Chapter 2 #2
As he talked, I tried not to let my surprise show on my face.
Maine? New York? It sounded like he had been all over the country.
I had never so much as left the state, and I wondered if it was so obvious that I was distantly behind him when it came to matters of travel and adventure.
I would have loved to travel, of course I would, but the kind of money it would have taken to string all that together was more than I was willing to contend with.
Maybe one day in the future I would be able to enjoy that kind of lifestyle, when I had won the lottery or something. Yeah, maybe one day...
"No, you know, I’m going to say that Thai place," he finished up, holding his hands up as though he had finally decided on the matter. "It was so damn good. Almost as good as the food I had when I was in Thailand."
"You’ve actually been to Thailand?”
"Oh, yeah, back when I was a teenager," he replied, waving a hand.
"My family travelled there together. Stayed at this fancy hotel in Bangkok. Not exactly how I’d do it now, I prefer to be out there in the real world with the locals, but I managed to sneak away a few times to the food markets, and they were incredible. "
I rested my chin in my hand as I listened to him talk, amazed by the sheer extent of his travels. He must have had some serious money to his name, his whole family must have, actually, if they had been able to fly all of them out there like that.
"Have you ever been?”
He turned the conversation back around to me, and I blinked, surprised, then shook my head.
"To Thailand? No, I’ve never left the country. Never even left the state."
"Well, where would you go if you could?"
"Uh, I don’t know," I admitted. "I haven’t given it that much thought."
"Come on," he urged me lightly, leaning forward slightly, sending another rush of his aftershave swimming through the air. "You must have some thoughts on it, right? Somewhere you’ve always wanted to go?”
I chewed my lip as I pondered my response.
Truth be told, it wasn’t something I had thought of much, because allowing my brain to linger there would only serve to let me down further.
There was no way I would actually be able to afford any trips like that, so why would I have tortured myself with the possibility?
"I used to watch a lot of British comedy shows when I was growing up," I replied. "So I guess...London, if I could."
"Oh, good choice," he agreed, face brightening at once. "London’s amazing. It’s such a clash of cultures, and there’s so much history there."
"Shame about the food though, right?" I joked, and he chuckled.
"Hey, I will go for fish and chips any day of the week," he replied, and I felt that flutter in my chest again, the same one that had been there when he had first invited out to this restaurant in the first place. And, while I knew that I should have been quicker to shut it down, there was something about the way he was looking at me, something about the expression on his face, that made it hard for me to pretend that I didn’t notice it.
"Maybe I could be convinced once I’ve tried them from the source," I conceded, but before we could go on, our food was brought out to the table, and we both settled in. He was just as impressed by the ravioli as I had imagined he would be, and I couldn’t help but smile when he told me how much he loved it.
We exchanged conversation about food, the best places to eat around here, his favorite locations for cuisine in all the countries he had been to.
I tried not to let it show on my face just how surprised I was to hear of the extent of his adventures, but honestly, it made him stand out from the other dinners I had shared with the guys who had passed through before.
Who had seemed more keen to brag about how they had discovered themselves on their travels than to actually have a real conversation with me about anything.
"Well, you were right, it was worth saving room for the cannolis," he agreed, as he leaned back from the table, plate all but licked clean. "This place is fantastic. Sorry to tell you, but I think it might have usurped the diner."
"Hmm, I think I can live with that," I replied, flashing him a grin. He returned it, and there it was again, that twisting, dancing rush of something that I could not quite put into words.
Or perhaps that I did not want to, because I knew what would come of them if they did.
"Do you live nearby?" he asked suddenly, and my eyes widened, taken aback. But he swiftly lifted his hand, as though aware of how it sounded.
"I could walk you back," he offered. "You know, make sure these mean streets don’t cause you any trouble..."
I laughed.
"I think I’ll be alright by myself," I replied, and I rose to my feet. "Just give me a second, okay...?”
I headed to the bathroom, and splashed a little water on my face as I looked at myself in the mirror, willing myself not to get drawn in to just how sweet and charming Felix seemed.
Because it was easy for him to seem sweet and charming when we had only been out to one dinner together, while he was on vacation, far removed from his real life.
And just as I was about to head back to the table, I heard a voice hissing my name.
Looking around, I saw Mia standing behind the counter, waving me over, looking towards the table as though making sure that he could not see us.
Frowning, I went over to join her, wondering what all this was about.
Mia and I had gone to high school together and we knew each other well enough, but she rarely went out of her way to chat with me like this, especially not in the middle of a busy service evening.
"Hey, what’s up...?"
"That guy you’re on a date with-"
"It’s not a date," I corrected her swiftly, and she waved a hand, brushing that aside as though it hardly mattered.
"That guy," she replied. "You know who he is, right?"
A shiver ran down my spine. I didn’t like the sound of that.
"Uh, yeah, that’s Felix," I replied casually.
"Yeah, I saw his name when he paid the bill. Felix Kingston," she filled in for me. I stood there for a moment, not sure what to make of it. That name rang a bell somewhere at the back of my mind, but I wasn’t sure where I had heard it before or if it even meant anything to me.
"As in, Kingston Real Estate?” she prompted me.
"Thom worked with them when he was buying up some property a few months ago, they’re pretty much the biggest business in the state when it comes to real estate.
Hell, one of the biggest names in the country.
He’s the son of the guy who owns the place... "
She continued to fill me in on the details, but I was already looking back over towards the table I had shared with him all evening, my stomach beginning to sink.
Because the way she said it, this guy didn’t sound like he was exactly a good fit for my life.
Even what he had told me himself, about his travels all over the world, should have filled me in on that.
If his family had the kind of name you could quote with no context, then I found it hard to believe that he would actually be able to maintain his interest in me, beyond just the curiosity of slumming it briefly with someone who didn’t have half of what he did...
"Uh, thanks for letting me know, Mia," I told her. "You know, could I get some of those cannolis to go? My mom would kill me if I came back from dinner here without them."
"Sure, sure," she replied, and she went about boxing up a few for me. And I leaned back against the counter briefly, mind reeling from the information she’d just hit me with.
This guy, as sweet as he had seemed, as enthusiastic and charming and interested in me, he had bigger and better things to do than hang around Whisper Falls with someone like me.
It was like I could finally see it clearly now.
It would all turn out like it had the last couple of times I had allowed myself to get drawn in to the attentions of these men.
And they would seem so perfect in the moment, and then they would wander back off to their real lives and leave me behind, nothing more than a memory.
And I had sworn to myself that I wasn’t going to inflict that on myself again.
No matter how nice Felix might have seemed, no matter how fun tonight had been, he had a whole family name to carry on that probably wouldn’t be best served sticking around in Whisper Falls.
One night, one free dinner, that was one thing. But now? Now, I needed to remember the promise I had made to myself.
And protect my heart from the hurt that had already ruined the last two summers combined.