Chapter 15 - Max
I park my car outside her office and glance at the clock. I’m early—Naomi won’t be done work for another fifteen minutes. I check my hair in the rear view mirror, smoothing my eyebrows and making sure my breath is okay. I pop a mint in my mouth just for good measure.
I don’t even know what I’m expecting. My whole body has been on edge ever since we kissed. My shirt collar is rubbing against the back of my neck, and I adjust it and then turn up the air conditioning. Is it just me, or is it warm in here?
Every radio channel seems to have commercials on, so I plug in my phone and put on some music. I can’t settle. I glance at the clock again, and jump when someone knocks on the passenger’s side window. I lean over and open the door for Naomi and she slides in.
“Hey,” she said.
“You’re done early.”
She looks at her phone. “Seven whole minutes,” she says with her eyebrow raised. “Are you sure you want to fake-marry such a rebel?”
“What can I say, trouble excites me,” I grin, turning the engine on and revving it as I wiggle my eyebrows. Naomi laughs, and I know I’d do anything to make her smile again.
“So where are we going? You look nice,” she says, eyeing my shirt and dress pants. “Thanks for the warning,” she says as she smooths her skirt over her legs.
“I’m taking you out.”
“Is that all I get? No hints, no nothing?”
“No nothing,” I grin as I pull out of the parking spot. “Just relax.”
“Wow, my fake fiancé is fake wooing me, I like it.”
“Will you stop calling me your fake fiancé?” I laugh. “It’s weird.”
“It’s true,” she retorts, glancing at me. “I thought we were just discussing the terms of our agreement, I didn’t know this was, you know, a date.”
“Is that a bad thing? We should get to know each other a little if this is going to work. And it should be as realistic as possible.”
Naomi doesn’t answer, she just shoots me a side-eye look and takes a deep breath. My heart squeezes, and I stare out the windscreen. It feels like all the blood in my body is rushing between my legs and I can’t think straight.
“So you’re not telling me where we’re going?” She asks, peering out the window.
“No, it’s a surprise.”
“Well, if we’re getting to know each other, one thing you should know about me is that I hate surprises.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah,” she replies, glancing at me. “So last night was basically my worst nightmare. You owe me, big time.”
“Big time, eh?” I grin. Her eyes sparkle and her lips tug at the corners.
“Uh-huh,” she nods. “I saved your ass. In fact, I’m still saving your ass.”
“Out of the goodness of your heart?” I ask, turning down a side street towards the restaurant. I’m taking her to New York’s hottest new Japanese-fusion degustation restaurant. It’s not even open to the public yet, and I can’t wait to take Naomi. When she said she’d go out with me tonight, I knew I’d take her here.
“Yes, saving your ass out of the goodness of my heart,” she laughs. “I’m just a great person, you know.”
“Nothing to do with the two hundred and fifty grand coming your way?”
“Three hundred, after last night,” she grins. “That’s the fee for surprises.”
“Right,” I chuckle. “You drive a hard bargain.”
She turns towards me and her eyes flash. She lets her gaze drop down my body and a blush creeps over her cheeks, and then she turns away, leaning arm against the window. She bites her lip and a thrill rushes through my body.
I want her.
Ever since we kissed, I haven’t been able to think about anything except her lips, and the feeling of her body against mine.
Naomi takes a deep breath, turning towards me. “Listen, Max, about last night—”
“It’s okay,” I say. “You don’t have to say it.”
“No, I do. I just think that if we’re going to do this whole engagement thing, we can’t be getting involved. It’ll just be too complicated. We need to just treat this like a business relationship. You know, with boundaries. Like we can kiss and be affectionate in public when necessary, but that’s where we should draw the line. Nothing… you know. Last night…” She takes a deep breath.
“You’re right,” I say. “I agree,” even though I hate the thought of never kissing her again.
I make another turn and stop outside a nondescript black door. A valet appears, and I drop my keys in her hand. Another valet opens Naomi’s door and helps her out of the car. She stands up, glancing towards me over the roof of the car with wide eyes.
I adjust my shirt and walk over to her, holding out my arm for her. She hooks her hand into the crook of my elbow, leaning into me.
“Is this Yomoyori?” She whispers as a thick black curtain is opened for us. I put my hand over hers and squeeze it. She looks up at me, jaw agape. “I’m not dressed for this.”
“You look incredible, Naomi,” I grin. She’s wearing a simple black dress, and against her pale skin and red hair it makes her look like a goddess.
But I might be biased, I think she looks incredible in her work uniform, too.
The Maitre D greets us and ushers us through a sensual, dark foyer and towards a booth at the back of the restaurant. Waiters bring wine and menus to start, and explain how the degustation is going to work. When they walk away, Naomi grins and shakes her head. A candle on the table flickers, giving her skin a soft, ethereal glow.
“I can’t believe you’ve taken me here,” she says. “I didn’t even know this was open yet!”
“It’s not,” I answer. “Well, not really. I know the chef.”
“Of course you do,” she laughs as the waiter brings the first course. He rattles off a string of ingredients that I don’t listen to, and pours us a new wine to pair with the food.
“Thank you,” Naomi smiles at him, and then turns to me, shaking her head. “This is supposed to be a business dinner.”
“Is it?”
“Yes,” she laughs. “But this food does look delicious, so I’ll allow it.”
“We can talk business if you want, but I thought it would be nice to, you know, act like a couple. Might make it easier to pretend like we’re together if we’ve done the whole first date awkward questions thing already.”
Naomi grins, sipping her wine and shaking her head.
“What kind of first dates have you been on? What’s the ‘first date awkward questions thing’?”
“You know, you’ll ask me about my ex, and I’ll answer that we just parted ways or some generic answer that doesn’t mean anything, and then you’ll tell me about your ex. Then we’ll ask each other how many siblings we have. We’ll talk about a lot of things that don’t really matter, but we’ll know a lot of facts about each other.”
“We’ve already covered both of those.” Naomi’s eyes look dark in the candlelight. “You told me about your ex, and we’re both only children.”
“Right. Well, I don’t know then,” I pick up the wine glass, looking at the dark red liquid for answers. “What’s your favorite color?”
“Well, I’m not six years old, so I don’t have one,” Naomi laughs. “Do people actually ask each other these things? Is this what dating is like?”
I laugh along with her, shaking my head. “I don’t know, I’m usually half-cut at a bar when I’m talking to women. They usually just want my money, and I usually just want sex. This,” I gesture between the two of us. “I’m not sure how to qualify this.”
“Stop trying to put me in a box,” she says, staring at me over her wine. She glances down at her food and picks up her fork, grinning at me. “We’re wasting precious eating time talking about things that don’t matter.”
“True.”
Naomi takes a bite, closing her eyes and moaning as the food hits her tongue. My cock jumps in my pants, and I shift in my seat. She moans again, nodding and pointing her fork at the plate. I take my first bite, and it’s my turn to moan. We chew, nodding at each other, pointing at the food, and moving our eyebrows, quickly dissolving into laughter.
I wash down the food with wine, and then I reach my hand across the table. Naomi puts her palm against mine, staring into my eyes.
I take a moment to build up the courage to ask her something real. She’s staring at me as if she’s expecting it, so I take a deep breath and go for it.
“What made you change your mind?”