She pulled back and reached immediately for her drink again. “Where are you from?” she asked. Although she had adopted the accent of that girl from the panel, she was careful to leave out the nasality and grating uptalk because . . . just no.
“Ireland.” At her eye roll, he chuckled. “That obvious? Dublin.”
Sewanee cocked her head at him. “North or South?” He cocked his head at her. “Your accent.”
He smiled wider. “What about it?”
“It’s muddled.” Honestly, Ron’s vampire Seamus sounded more authentic.
“Well, if you must know, Henry Higgins, I grew up all over the place. Divorced parents.” He plucked up his drink, took another sip. “You?”
“Texas.”
He made a doubting face. “Sounds more like East Virginia to me.”
“Do you think there’s a state called East Virginia?”
“Well,” he said, taking another sip. “There’s a West Virginia.”
This shouldn’t have been as charming as it was. But a few Last Words in . . .
BlahBlah was right. Swan should make the most of it. She was in a designer dress, perfectly coiffed, Adaku would be back in four hours, and he was leaving in three. It was a Cinderella-at-the-ball situation. Everything would be over by midnight, but in the meantime . . . do it, Swan.
“I know I said one drink, but I’m thinking we’ve got more to say. Shall we get another round started?” Nick asked her.
If Adaku were perched on her shoulder, Sewanee knew exactly what she’d say right now: Him!
“Hold that thought.” She picked up her phone. “I just got a text.” She hadn’t. She pretended to read it. She didn’t. “Ah. My friend. She can’t make it to dinner. Bummer.” She looked back at Nick and something passed briefly across his eyes. Nothing meaningful, but something all the same. He looked away, held the coupe glass up to the light emanating from the crystal chandelier above them, and rolled the stem between two of those fingers. Then he plucked up the toothpick sitting in the drink, put it to his mouth. He slowly slid the black cherry off with his lips.
“So,” she heard herself say, “I have a reservation at a place with tremendously thick steaks and bottles of wine that cost more than my monthly car payment and I’m going to charge everything to my friend’s expense account.” She quickly added, “She told me to. In the text. I would never just do something like–” stop talking “–do you have the time to join me?”
Nick smoothly turned, caught the server’s eye. “Check, please, thank you so much.” He looked back at Sewanee, toothpick rolling to a languid stop in the right corner of his mouth. “I’m starving.”
She picked up her own toothpick, considered the cherry. “Me too,” she said, and slid it into her mouth with her teeth.
Chapter Six
“What Happens in Vegas”
“SO, NICK. WHAT DO YOU DO?”
He had just put the last shrimp into his mouth. “Best shrimp cocktail I’ve ever had.” He apparently had no problem speaking with his mouth full, another thing Sewanee found inexplicably charming.
She chuckled and leaned back. “So good.”
Nick swallowed and leaned forward earnestly. “So good. And as large as baby lobsters. Big shrimp! The most delicious oxymoron.”
Yes, inexplicably charming.
A busboy cleared away the destroyed remains of the appetizer and Sewanee appreciated how the candlelight danced on the table’s glass top. She appreciated Nick’s toned forearms resting on it, revealed after he’d pushed his sleeves back when the food arrived. She appreciated the swimmy feeling in her head, the glint in Nick’s hazel eyes, the way her body felt in a dress she’d never buy.
Before she could reiterate her question, the sommelier arrived with a bottle of wine. He poured a splash into a large Bordeaux glass and nudged it to Nick, who passed it to Sewanee, wordlessly correcting the somm’s gendered assumptions about who was making the decisions tonight. She thrilled at the simple gesture and said to the sommelier, “Can he have some, too?”
“Certainly!”
Once Nick was holding a glass, they tipped them toward each other, gave a delicate swirl, breathed in the aroma, and took a sip. There was a pause as they chewed the wine. They swallowed in sync, the way two people would reach for the other’s hand simultaneously.
They said, at the same time, “Wow.” They laughed. Then repeated, louder, “Wow,” and laughed again.