“Oh, you thought that, did you?”
“I mean, not that I’ve thought about it that much, but…” She cleared her throat. “Well, I did hear some women talking when I was at the precinct a couple weeks ago.”
That got his attention. “And what were they saying?” “That you weren’t dating anyone at the moment.”
He shook his head and poured more wine for the both of them. “Well, yeah. I’ve been sort of out of the social scene for a little while.”
“How long’s a little while?”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “About five years. Give or take.”
“Five years?” Handsome Ben Hanson had been out of the dating game for five years? That was very hard to believe.
He shook his head. “I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s just…” He blew out a shaky breath and took a sip of his wine.
“You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”
Ben looked at her, his face tense. “No, it’s okay. It’s not a secret, anyhow. I was engaged for a while to… to someone. She… was murdered.”
She swallowed hard. “Oh, my God. I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago. It’s one of the reasons I’m so dedicated to my job. Sometimes too dedicated. I get in trouble for doing things my way instead of following the rules to the letter. But socially… I just haven’t really gotten back on the horse, you know? I’ve been focusing completely on work and the time has just slipped through my fingers.”
“I totally understand.”
“I’m sure you’re sorry you agreed to come out with me tonight, aren’t you?”
She covered his hand with hers. “If you think that, then you really don’t know me very well.”
Ben smiled at her. “I’m glad you feel that way. But so much for light dinner conversation, huh?”
“Small talk’s for wimps.”
“Eden,” Darrak said. “This guy is damaged goods. I wasn’t sure what was off about him but now I know. He’s not right for you. Too much baggage. You don’t want that. Let’s get out of here.”
Not a chance.
“Hello? Are you listening to me?” Darrak asked after a moment.
“More wine?” Ben asked.
“Please.” She held out her glass. “And let’s toast to new beginnings.”
He nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
The waiter, now limping a little from his near fall, delivered the food soon after. Eden found that she was able to hold up her end of the conversation even without help from her inner demon.
Ben had been through a lot. It made her feel really lucky that she was the girl he wanted to go out with after all this time.
Considering the price of the food, the no-substitutions-allowed pasta was bland. So was the fish. Instead of complaining, she salted and peppered the food liberally.
“You probably shouldn’t do that,” Darrak said. “Too much sodium is unhealthy.”
She added extra salt just to be contrary.
“Fine, ignore me. But just know that salt and demons don’t go together so well. It’s actually a well-known fact. You might feel strange if you try to eat that.”
She tried not to roll her eyes and took a bite of her fish. It tasted much better now. But Darrak was right, the now salty food made her tongue tingle a little.
“Is there something wrong?” Ben asked.
“Wrong?”
“You’re… um…” His brow lowered and he gestured toward his mouth. “You have a little something… uh…”
She brought her hand up to her mouth and felt something wet. And foamy.
She brought a cloth napkin up to her face and wiped, which took care of the foam and all of her lipstick. More foam immediately surged forward.
“I must be allergic to something in the pasta,” she said, her voice muffled by the napkin and the continuing stream of disgusting foam pouring out of her mouth.
“Yeah,” Darrak replied. “It was all the salt you put on it. Like I said, not a good combo. Now I’m feeling extremely dehydrated.”
“Excuse me, Ben.” She got up from the table and quickly made a beeline to the restroom. The mirror confirmed she looked like a rabid hound from Hell. She rinsed out her mouth with water until the foam stopped flowing freely. It took a while.
When it was taken care of she glared at her reflection. The restroom was otherwise empty. “That wasn’t funny.”
“Wasn’t my fault. I warned you.”
“You didn’t tell me what would happen.”
“Then consider this a lesson in what not to do when you’re possessed by a demon. No salt, even out of a shaker. Bad. Very bad. Imagine what would happen with tons of the stuff.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Salt is used to either trap a demon or keep the demon out of places.”
“How does it work?”
“What do I look like, a walking encyclopedia? I don’t know. It just does. I’ve never seen anyone possessed eat it and get that particular and oddly entertaining result though. I guess you’re just special.”
“So you didn’t do that on purpose to make me look stupid?” she asked, feeling her anger quickly slipping away.
“Why would I want you to look stupid?”
“It’s just…” Eden studied her reflection in the bank of mirrors set into the blue-tiled wall. “You said you’d help me out a lot more than you have. I feel like all you’ve been doing is sitting back tonight and heckling the performance. That wasn’t exactly our deal, was it?”
There was a long silence. “You’re absolutely right. And I’m sorry. I had every intention of helping, but…”
“But what?”
“I don’t like golden boy.”
“His name is Ben.”
“Whatever. I don’t like him so I am having a hard time helping because of that.”
“What don’t you like about him?”
“I don’t like the way he looks at you.”
She frowned. “The way he looks at me? How does he look at me?”
“Like he wants to have sex with you.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”
“Don’t you see it? He was undressing you with his eyes.”
“I’m actually okay with that.”
“Now I’m grateful you decided against the red dress. That was much more alluring than this blue abomination.”
“Look, Darrak,” she studied her reflection. “I like him. I like him a lot. And I really want tonight to go well. I want Ben to be a part of my future so I don’t want to scare him off with any strange behavior. Please. I promised to help you and you promised to help me. And how can you be so cruel after everything he’s been through?”
“Yeah. And the fact he’d bring up a dead fiancee during a first date doesn’t strike you as a play to get the sympathy vote? Women love a good sob story. Five years without dating anyone. Sure. I believe it.”
“Darrak!”
“Sorry,” he said, sullenly. “I’ll behave myself. It just won’t be easy. And I’m still going to call him golden
