Marcus came by with the new beers and the pizza and he escaped with only a death glare. As I munched away at my prosciutto pie, I found my mind wandering to the time I first met her, that fucked up night in the lighthouse. I’d felt something at that moment for her, whether it was lust or a certain connection, I couldn’t be too sure. I had no idea I’d be lucky enough to have her sitting across from me at Zeke’s as something more than a stranger. I had no idea that this tiny little woman with all her insecurities and bravery would become my everything.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked after she drank a healthy swig of her beer.
“About the first time we met.”
“In Oregon?”
“In the lighthouse. You ran into me. Remember?”
“That’s something you can never forget.”
“So what was it like for you?”
She put down her beer and stared out the window. Fat raindrops began to fall, hitting the glass with the gusts of wind that were whipping up. Looked like a stormy night, much like the one that brought us together.
“I thought you were…”
“Nuts?”
She let out a laugh. “Well that was a given, considering you were in an abandoned lighthouse, alone, and trying to capture a ghost on film. Seriously, if that’s not nuts, I don’t know what is.”
I finished my beer and wiped my mouth, leaning back in my seat. “Oh, I don’t know, Miss Pot Calling the Sexy Kettle Black, how about a girl who decided to go off by herself in the darkness to explore said lighthouse, just for, what was it again? Kicks?”
“I don’t do anything for kicks.”
“Well you kicked in the window with your weird ninja moves.”
“At least I wasn’t trespassing,” she shot back, as if it all happened just yesterday.
“Trespassing gets you everywhere. If I hadn’t broken in and explored that lighthouse, I wouldn’t be exploring you right now.”
She rolled her eyes. If she hadn’t seemed so nervy I would have joked about the futility of a Keep Out sign on her vagina.
“So that’s it,” I pressed. “You thought I was nuts? Nothing else?”
“Obviously I thought you were cute.”
“Just cute?”
“Hey, you think I’m cute.”
I shook my head. “I think you’re cute and sexy and gorgeous and outstandingly fuckable. You meet all the requirements for one infuriatingly hot piece of ass, an ass that I’d love to shoot hot—”
She shot me a warning look. The mother of a family of four across from us was giving me the stinkeye. Whoops.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized to the mother. “It’s our first date.”
“And will probably be your last,” she muttered to herself and turned back to her kids. One was still staring at me with a frightened expression. I’d forgotten I had that effect on children.
“I get it,” Perry said quickly, bringing my attention back to her. “Though I have to say your wooing skills need some work.”
“These are my wooing skills,” I said, raising my hands and wiggling my fingers, “and from what I can tell, they work just fine.”
“Dex.”
“Miss Palomino.”
We watched each other for a few moments before breaking out into simultaneous grins. For a first date it was going pretty well. For Perry and I, getting to know each other on another level, it was going spectacularly.
And we hadn’t even gotten to dessert yet.