Chapter Ten: Lynette

 

 

The first five minutes of the car ride to the restaurant was spent arguing over the radio. After a heated discussion regarding who was in charge and what the other could stand to listen to, we finally settled on the local pop station. I rolled my eyes and made gagging noises in my throat.

Gabriel laughed.

“This was the deal!”

The cold air-conditioning blasted against my skin. I shivered slightly and rubbed my hands over my arm. Gabriel reached over and touched my bare thigh.

“Too cold for you?”

Heat shot through me, radiating from his fingers to my center. He ran his hand over my leg slowly, keeping his eyes on the road. I shivered more from his touch than the cold this time.

“It's a bit chilly in here for me.”

He nodded as he moved his hand away to turn the air down and I immediately missed his touch.

“Where are we headed?” he asked.

“To a Chinese place,” I said, reaching forward and changing the channel on the radio.

He smiled down at my hand before grabbing it and kissing my knuckles, “Do you really want Chinese? We'll go wherever you want. What's your favorite place?”

“We're already almost there. And I really don't know. I don't eat out much.”

“Well there has to be somewhere you want to go.”

I shook my head.

“No, I've never thought about it. Never had time to think about things like that. Always been too busy taking care of Dad and the bar.”

His hand returned to my thigh.

“Then I'll pick. We're not getting Chinese.”

“Where then?”

“It's a surprise,” he said, looking at me out of the corner of his eye. My stomach grumbled again. “Don't worry it's not far.”

Half an hour later we were pulling into a large parking lot.

“This place? This is your surprise? Somehow I was expecting something a little different.”

He grinned.

“What's the matter? Don't you like games?”

I looked out the window at The Arena, a multilevel game-filled complex. I had been there only once, just out of high school. I slipped out of the car into the heavy night air. Gabriel met me on my side of the car and reached for my hand.

“This is our official first date,” he said. “I'm going to buy you dinner and then I'm going to attempt to win enough tickets to get you a stupid stuffed animal,” he whispered into my ear.

I looked up into his smiling face to see his eyes twinkling with mischief.

“The last time I was here, I went bowling,” I said, looking up at the building.

“We can do that. I'm afraid I’m not very good. I would love to watch you play. I can keep score.”

I felt the heat of a blush run up my cheeks. Damn it! I was always forgetting about his leg.

“How did you even know about this place?”

“Found it when I was looking for somewhere to have a drink the other night. I thought it was a little rowdy for my mood at the time.”

I giggled.

“So you went to the gayest of gay bars instead?”

He smiled.

“That was a surprise too. I thought it would look a little less, I don't know, strange? To be a lonely guy sitting at a bar.”

I tilted my head.

“You would have fit in perfectly at my bar. Why didn’t you come there?”

“I knew where your place was and meeting you was exactly what I was trying to avoid until I was ready.”

He held the door open for me, letting my hand go as I slipped inside.

“And look how well that turned out for you,” I replied.

We settled on the fancier of the five restaurants inside the building. The tables were topped with white tablecloths and candles. Gabriel pulled my chair out for me before sitting down himself. We ordered quickly and then were left alone.

“So, what else do you want to know about me?” I asked.

“Normal stuff,” Gabriel answered, smiling.

I rolled my eyes.

“Come on, I don't know what to say. I feel awkward.”

“You're not very good at this are you?” he asked teasingly.

I picked up my water glass and took a sip.

“No, I'm not. I don't ever do this. I don't go on dates. I don't have time. That night you met me was the first night I'd been out in like months.”

“Okay, then I’ll ask the questions. What do you do for fun?”

“Fun? I don't think I do anything for fun. Oh god, I'm so fucking boring!” I cried, dropping my head to my arms.

Gabriel was laughing.

“Don't laugh, this is really sad. I told you I was bad at this.”

He reached out for my hand. His eyes were locked on me.

“I don't think that. I just don't think anyone has ever asked you before.”

I felt butterflies in my belly and I squeezed my thighs together against the subtle heat that was gathering between my legs.

“Baking,” I suddenly blurted out. “I like to bake. And I’m pretty good at it.”

He lifted his eyebrows in surprise.

“Baking?”

“Yeah, I took two whole classes on how to bake and decorate cakes when I was younger. With my Mom. I used to do it a lot before Terry passed away, and my Dad got bad and I had to take over. It's silly, I know, but I miss it sometimes. Baking was fun. Especially brownies. They’re my favorite.”

“Why don't you do it anymore?”

“Are you kidding me? My dad goes on benders and drinks everything in the house vaguely resembling booze so there goes all my vanilla extract. And then there's the cost of ingredients for me to play in the kitchen. Not worth it. Can’t afford the time or the money.”

“If it makes you happy,” Gabriel said, releasing my hand and settling back in his seat.

“Puppies make me happy too, but that sure the hell doesn't mean that I should get a dog,” I responded.

“I have a dog,” he pointed out.  “It's a big black labrador. He loves to cuddle and chew everything. My parents got it for me after I came home from the hospital. They thought it would encourage me to walk.”

“Good Lord! What were they thinking? You weren't ten,” I said with a laugh.

“That's what I said at the time. They meant well.”

“You don't like the dog?”

“No, I love my dog. He grew much bigger than anyone thought he would and he's good company. For a hermit like me. He’s a good listener too.”

“Did he encourage you to walk?”

