Page 20 of The Billionaire's Commitment

“I have no idea what I have here,” she said, and I laughed.

“Some more tea if you get a chance too. Thanks,” I said to Ana. She nodded and walked away.

“Dig in,” I said.

Zoey took her bowl of soup and took a tentative sip. I took a cracker and put it on my plate. It had a mixture of different flavors, but they mixed well together, and I nodded my approval. Zoey did the same with her soup and then put a cracker on her plate and took a bite.

She slowed her chewing and then looked around as if she wasn’t sure what she was tasting. She got a strange look on her face and looked like she wanted to spit out the food but thought better of it. I wanted to tell her she could just spit the food in her napkin, but she closed her eyes, took a swallow, cringed, and then slowly opened up her eyes.

“You’re new favorite dish?” I asked.

“Um, no,” she said.

“I didn’t think so. That’s the whole point of this, to find out things that you like or don’t. The next time you go and have Thai, you won’t ever order that again.”

“Definitely not. The soup is lovely, though a little hot.”

“Thank you for the warning. I’ll let it cool for a few minutes and enjoy the rest of the appetizer you don’t want to have,” I said and put another cracker on my plate.

She put some noodles and the salmon on her plate, and by her reactions, I could tell she liked them a lot better. We ate in companionable silence. By how quickly she was eating, I could tell she was hungry. I appreciated a woman who wasn’t afraid to eat or enjoy a meal. We talked a little bit but mainly about the food and what we thought of it. I wanted to know how her parents were and what her sister was doing. I would ask her all of that later, but for tonight, I wanted it to be about us, about the new experiences she was having with me, and the promise that more was to come. The food was gone in no time, and when Ana came to take the plates away, she asked if we wanted to have any dessert.

“I couldn’t. That was so filling, I don’t think I will eat for a week,” Zoey said.

“Not even some soft coconut crepes?” I asked.

“What are those?” Zoey asked. I knew she liked coconut and wouldn’t be able to resist the idea to try a dessert with it.

“We’ll take an order, Ana,” I said.

“You didn’t have to do that. I have no idea what it is, and I might not like it,” Zoey said once Ana had walked away.

“You’re right, I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. I could have told you what it was, but it would be more fun for you to try it and see if you like it. And it has coconut; I think you’re going to love it.”

“Or it could be like the appetizer, whatever it was called.”

“Kao Tang Na Tung,” I stated.

“Thank you. I’ll try and remember that.”

“I’d be surprised if you did. I wouldn’t. If nothing else, you will recognize the name and avoid it, but I think you liked the other dishes.”

“Yes, they were very good. Thank you for suggesting we come here.”

“It was my pleasure,” I said.

The crepes arrived soon after, and we enjoyed the sweet and savory dish while I told Zoey some stories about opening up the bar, the construction, and how long it took.

“Working on the farm didn’t help you with the construction?” she asked.

“No. I know how to fix a tractor but that’s about it. Logan and Eric both came from the city and never had to build anything. We thought we could do it on our own, and then we realized how inadequate we all were. We got a construction crew to come in and finish the rest. I think it cost us twice as much for them to replace what we did and then do what they needed to do.”

“Ouch. That must have been hard to swallow.”

“We expected things to be expensive. We expected not to do well the first couple of years. We’re actually doing better than we thought. We have a good staff. Eric is good with managing the place. Logan likes being in the front and the face of the bar, so to speak. He even has a decent social media following,” I said.

“He does have a good-looking face,” Zoey said.

It was the first flirty comment she had made all night, and I tried not to be offended that it was centered on one of my best friends and not me. She had been quiet, almost shy with me in the beginning, but as the evening had progressed, she had opened up. There had been a time years ago that we had told each other everything. I wanted to get back to that, but she seemed more hesitant, and I couldn’t understand why.

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