music. He would like that, right? He read romance books and shit. God, I wasnota romantic.

I rushed over to my phone, connected to a pair ofBluetoothspeakers, and turned on a playlist that had some smoother rock songs. The light strummingof a guitar filled the room with the smooth vocals of José González, one of my favorite singers, singingTeardrop.

There. Good.

Deep breath.

God, why was I so nervous?

Because you like him, dumbshit.

There was a knock on my door, and I quickly opened it. Harley stood there with a smirk, his long hair pulled up high on his head in a messy bun, and his beard was perfectly groomed. Like me, he wore a short-sleeved button-up, but his was grass-green and covered in a pattern of small white flowers. Damn, he looked good in that color.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hey.”

I hadn’t realized he had his arm behind his back when he suddenly thrust a bouquet of flowers at me.

“Too much?” he asked sheepishly.

I took them and smiled. “No one’s ever given me flowers before. Thank you. And no, it’s not too much. Although I couldn’t tell you which flower is what.”

The floral arrangement consisted mostly of greens and whites with two large, pinkish-red flowers in the center.

Harley rubbed the back of his neck. “Being in dining, I took a class in floral arrangements. I plan them out for my tables at my restaurant. These here are mostly eucalyptus, palm, and fern leaves, and there are two artichoke flowers, which are related to thistles.”

“I love them, thanks.”

Harley stepped up closer to me and handed me a paper brown bag with handles I hadn’t noticed he was holding. “I brought bottles of red and white wines, since I didn’t know what you would be serving. They’re from my private reserve from my restaurant.”

I took the proffered bag and chuckled. “Your expectations are entirely too high for my cooking capabilities.”

“It’s too much. Sorry. I… I just…”

“You’re a romantic. I get it, and I like it. Thankyou.”

Suddenly, I burst out laughing. “Look at us. We were so smooth on the first date, and now we’re both nervous wrecks.”

Harley laughed with me. It was deep and resonant. I loved the sound. “You don’t seem nervous.”

“Trust me, I’ve been fussing around here for the past hour, making sure everything was perfect.”

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