“Walking with him was more like being dragged behind a horse.”

“Something must’ve encouraged you to get up and walk. What was it?”

“Bedsores,” he said with a deadpan expression.

I twisted my face into a sickly expression.

“I'm kidding! But I’ve already talked enough about myself. It's your turn. So, we've got baking. What else makes you special?”

I blew air out of my mouth. Talking about myself wasn’t something I felt comfortable doing.

“I don't know what else to say. I'm boring.”

“You're not boring,” he said. “You run a bar. That’s unusual.”

Mention of the bar and the problems that went along with it sent a cold spike into my stomach.

“Could we not talk about that?”

Gabriel nodded.

“We'll talk about whatever you want to talk about.”

“That's not fair. I mean, to you. I just don't know what to say.”

He laughed.

“This is so strange.”

“Why?”

“Because three days ago I didn't know what to say to you. And when I finally did work up the courage to talk to you, you were the confident one.”

“This is different.”

“Because you're on the other side of table,” he said, smiling gently, running his thumb over my knuckles.

His voice was soft, no hint of malice. My stomach was filling with warmth, replacing the cold that had just been there. Gabriel's eyes flicked away from me as the server returned with our food. The woman smiled as she put the plates down in front of us.

My eyes widened at the size of the plate. I dug in. After a few moments, I stopped.

“Oh! This is really unattractive, isn't it?”

Gabriel was clearly holding back laughter.

“No, I like a woman with a healthy appetite. Not one of those phonies who pretend they only eat salad with fat free dressing then clean out the refrigerator when they get home.”

He speared a piece of steak off my plate and I scoffed. “Hey! What is with you and that?”

“What?”

“Eating other people's food right off their plate.”

He laughed around the piece of meat in his mouth.

“It's the only thing I've seen you get really mad about. I like seeing the fire in your eyes.”

“You want to make me mad?”

“I want to see you feel something,” he replied, eyes locked on me.

“Don't do that.”

“What?”

“That thing. That intense stare thing you keep doing. It’s distracting.”

He laughed.

“I'm not staring at you! I'm just not looking away.”

“Well no one else looks at me that way.”

“Good,” he said, satisfied with that answer. He thought for a moment and said, “I have a question.”

“Okay.”

“Why didn't you stay? That night with me, why didn't you stay the whole night?”

I was stilled by his question.

“Stay for what? For an awkward breakfast? With the man who was only in town for one day?”

“Yeah.”

“Why did you even want me to?”

“Why wouldn't I want you to?”

I looked at him.

“I don't know. Because I wear too much makeup and my dress was trashy?”

“I'm pretty sure that you would have wiped off the makeup in the morning,” he said with a grin.

“Then you would have seen who I was. What then?”

“Then we’d definitely have something to talk about over our awkward breakfast.” He quickly ate the last bits of food on his plate. “Let's try something easier.”

“I'm ruining this, right?”

This was a mistake. Gabriel called the server over for the check. I sipped at my water self-consciously.

“Thank you.”

He handed the bill folder back to the server. I perked up as he stood. I pushed my chair back and he took my hand, helping me to my feet.

“Come on,” he said softly.

“I really shouldn't, we should just-” I started.

“We're going to play some games.”

“What?”

“Games, lots of them. You're going to relax and I'm going to win you something. Time for you to have some fun. Enough of this serious talk that’s making you uncomfortable.”

Gabriel turned out to be terrible at games. Every game was a bust for him. I snorted with laughter, shaking my head and rolling my eyes.

He laughed it off and handed me a roll of tokens.

“Here you try it, I'm terribly unlucky. Maybe you can win me something.”

“You knew you were bad at this so why would you want to do it?” I asked, laughing at his expression.

The sudden flash of the camera on his cell phone caught me by surprise. He turned the phone to face me.

The girl in the picture was happy and carefree. Not me.

“Come on. Take a picture with me,” he said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders, holding the phone up to capture us both in the frame.

The girl staring back at me was frowning slightly, eyebrows pushed together.

“Smile,” he said and then he kissed my cheek.

In that moment my expression changed and the girl from the first picture returned. The camera flashed again.

“Gabriel!” I said, laughing, “Stop! I hate having my picture taken.”

“One more then. That’s all.”

He wrapped his arm around me, drawing me close. I fit perfectly in the crook of his neck.

“Smile for me. I want a photo to keep.”

His hand traced a line down my arm and his scent filled my nostrils, clean, like soap. The slight chill in the air was gone. There were only his arms, his body against mine.

“Why are you doing this?” I whispered.

“You're beautiful. Look at the camera and take a picture with me.”

I turned and smiled, a real smile for a change. It felt natural and easy with him. The camera flashed again, capturing us together, perfect.

He laughed and kissed me, pressing his mouth against my protests.

“And now that your defenses are lowered, I can finally start winning at these things,” he said, pulling the roll of tokens out of my hand.

I rolled my eyes.

“I think that you're just bad. Hand over the tokens before they all go to waste.”

He laughed, pushing the tokens deep into his pockets where I couldn’t reach them.

“No! I said I was going to win you something, and I will.”

“Stuffed animal. Not something. You said stuffed animal, not a pencil.”

I reached my hands into his pockets. His breathing hitched in his throat while I dug around for the tokens. I pulled my hand out, victorious.

“You're bad at this. I'll win the stuffed animal for myself.”