Page 22 of The Situation
“Could I interest you in an appetizer to start the evening?” Sean asks.
Tate picks up a menu from the table's edge and quickly scans it. “What would you recommend, Sean?”
“Everything is delicious, but my favorite would have to be oysters Rockefeller,” Sean says.
“Do you like oysters?” Tate asks me.
I take a menu, too. “I’ve never had them.”
Tate smiles as if this pleases him and turns to Sean. “We’ll start with an order of those, beef carpaccio, and your seasonal charcuterie board.”
“Fantastic. I’ll return shortly,” he says before disappearing into the sea of bodies, fake fig trees, and candlelight.
I glance down at the prices and nearly have a heart attack.
“Tate,” I say, praying he doesn’t expect me to pay for half the bill. “Threeappetizers?”
“I tried to pick three different things since I don’t know what you like.” His lips twist into a smirk. “But I hope to discover many things you enjoy by the end of the evening.”
Oh God. I lick my lips and squeeze my thighs together. “I’m not sure that being alone for too long with my stalker is a good idea.”
“Don’t act like you don’t like a little danger.”
I laugh. “I don’t, actually.”
“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have casually dropped what restaurant you were dining at this evening.”
“That was an accident.”
He nods, grinning like he doesn’t believe me. “Sure.”
“It was,” I say earnestly. “I obviously need to be more careful about sharing personal details with strangers.”
“Do you want to know what I think, Miss Kapowski?”
“I’d love to know.”
His eyes darken as he rests his chin on steepled fingers. “I think—whether you did it intentionally or subconsciously—you told me where you would be, hoping I’d appear tonight. But because you didn’tovertly divulgethis information, you wouldn’t feel disappointed if I didn’t show up.”
This delicious, insightful bastard. Dammit.
I hate that he’s right, and I hate even more that he knows it. But I’m sure he deals with all sorts of women trying to spend time with him.Look at him.
He drags his eyes away from mine and peruses the menu.
“Are you staying in this hotel, too?” I ask, dropping my gaze to the menu, too. Logistics are a much safer topic than my fears.
“My boss knows the man who owns this hotel chain. So we stay in his hotels when we travel, if possible. That’s the one thing I will say about my boss. He might be a dick, but he’s loyal as hell.”
“I doubt I’ll be traveling much for my job, but I hope my boss is loyal to nice hotel chains, too.”
Tate laughs. “Do you like to travel? Or are you more of a homebody?”
“I’ve traveled a lot.” Both of my husbands loved to travel, so I pretended to enjoy it, too. Such a waste of time.“I’m more of a homebody these days.”
“Ah, the cozy-girl thing you told me about, right?”
Sean appears again and places our drinks on the table.
