Page 8 of Their Sweet Haven
“Like, I’m in my late twenties,” I tell him. “I’m not exactly short on time, but seeing everyone around me so happy and in love, it really digs at you. Makes you think, why can’t it happen to me?”
Elias looks at me. Sometime during our conversation, his arm drifted over my shoulder. His touch was the right amount of firm yet gentle, and I looked back at him. Part of me wanted to believe he’s just another pretty boy. But another feels that he is real. He is genuine.
Then, yet another part reminded me that it has been a long time since I’ve put myself out there. It's been a long time since I’ve felt a man’s touch. Running the bakery is more than a full-time job for me.
As our eyes met, and our gazes linger, and we kiss. Right in the middle of that restaurant far fancier than someone like me should be in, we embrace, not caring who sees.
When it ends, I’m grinning like a madwoman. This feels real.
The waiter comes again. We place our order. We talk for a long time—about trivial things like TV shows and movies and more about our hopes and dreams. I compare my bread to the baskets that come out.
“I can do better than this,” I say. “This is good though.”
“You think you can beat this bread? Warm, soft, fluffy, with the right amount of butter?”
I nod, chewing through another bite of it. It feels weird to be trumpeting myself while devouring what I’m trying to put down, but I guess this bread had the huge advantage of being there at that moment versus two hours of driving away back at the Sweet Stoppe.
The food comes and meets every bit of my expectations for such a highly vaunted restaurant. Perhaps not worth the prices Isaw they were charging, but excellent nonetheless. The sauce on the Chicken Alfredo id just mind-bogglingly good.
Well-fed and having enjoyed one another’s company for two hours, we recline and polish off another glass of wine. Neither of us is tipsy, but the energy is light, electric.
“I guess this is where we part,” I say. “Don’t think they’ll let us be here all night.”
“They won’t. It’s assumed you won’t stay more than three hours. But it doesn’t have to be where we call it a night.”
“What, are you going to invite me to some fancy world-class bar that I’ve only heard about from social media?”
“Not so much no. But I do have a reservation for one of the finest hotels in the city. They tend to have quite nice liquor stocked if you’re into that sort of thing.”
I cock a glance at him. “You were going to take the governor back to a private room with your Dad?”
Elias stares at me as he connects the dot. “I never thought it was weird until you said it like that. No. We weren’t planning on, uh, getting to know the governor better. It was just a place for us to keep talking privately and make use of that stocked bar I just mentioned. Public figures typically want to avoid drinking where people can see them.”
“Slightest stumble and you are front page news the next morning. I get it.”
“Exactly. So, would you like to join me? It’s another reservation I would hate to go to waste.”
This guy is so forward. So honest.
I kind of like it. I was never super-old fashioned where I required four months of courtship before I’d even consider a first date. It’s all a bit sudden, though. Especially with how we met.
If this was some scheme to prevent me from sueing the county for this, it all seemed a bit overboard.
“Fine. Sure. It’s not like I gotta open the bakery first thing tomorrow morning now that you’ve shut it down.”
He smiles, and waves down a waiter for the check.
I’m so nervous as I follow him out of the restaurant, still feeling like quite the fish out of water. There’s a brief feeling of normalcy as we ride a taxi to our next stop, then it’s right back to sticking out like a sore thumb. The doorman is dressed better than I am, and we go into the elevator to ride it up, standing alongside three men in matching tan suits.
Elias’s hand meets mine, and he pulls me closer. Despite me not looking like the type of girl you’d see with guys like this? He didn’t care. He saw something in me that he really liked.
What that is is a complete mystery to me, but hey, I’m not going to complain.
We head to the room. We enter, and I’m immediately taken aback by how classy it is.
“Take off your shoes. Take off everything else, too, if that makes you feel comfortable.”
I shoot him a playful glare. He counters with one of his own.
