Chapter Fifteen

It was late afternoon, between the lunch and dinner crowds and there weren’t a whole lot of customers at Old Smoky’s at this time of day.

While filling up water glasses, Allison sniffled. She kept trying to push Tony out of her head. Her workout in the gym a couple hours earlier did nothing for her mood. She still felt like crap. Even worse, the thought of Tony dating some other girl sickened her. She was angry at herself for wanting him even more now that there was no chance for the two of them. Isn’t that always the way? You want what you can’t have even more than you wanted it when you still thought you could.

She expected work to be a good distraction, but so far it wasn’t, not when so many tables had vases with pink tulips. Weird. Old Smoky’s wasn’t normally the type of restaurant with flowers on the tables. Some vendor probably threw them in for free, she assumed. If anybody was all about getting things free, it was Bob. Still, the irony of the pink tulips wasn’t lost on Allison. She had just told Tony that’s the flower he should bring with him when he asked out the witch—whoever she was. Oh my lord. He’d better not be planning to bring her here!

“Martin! Table twelve!” She gave Bob a fake smile and a nod, then headed over to the booth. She set a glass of water down. Holding her order pad, she addressed the customer whose face was buried behind a menu. “Hi. My name is Allison. What can I get for y’all?”

The menu lowered and Allison’s face fell when she saw who the customer was. “Hi.” There was a huge smile on Tony’s face. “Surprised?”

“Um. Yes.” She shoved a pencil behind her ear. “What the hell are you doin’ here, Ramos?”

He sighed dramatically. “Those fries didn’t fill me up. I’m still hungry.” When Allison didn’t react to his joke, he quickly added, “I’m kidding.” She merely glared at him. “I was hoping you’d be here.”

“Of course I’m here. I told you I was workin’ tonight.”

He rubbed his lips. “Yeah, I guess you did. What about tomorrow night?”

She gave him her unfriendliest squint. “What about tomorrow night?”

“Well, when I ask you out for tomorrow night, I want to make sure you’re free.”

Allison’s brows knit. She looked around to make sure no one was looking for her, then she slid into the seat in the booth across from Tony.

“You um… you.” Allison couldn’t seem to form a complete sentence.

“I figured the pink tulips would be a dead giveaway.” He pointed to the nearby tables with tulips on them. He took the tulip out of the vase on his table and offered it to her. She instinctively held it to her nose. “They’re not real, they’re silk.”

“I thought it kinda smelled like plastic,” she said with a nervous laugh.

“I hope that’s okay. Real tulips are impossible to find around here this time of year, and believe me when I tell you I tried. But you asked for tulips and I wanted to give you what you wanted.”

Allison stared at the tulip, not knowing what to say. She was prepared to hate Tony for the rest of her life and now here he was doing the sweetest thing ever.

“Listen,” he said, “the flowers might not be real, but my feelings for you are. Real, I mean.”

She lifted her eyes and met Tony’s gaze. She let out a deep sigh. “I was afraid there was someone else. Some other girl.”

He shook his head from side to side. “There’s no one else, Allie. I just suck at this kind of thing and I didn’t know how to ask you out. Pretty lame, huh?”

Allison finally smiled. She looked around at the tulips on the other tables and a warmth washed over her body. “I don’t think you suck at this at all.” She turned her attention back to Tony. “This is the sweetest, most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

“See what I mean?” he chuckled. “I don’t normally do sweet or romantic, but if you like it, I’ll figure out a way to do it more often.”

“I like it.”

Tony smiled and placed his hand on the table, palm-side up. “So, would you go out with me on your next night off?”

Allison slipped her hand into his. His hand was rough and calloused and looked so large compared to hers. But it felt like a velvet cloud as it closed around her hand. Looking up from their hands, she nodded. “I’d love to.”

Tony took a deep breath and let out a laugh. “Good, ’cause I don’t know what I’d do if the answer was no. Hey, remember last night on the football field when I knocked you out with the football?”

She looked upward for a moment. “Oh my lord. I’m so embarrassed I didn’t catch that ball.”

“Don’t be,” he reassured her, placing his other hand on top of hers. She was transfixed by the hand sandwich he just made. “But I gotta tell you, I was so scared and I don’t scare easy.”

Lifting her eyes, she said, “I can imagine. You were afraid you’d get in trouble, and that’s all ya need on top of everythin’ else.”

“No, no, that’s not why I was scared. I was scared because I thought I hurt you. I never want to hurt you, Allie. And I don’t—” He stroked her hand with his thumb. “I don’t wanna lose you.”

Allison felt her eyes fill with tears. Ordinarily, she’d look away to hide her emotions, but not this time. “Don’t look now, Tony, but you’re really really good at this askin’-a-girl-on-a-date thing.”

The door to the restaurant opened and a new group of customers stepped inside, momentarily diverting their attention. The hostess greeted them and showed them to a table.

“That’s my table.” Allison reluctantly slipped her hand out of his grasp. “I’m sorry, I’m gonna need to get back to work.”

They both got up from the booth and Tony reclaimed her hand. “So, tomorrow?”

She smiled from ear to ear. “Tomorrow.”

Tony smiled back. “Seven?” Allison nodded. He let go of her hand so he could take his phone out of his pocket. “Um. I know your building but I don’t know your dorm number. I can meet you outside, or—”

When she held out her hand, he pulled up his contacts list and gave her the phone. She keyed in her dorm info and handed back the phone.

Glancing at it before putting the phone back in his pocket, he said, “Great.” He leaned closer and kissed her cheek. “See you tomorrow,” he whispered.

Allison bit her lip and watched him walk toward the door, passing table after table with tulips on them. Her eyes widened. “Tony wait,” she called after him. He stopped at the door and turned back around to face her. She picked up the flower that was laying on the table and twirled it between her fingers. She smiled and lifted it to her nose even though it wasn’t real. “Thanks for the tulips.”