Say You'll Remember Me(12)

I didn’t want Mom’s dementia to be that for her. The summary of everything she’s done and everything she means to me, reduced to her disease. Because she’s more than that and she always will be.

“My mom’s a CEO,” I said. “She runs my family’s landscaping business in Los Angeles.”

“And your sister?” he asked.

“A special education teacher.”

A volunteer with a pit bull mix came to the table.

“This is Peanuts,” the woman said. “He likes treats and sleeping.”

I leaned over and ruffled the dog’s ears. “Same, Peanuts. Same.” I looked up at my date. “Cute name. Who comes up with them?”

“Whoever wants to,” he said. “His whole litter was named after nuts. Walnut, Macadamia, and Almond.”

I smiled and the dog licked my hand.

“If Pooter was a boy I was going to call him Prison Mike,” I said. “Kind of bummed I can’t use it.”

The volunteer left to go to the next table, and I sat back in my seat.

“You’re good with names,” he said.

“Picking names is fun. I had a lizard named Elizardbeth once.”

The eyes again.

“What would you name a dog in the witness protection program?” he asked.

I tilted my head. “Wow, sounds serious. Boy or girl?”

“Boy.”

“What kind of dog?” I asked.

“Mixed breed. Long hair.”

“What color?”

“Brown,” he said.

“I’m thinking… Jake from State Farm? That way when someone says, ‘Where’d that dog come from?’ you can be like, ‘State Farm.’”

He huffed. “I like it.” He regarded me in that quiet way he had. “You’re not going to ask me why the dog is in witness protection?”

“He turned state’s witness, obviously.” I ate the cherry out of my drink and his eyes dropped to my mouth. “You give me John Wick vibes, Xavier. Dexter, but for pets. I have a feeling that whatever you did to put this dog in witness protection, I’d one hundred percent bail you out of jail for.”

He smiled.

A member of the service staff gestured to the lower level. “Dinner is being served,” she announced.

She looked at Xavier a moment too long. He ignored it. He didn’t ignore her, just the flirting.

All his attention was on me.





5





XAVIER


I NODDED AT the cherry in my glass. “You want mine?”

“You don’t like them?” she asked.

I did like them. I handed her the toothpick anyway. I liked her more.

We’d just had dinner. She’d enjoyed these cheese popovers they served and I’d gone down twice to get her another one.

I felt like a bird bringing a potential mate little gifts. The urge was surprisingly strong. I’d worried over what to get her right up until I got to her apartment and handed her the succulent. Not that I had to show up with something, but for some reason with her I wanted to.

The sun was setting. It was warm and the breeze on the top deck was pleasant. Not enough to dry my shorts unfortunately, but nice enough. Thankfully I had a high threshold for discomfort.

“Thanks,” she said, taking my toothpick and sliding it between her teeth.

I thought about going down to the bar and getting her a bowl of cherries. I had to talk myself out of it. I was afraid of overkill.

Samantha had pulled her hair over her shoulder and braided it to keep the wind from whipping it around. Her skin was sun kissed and her dress hugged her in all the right places.

I was with the most beautiful woman on this boat. And she was funny too. Intelligent. In fact there wasn’t anything about her that I didn’t like. And why when she mentioned the semiprofessional baseball player did I immediately wonder how I measured up?

“I’m going to run to the ladies’ room,” she said, setting down her drink. “I’ll be right back.”

I watched her go.

While I was waiting I opened up Instagram and found Murkle’s Mustard. The last post was a graphic with a picture of their bottle that read:

This mustard just got 1 million likes on Instagram and you can’t even get a text back.



I snorted.

Then I went to the comments. The top one said, “Mustard is gross tho fr” and Murkle’s Mustard replied, “Oh, you don’t like mustard? Grow up.”

The comment from Samantha had fifty thousand likes and the whole comment thread was laughing emojis.

I had never in my life felt compelled to follow a mustard brand until today. I hit follow.

I looked at my watch. The cruise was almost over. It ended at nine, then I guess I’d have to take her home.

I didn’t want to take her home.

I started googling ice cream places, thinking maybe we could go do that when we’re docked, but as soon as I started, the cruise staff began setting out desserts. I’d have to find something else. I wanted to have an idea before she came back so I did the desperate thing. I texted the group chat for my best friends Jesse, Mike, and Chris.

ME: Need ideas for places to take a date tonight, not ice cream, not food, open late. Urgent.