Page 16 of My Super Sexy Spy
“On time.”
He looked much the same as last night. Baseball cap, only this one was a Red Sox cap, same dark-framed glasses, a loose T-shirt and khaki cargo shorts, that hello, 1980 wanted back. And flip flops. His knees were a little bony, but his calves showed the muscles of someone who was possibly a runner.
“You want breakfast first?” I asked him.
“Absolutely, I’m starved. One of the things on my agenda is to eat my way through Italy. The breakfast here at the hotel rocks.”
We made our way to the dining room and got a table for two. He ordered the eggs benedict, but I just stuck with toast and coffee.
He looked at my order skeptically. “You’re not one of those anorexic chicks, are you? Because they are no fun to eat with.”
I frowned. “Do Ilookanorexic? And you better think hard about your answer, Ted.”
“Sorry, no, you don’t. In fact, you look really nice. That’s a pretty dress.”
I’d gone with a spaghetti strap, cotton dress, black and soft, and sandals. And I’d purposefully not worn makeup so that in no way, shape, or form would he think I was trying.
Because I wasn’t. Trying. Not with him.
“Thanks,” I said. “Bonus, because I know you’re not going to be checking out my rack all day, I didn’t bother with a bra.”
He choked on whatever he was eating, and I had to wait for him to work it out.
“Sorry,” he muttered as he sipped his coffee. “Went down the wrong pipe.”
“Anyway, no, I’m not anorexic, I just don’t like big meals. They make me lethargic. I’m more of a snacker.”
He cut off some of his poached egg dripping with hollandaise sauce and put it on my plate. “Snack on that then. It’s delicious.”
Just to prove I didn’t have any issues with food, I took a bite. I let out a little moan. Man, that was good. While I didn’t eat a lot, I always appreciated when something was delicious.
He smiled like I’d done him a favor.
We finished our meal and got directions at the front desk to take the water cab over to San Marco. The concierge handed us two maps and made some recommendations about areas of interests.
Together, we took our seats on the cab for what amounted to a five-minute ride across the lagoon. It was sad to imagine that someday the water would be too high for the city to handle and all this would be lost. But I wasn’t going to let geopolitical, global-warming issues get me down today.
The sun was out, the sky was an amazing shade of blue and the colors of the buildings, as we approached, were firing off my creative juices.
This was good for me, I thought as we rushed over the water. This was exactly what I needed. To think Jared breaking up with me had been a good thing. A freeing event.
He’d said I was holding him back. I was. I was holding me back, too.
We made it to the dock and Ted jumped off in front of me. Then he offered a hand so I could step up. I took it and wobbled a little as I moved from the boat to the landing. Instantly his grip tightened on my hand and for a second time I was shocked by the strength in him. Like he shouldn’t be as strong as he was.
Feet on firm ground, I quickly snatched my hand back and shoved both of them into the pockets of my sundress. I didn’t want to send Ted any mixed messages. Like I wanted to hold hands or anything. We were simply two people hanging out.
Because tonight, if I got lucky and my blond friend was sitting at the bar again, I wasn’t going to hesitate. I was going to saddle up next to him and offer to buy him a drink and see where things went from there.
This was the new me. The bolder me. The person not afraid of her own damn shadow. My life didn’t have to be about my past anymore.
“Okay where are we going?” I asked him as he pulled out the map the concierge had given us.
“There is a pretty cool church over here,” he said, pointing to an area smack in the middle of this section.
“Let’s do this!” I agreed.
We started to walk and quickly came to realize that Venice was not laid out like any city I’d ever been in. Streets turned into dead ends, alleys opened up into piazzas and one wrong move, and you’d be facing the water with a guy in a gondola making his way past you.
