Chapter 17
DUSTIN
“What the hell got into you back there?!” Cat chided me as we neared her favorite restaurant. “Don’t you know that guy has the power to send me away with a snap of the finger? And us to prison! And you’re fucking around.”
“I’m not fucking around. I was being serious. I love your big brain. It’s wonderful. Well, I could have mentioned some other things. But I didn’t think talking about my love for your anatomy would have been appropriate.”
“Total. Disaster,” Cat reiterated. I pulled into a parking spot on the street and we walked toward the restaurant.
“That’s just not true. We have the interviews scheduled for next week. That’s going to be the real test. Besides, I think that guy was just being a dick because I sidelined his favorite player on the Cougars. If he reports us, we’ll just request a mistrial or whatever.”
I held the door open for her and we headed in.
“A mistrial? I don’t think you understand the law.”
“I’ve seen a couple episodes of Law and Order.”
She shook her head. “Well for our future interviews, I’m sure he’ll have lots more questions for you about my big head.”
We neared the host stand, and the hostess’s face was priceless when she overheard that. “Uh,” she coughed. “Table for two?”
I nodded.
“I know you’re mad right now.”
“Yes.”
“But it’s like this. Imagine if I acted like a total pushover who was worried about the answers to every question. That would be more suspicious. A little light-hearted joking? Not suspicious.”
“He literally kicked us out of the office,” she responded. “Yeah, I’ll take the nigiri special and the salmon.”
“You know what? I’ll have what she’s having,” I said.
The server nodded and went away with our order.
Cat looked at me and shook her head. “You know what the worst part is?” She paused and sighed, for dramatic effect. “I actually did think it was a little funny. A little,” she stressed.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Honestly, I was worried we were going to get caught up being asked questions that we really didn’t know the answer to, and that would be suspicious.”
“Really? You were thinking that?”
I nodded.
She exhaled loudly. “Dammit! Just when I want to be all pissed at you, you actually come through with a sweet motivation. Damn you, Dustin LeBlanc!”
I shrugged as the server came over with two plates.
“Damn, that was fast!” I remarked, and then stared at the food in front of me. “Um, excuse me, sir?” I said, waving our server back.
“Yes?”
“This fish is raw. Why didn’t you cook it?”
Cat looked mortified. “Have you never eaten sushi?”
Our server looked equally dumbfounded. “Um, we don’t normally cook the sushi.”
“You’re telling me it’s supposed to come like this?” Dustin remarked.
“How on earth have you not had sushi before?”
I shrugged. “I’ve had oysters. Those are delicious. I mean, I’ve been to places that have sushi. It’s not exactly a big thing in the Midwest, though.”
“Thanks, we’re fine,” she said to the server, and he left. She turned back to me. “Where did you grow up again?”
“Middletown, Ohio. I don’t think there was a single sushi restaurant in that town.”
She took her chopsticks out of the paper and was rubbing them together.
“Why do you do that?”
“It makes them smooth? I don’t know. I just always saw my mother do it.”
“So you know all about sushi?”
“I grew up in a small coastal town outside Barcelona, but yes. Have you ever been to Europe?”
I shook my head. “Never.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged as I rubbed my sticks together the same way. “Just didn’t seem like something I was interested in. Do you want to go?”
“Just like that? We’ll just . . . drop everything and go?”
“We need to get to know each other’s families. That’s going to be a key to this whole operation. And I think it will be good since once your schedule is full again at the hospital, we won’t have time to do this.”
Nervous, I shoveled the first bit of sushi into my mouth. It was surprisingly flavorful and refreshing.
“Damn. This isn’t half bad! Blows my mind you can eat this stuff raw.”
She smiled, a little puzzled. “Who even are you? Don’t you make millions of dollars? Don’t you go out to eat whenever you want?”
“To be fair, I just got my first million-dollar contract two years ago. And I’m just more of a cook-at-home type of guy.”
She laughed. “I order out, then eat at home. Sounds to me like we’re a good match.”
“In multiple positions,” I said, which sounded odd, so I followed it up. “I mean, in multiple ways.”
She rolled her eyes playfully, and picked up another bite of sushi with her chopsticks.
“Oh yeah? What other positions—I mean ways—do you want to see if we’re compatible?
” She moved slightly closer to me, leaning in as she popped the sushi into her mouth, slowly. We didn’t take our eyes off each other.
I lowered my voice. “How about all of them, Doctor?”
She blushed, and ran her tongue over her lips. “Seriously? All of them? But there’s so many.”
“We’ve got time,” I said.
She wiggled her eyebrows, and I loved that she liked to play a little dirty with me. But I was angling for something else. “Well, where should we start? Oh, I know.”
“Do tell.”
“I think we should go visit Middletown, Ohio, so I can meet your family.”
I tensed up. “That’s . . . not exactly what I had in mind.”
“Well, we could do that too.”
My stomach tightened as I thought about going back home. “You don’t want to meet my family, though. Nothing spectacular, really. And February in Middletown isn’t exactly anything to write home about.”
“Do you not want me to know your family?”
“There’s not much to know.”
She gave me a steely look that said she saw through my bullshit.
I ran a hand through my hair and looked at the exit. “Fine,” I said. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Warn me? What’s the worst that could happen?”