Page 13 of Thanks for the Memories
“How do you remember that?”
He smiles. “Come on, you know all of us guys had a thing for Tinkerbell after you wore that costume.”
Is he serious?
“No way.”
“I swear,” he says holding up his hand. “I’ll message Tommy right now and prove it. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.”
Second blush of the day, check.
“I had no idea,” I exclaim. “I figured Bethany’s nurse costume got all the attention.”
He shrugs. “Well, yeah. But the sexy nurse—too obvious.”
Well, this is a surprise. Maybe Dante noticed me after all. This briefly leads us to the subject of Halloween costumes.
“My staff wants to go all out for Halloween this year, and I’m just trying to get through this quarter,” he says, taking a sip of his coffee.
I ask him a bunch of questions about having a restaurant, and as he answers them, I can see how much passion he has for what he does, which only makes him more attractive to me. My eyes repeatedly shift to his full lips, and I imagine feeling them on mine.Gah. Pull yourself together, Reagan.
“Please stop me at any time,” he suggests. “Because I could talk about restaurants all day.”
I lean my head to the side. “It’s okay. I’m really proud of you.”
I remind him of those days in college when he would whip up a full dinner with random items we had in our apartments.
“Those meals weren’t always good. You can admit it.”
“Maybe there were a few that were—” I pause and make gagging noises.
Dante laughs loudly.
“Thankfully, I’ve come a long way, and I have no choice but to make Golden a success. I’ve put everything I have into it.”
I reach across the table and put my hand on his. “I have complete faith in you.”
He gives me a grateful smile. “Anyway, I want to hear everything about you. Your job, how you like Miami—spill it.”
I launch into the update on my life, which doesn’t have much detail right now other than my work events. I tell him about my roommates, whom he’s met a few times at Golden, and about how I met Lila at Pilates and ended up living with her.
“I couldn’t do another winter in Chicago,” I say.
“You’re not kidding,” he agrees.
“Although, I’m not sure about this whole hurricane thing,” I say, pressing on my temples.
This launches a conversation comparing blizzards and hurricanes.
As our morning continues, we don’t run out of things to talk about. There isn’t a moment of silence or pause, and it feels like no time has passed.
We search a few of our friends on social media, and I tell him that Bethany’s coming to visit.
“You need to bring her into Golden.”
Duh.
“I’m glad to hear that you’ve stayed close all these years,” he says. “I feel like I’ve really lost touch with friends. Now that the restaurant is up and running, I need to give more attention to my social life. Take more days off and spend time with people.” He gives me a wink, which makes my heart do a flip.
