13. Olivia #2
The thought would have been laughable if I didn’t feel a bit like royalty with the stylish décor all around us and the mood lighting.
“Yeah! I do! Thank you for this, babe. This is the best birthday I’ve had since I was a kid.”
“And just think, this is only the first one we’ve gotten to celebrate together, so I’m still a rookie. Imagine the kind of tricks I’ll have up my sleeve on the fifth one we spend together.”
“At this point, I don’t know if I’m capable of even imagining all the ways you’ll spoil me,” I answered with a little laugh, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but envision a future where we were together five years in the future, past the honeymoon and all the firsts yet still just as much in love.
That was an awfully long time to maintain a lie.
Ugh.
“Either way, I look forward to the challenge.”
I was sure he did, and I busied myself with drinking some of my water to distract from any guilt written across my features.
Enjoy your birthday! Stop fretting!
Easier said than done when that clock that had been ticking over my head for months now felt more like a guillotine than anything else. Thankfully, it was easier to distract myself when our server arrived with our first course and the wine that paired with it.
It was scrumptious. Tiny, of course, barely enough to have a full bite sometimes, but so delicious in a way I didn’t expect. And occasionally, the little mouthfuls were so intense in flavor that they would have been overwhelming if they were full dishes.
Soon, the march of food and drink really kicked up.
There was a flight of different types of oysters with equally different garnishes, including lemon granita, champagne, shallots, and sea grapes.
A miso brioche with kombu butter. Cucumber wakame salad.
Soy marinated monk fish. Scallops. A sashimi flight.
A nigiri flight. Akaiito Beef Tartare. Patagonian Toothfish soaked in beurre blanc.
Little tea-flavored sorbet balls on different classic cookie crusts and a citrusy confection at the end to top it all off.
And that wasn’t even including the wines that were paired throughout the tasting menu.
They went beautifully with each dish, and were spaced out so that Keith, who was much more of a lightweight than I was, didn’t get more than a slight wine-flush to his cheeks.
I was sure that if we took a little walk after we ate, he would be more than fine to drive.
But if he wasn’t, I would be happy to do it for him.
While I was enjoying my time as a passenger princess, it wasn’t an end-all, be-all thing for me.
Besides, what was the point of unknowingly having a shifter girlfriend if she couldn’t be designated driver once in a while?
Eventually, the procession ended and both of us were sitting back, savoring, contemplating, or maybe both. All sorts of flavors played around on my tongue. If the table wasn’t so wide, I would have leaned over it so Keith and I could have a little encore.
But, as it was, all I could do was grin at him and stretch to hold his hand across the table.
“Thank you for this. I think I would have kept procrastinating and never made the reservations, so I’m so glad that you did.”
“I’m glad that you’re enjoying your birthday. I wanted to do a lot more, but there’s only so much we could squeeze into a week and then tonight.”
“Please, like having a full week off from my family and any sort of chores while getting wined, dined, and taken to multiple spas along the boulevard wasn’t enough of a celebration. Seriously, you’re spoiling me!”
“Hardly, but I’m glad you think so. You deserve to be spoiled!”
I didn’t know about that, but what I did know was that Keith didn’t make me feel guilty or like I owed someone because they did something nice for me.
It felt like something natural, a give-and-take in a healthy relationship that I didn’t have to earn by being the perfect low-maintenance individual.
I could just be Olivia, with all my flaws, my inefficiencies, my quirks, and he liked that about me.
“What would you like to do now?” I asked once the check had been settled.
While part of the appeal of the restaurant was that it paid a living wage so we didn’t really have to worry about “camping” like with most eateries, I still didn’t want to stay there forever in case the staff had to wait for us to go before they too could clear the table and leave.
It seemed that every restaurant had its own rules for how they could screw with their staff, and I preferred not to take part in making their lives any harder if I could help it.
“Well…” he said, and something about the way he tapered off told me that he was slightly embarrassed by what he was going to say.
