I shrugged as I made a left turn. “Well, I haven’t had good luck with my type.”
“I’m sorry.” Was she sorry for me not having good luck, or was she sorry for simply being herself? At this point, I had no idea which one was the case.
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault.” I flashed her a grin. “Let’s just try to have fun tonight, okay? You and I are starting over.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her nod once, though she still didn’t seem too sure.
Soon enough I pulled the car into a packed parking lot. A fancy Italian restaurant, the kind where the waiters wore all black and the food on the menu didn’t have prices listed, nor any descriptions given for the entrees you couldn’t even pronounce. I knew it would intimidate her, especially when I’d seen her walk out of her house the opposite of dressed-up, but I was here. I’d walk her through it.
Why was I taking her to the fanciest place around? It wasn’t like I was trying to impress her, but…
Okay, maybe that’s what I was trying to do. Sue me. I wanted to make up for last weekend, and I didn’t want her to think of me as the slouched, hoodie-wearing older brother of her sister’s boyfriend. I wanted to blow everything she thought she knew about me from her mind.
As we got out of the car, Bree watched another couple walk towards the restaurant’s front doors. She looked at their outfits, and then down at herself. “I’m not dressed for a place like this.”
No, she wasn’t, but that was okay. They wouldn’t deny us service.
I moved around the car, offering her my arm as I stood beside her. “Follow my lead, and no one will look twice at you.”
Bree ducked her head at that, and I immediately wondered if it was the wrong thing to say. Maybe this girl was used to no one looking twice at her.
It took her a long while, but eventually she slid her arm around mine, her hand gingerly resting on my forearm, which allowed me to take the lead and start bringing us through the parking lot. I’d made a reservation earlier in the week—yeah, I totally had this date planned way ahead of time, not that Bree needed to know it.
Walking her to her front door last weekend…I didn’t know. Something inside of me had changed that night, I guess, as I stood at the base of the porch steps and gazed up at her. Or, rather, at her, because she was a pretty short girl.
We were seated right away, in a snug little booth in the corner of the restaurant. The lighting inside was dim, small glass globes resting above each individual table. The place was packed, mostly with older couples on a date night, wearing clean-pressed clothes and suits. I would venture to say Bree was the youngest one in the restaurant, including all of the wait staff.
Once our drinks were ordered, I had to help her choose what to get for her entree. She tried telling me she didn’t want anything, but I wasn’t going to take that for an answer. I explained to her what everything on the menu was, and she was unreadable. It was like nothing at all in particular caught her eye or sounded good to her, so in the end I made the choice, well aware that she probably wouldn’t eat it, but oh well.
At least I tried, right?
After our waiter came back with our drinks and took our order, along with taking the leather-clad menus away, I watched as Bree ran a finger down the side of the glass in front of her. She got water, big shocker there.
The more I stared at her, the more I wondered about her. She certainly didn’t remind me of any twenty-year-old. She looked so…serious, so lost in her own mind. And sad. Very, very sad.
“So,” I started, giving her a small grin.
Bree was cautious in meeting my stare, whispering as she repeated, “So.”
God, it felt like so long since I’d had to do this, talk on a date. Get to know someone else. I caught myself about to ask if she’d ever been here, but I knew she hadn’t. Instead, I found myself saying, “Kyle mentioned you don’t get out much.” Shit. Probably not the best thing to bring up on a date, her nonexistent social life. “How come?”
Her eyes had widened a bit at my question, and she looked like she wanted to fold into herself and disappear. That wouldn’t happen on my watch. Not tonight. Not now. Right now this girl was my responsibility, my date, and I would not let her pretend she didn’t exist.
Her teeth nibbled her bottom lip, something that I knew was a habit of hers when she was nervous. She did it an awful lot last weekend, while I was too busy wishing I wasn’t there. “I don’t know. I just…don’t.”
Ah. Right. That made sense.
I realized then I’d have to pry every single word out of her tonight. This was not going to be easy.
“Why not?” I leaned on the table, studying her posture. She did not sit with her shoulders squared; she sat hunched into herself, again, making herself appear even smaller than she already was. “You never go out with friends?”
“I don’t really…have friends. They all went to different colleges, and I—” Bree shifted her weight, looking immensely uncomfortable telling me this. “—I didn’t keep in touch.”
With social media and cell phones, not keeping in touch was not an excuse these days. I knew friends drifted apart—hah, yeah, I
