Chapter 2
Dina
I fiddled with my shirt in front of the mirror, wondering if I should have gone with something a little more formal. I mean, I was going out to dinner with this guy, wasn’t I? Maybe I should make a bit more of an effort to dress myself up, look a little more appealing...
Or maybe I should remember that I was not trying to go on any kind of date.
No, as far as I was concerned, this was just a chance for me to make a new friend, and get a free dinner out of it in the process.
I didn’t get to eat out much, and as soon as he told me that he would pay, I had seen little choice but to agree to his offer.
A free dinner, at Ford’s Italian Kitchen?
Yeah, I couldn’t think of much better than that...
Which was how I found myself standing in front of my mirror, turning the reality of this over and over in my head, wondering if I should have turned him down on the trail after all.
I hadn’t expected to see him out there, and I had been more than a little surprised to see him striding down the side of the waterfall, the sunshine dappling in his blond hair, drawing out the details of his tanned skin.
And when he had invited me out...hell, I knew it was a silly idea.
I knew I should have politely turned him down, told him that I appreciated the invitation but I wasn’t looking to date at the moment.
That would have been the smart thing to do.
But the way he had looked at me, that slightly crooked smile on his face, I had known in an instant that I wouldn’t be able to brush him off, no matter how much I might have wanted to.
It had been a long time since a guy had shown me that kind of attention, and I wasn’t immune to it, try as I might to convince myself I was.
I had come home after work and changed into something casual; my hand had hovered over a dress for a few moments, but I had thought better of it, choosing jeans and a simple shirt that brought out the color of my eyes.
I fluffed my hand through my hair and glanced at the time on my phone.
Ten minutes till I had to meet him. Which meant that I should have already been out the door.
But I was still dawdling, nervous to see him again, worried that what little sureness I had left in me might vanish the moment I laid eyes on him again.
Come on, Dina. I picked up my bag and hooked it over my shoulder, stepping out of my apartment, locking the door behind me.
It was just dinner. Just dinner with a guy who was passing through town on vacation, and probably wanted a little company.
Nothing wrong with that. It could get lonely out on the road, and if he had been travelling for a while, he might have been craving whatever company he could get, right?
As I headed across the square and towards Ford’s, something nagged at the back of my mind.
The reminder that this was how it had started with the others, too.
I had told myself that I wouldn’t get too invested, and it hadn’t taken long for them to get completely under my skin, to the point that I couldn’t deny my feelings for them.
And then, they’d take off into the clear blue sky, and that would be the last I saw of them.
But I knew the pattern now, right? And that meant that I wouldn’t be dragged back into the same mistakes that I had made over and over again.
I could fix it this time. Just be friends with him.
Enjoy his company, since he seemed like a fun guy.
And not turn this into some great love story in my head that would crush me under its heel before I could get a handle on-
"Well, hey."
I looked up, so lost in thought I had almost failed to realize that I had reached Ford’s.
And Felix was standing there outside the door, dressed in jeans and a button-down shirt, the sleeves rolled up to show his muscular, tanned forearms. For a second, my gaze lingered there, and my lips parted as I searched for the words to reply.
"Hi," I blurted out at last. "I... uh, sorry if I’m late, it took a little longer to get back from work than I thought, and…"
"You’re not," he assured me, and he pushed open the door for me, gesturing for me to head in in front of him. "Go on, I have our table booked..."
Mia waved to me from behind the counter as we were led to our table; it was pretty busy in there that evening, and I wondered how he had managed to secure somewhere for us so easily.
But he had, and, more than that, it was a little table tucked over by the far window, cloaked in a white cloth and with a small candle flickering there between us.
Distinctly romantic, if you had been looking for that kind of thing, which of course I wasn’t.
He pulled the chair out for me, the picture of a gentleman, and for a second, I caught the scent of his aftershave in the air, something clean and crisp and vaguely aquatic.
Even though we were in the mountains now, it suited him, like he had just stepped out from under the waves to join me.
"Thanks," I mumbled to him, as I reached for the menu, as if I didn’t already know what I was going to have.
"So, what’s good here?" he asked me, flipping open the menu himself and turning his attention to the food listed before him.
"Uh, pretty much everything," I replied. "When it comes to the entree, you can go with anything and it’s going to be delicious. Just make sure you leave room for dessert, Mia makes these seasonal-flavored cannolis that are so delicious, you have to try them."
"Hmm, good to know," he replied thoughtfully, peering over towards me with interest. "What are you getting?"
"The pumpkin ravioli," I told him, reaching over so that I could point it out on the menu before him. "It’s so good, you wouldn’t even believe it."
"Pumpkin, in pasta?" he replied, sounding incredulous. "I’m more a pumpkin pie guy myself..."
"Trust me, you won’t be let down," I assured him. "It’s the best in the state."
"That’s a big swing."
"I’ve been coming here for years," I replied, flicking up my gaze to meet his over the tops of our menus. "Believe me, I know I’m right on this."
He chuckled slightly, cocking an eyebrow and shaking his head.
"Well, if you’re sure..."
It didn’t take long till Mia was over to take our orders, though she already knew what I was going to have.
I had been coming here for years now, since I was a kid, back when it had still been run by Mia’s late mother.
It had always been Dad’s favorite place to come to celebrate when he felt like he had made it big with some new investment, tossing money around like it didn’t matter at all, because, to him, it didn’t.
As far as he was concerned, he was going to be making double, triple what he had before, and that meant we would never have to worry about cash flow again...
"You alright?"
"Hmm?”
I looked up at Felix, blinking as I brought myself back to reality.
Sometimes, the memories of my father, as distant as they now were, came back to me with a certain, pointed clarity.
Those meals, they had been so much fun when I was a kid, but these days, I could look back and see the concerned expression on my mother’s face, the way she would chew her lip when they took his card to pay the bill, as if she was worried that it might be rejected.
Given his credit score, she had good reason to be concerned, but I wished she had never had to worry about any of that.
"You seem a little distracted," he remarked, and I shook my head, bringing myself back into the moment. This guy was buying me dinner, the least I could do was actually engage with him.
"I’m fine," I replied. "Just hungry. Been on my feet all day, around all that food, it gets your appetite up, you know?”
"I don’t know how you cope," he replied playfully, that grin curling up one side of his mouth once more. "I’d be double the size I am now if I was around all that good diner food..."
I laughed.
"Trust me, when you’re around it all day, it doesn’t have the same appeal," I replied. "I mean, you must get it, right? Whatever you do for work, you probably don’t want to gorge yourself on it in your spare time."
"Point taken," he agreed, and my interest piqued briefly. What exactly did he do for work? He didn’t seem in any great rush to share it with me, and I didn’t want to go delving for more than he was willing to give.
"But I guess you’re not working right now, huh?" I asked, before I could stop myself. "Taking some time off to travel?"
"Yeah, you could say that," he agreed. I felt a pang of envy in my chest, and I did my best to ignore it. I had long-since learned not to hold it against people who had better or more comfortable lives than me, at least when it came to finances. If anything, I should have been glad that there were people out there who seemed to live so comfortably. Just because I didn’t get to didn’t mean everyone should get down in the dirt to suffer with me, and besides, it wasn’t even as bad as it had been at its worst.
"Well, all the more time to try new restaurants, huh?" I added. "What’s the best one that you’ve tried while you’ve been travelling?”
"Oh, good question," he replied, tilting his head back slightly as he pondered his answer.
"There was this seafood place in Maine, I think that would be up there with the best. Oh, but this Thai restaurant in New York, I went there practically every night I was staying there, I think I could have lived on that food for the rest of my life... "