I always appreciated that Keith understood anxiety as much as I did because he struggled with it himself, and yet he trusted me to be vulnerable despite said anxiety.
“When I saw a few promotional pictures online, I thought their gastronomy was really beautiful and had a lot of complex flavors that you loved but...”
And that was when it clicked in my brain. Despite being different species and different genders, Keith and I sometimes thought so alike.
“You were worried that I would leave hungry?” I asked, smiling behind my napkin, because how cute was that? In a world of men complaining about their partners gaining weight or women being greedy on dates, here my man was trying to make sure I left every meal feeling full and content.
Was I possibly the luckiest person in the world? Potentially. It really depended on how long I could continue to successfully pretend to be a human woman.
“Yes. So I called in an order at this really nice fried chicken place that should be done in maybe ten minutes or so.”
Talk about a provider!
While it wasn’t exactly hunting down a deer or providing fresh meat from a bison for our pack, it was a modern and human way of making sure that I, his potential mate, was fed and taken care of.
It made my inner wolf nearly purr with contentment, strutting back and forth inside me like she was accepting an award.
“Did I mention I love you?” I said. The shock and wonder that crossed his face surprised me. “What?”
It wasn’t like I’d never said it before, so I didn’t understand why he looked like he was caught between wanting to spike a football into the ground and crying.
My senses instantly went on high alert. Had I somehow ruined everything? I couldn’t think of how.
“Keith, you know you can tell me anything. If I did something to upset you, I’m sorry.”
His hand, which had been resting under mine, shifted so he could squeeze it. “No, quite the opposite. You’ve never said those words outside of my place before, so I wasn’t expecting it.”
That couldn’t be right, could it? Closing my eyes, I thought back to the first time those words had left my lips.
It was in the second month of our dating, when I’d forgotten to set my alarm, accidentally oversleeping, then rushing out the door so I could make it to my house in time to make myself presentable for an interview.
“If you forget anything, don’t worry about it.
I’ll send you a text, and you can pick it up later or I can drive it to you.
You break a leg! I know you’re gonna kill it!
” Keith had said as I bounced on one foot, trying to tie the laces of the hiking boots while holding the toast he’d made me between my teeth.
It was like I was an anime protagonist, which was a scenario I’d never really imagined myself in.
“Thank you so much! And thank you for last night, it was amazing!” With my shoe mostly on, I’d taken one bounding step over to him, went up on my tip toes so I could kiss his cheek, then dash toward the door.
“No problem. Have a good day. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
We both said it so naturally, with no build-up to it, and maybe if we’d been a bit more tired it would have stayed that way.
However, we’d had enough caffeine in our systems to realize exactly what had exited our mouths roughly three seconds later, leaving me frozen in the doorway with my hand on the knob.
“Did we just—” I remembered my heart thundering, threatening to tear out of my chest. It was funny, looking back on it, how scared I was in that moment, because really, loving Keith seemed like the most natural thing in the world to me. Easier than breathing. Easier even than making pasta.
“Yeah, I think we did,” he’d answered, equally breathless.
Another beat of silence had passed between us. There had been two ways the situation could go. We could either play it off like a silly slip of the tongue, or we...
I’d decided to stick with transparency since I was already hiding a massive lie from him.
“Well, I mean it. That’s not the way I imagined it coming out, but, Keith, I love you. You make me happy, and the weeks we’ve spent together have been unlike any I could ever imagine.”
I would never forget the expression that flooded those handsome features of his. He’d moved toward me, catching me up in a hug that lifted me off the floor and ended with his lips crashing to mine. We’d stood there, kissing for a long, long moment before he broke it off to speak again.
“I love you too, Olivia. I can’t begin to describe the amount of joy you’ve brought into my life, and suddenly, a lot more things that seem so impossible now feel like they’re doable. I owe you so much, and I’m enjoying every second we spend together.”
Needless to say, I hadn’t made the interview, and we maybe, sorta, kinda, most definitely broke one of the legs on his bed frame again.
Sorry not sorry.
“I... Oh my god, I think you’re right!”