“Well, I’ve always grown up in the Bay Area, actually. My family hails from Italy, but my parents and their siblings all were born here. I’ve always considered myself something of a homebody, so when I got drafted by the Giants, that was like a dream come true—and one that ensured my early days of minor league ball were sane.”
“Italy,” I said. “Interesting. I guess it makes sense with the Ferrari last name.”
“Yep. Grandfather started out in Vegas, actually, moved to the Bay Area maybe…forty, fifty years ago? He always tells us he wanted to open a wine business, but we think there’s something more to it. He won’t ever say anything, though.”
There were two things that were both true. One, I still couldn’t believe I was sitting across the table from Nick Ferrari and still wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it toward the end of dinner. Two, he had my full attention and had me very curious to see what more would come.
Conversation gradually shifted into more general topics as I slowly eased into a sense of rhythm and relaxation. I never got to the point that I would on a normal first date, but it wasn’t like I didn’t settle in a little bit. Nick just had a personality that made it feel like you could let your guard down around him; I wasn’t capable of doing that even with my son, but Nick sure made it come as close as possible.
That was, until the dessert came around and we started to wind down the evening.
“Am I allowed to say something honest this early?” Nick said, but I knew full well he’d ask the question no matter what I said.
“Of course.”
He cleared his throat, put his elbows on the table, and leaned forward. God, that put me in a fucking tizzy. It wasn’t fair how a man that handsome could get a woman to just act a certain way around him.
“As an athlete, you meet a lot of people. Sometimes, those people say they want to grow up to be pro athletes, but you look at them, and you think ‘you won’t make it.’ Similarly, a lot of people in dating say they want to be in a relationship or married, but there’s nothing about them that makes you think they will.”
He smirked. Again, the way he made me tingle…
“You, on the other hand, I say this in the nicest way possible, I can’t believe you’re single. Unless you have some surprises.”
He laughed at his own joke, but I felt like this was the spot to drop any charades of me being a normal, perfect woman. We’d had a good dinner, but now, at least, if Nick wanted nothing to do with me, we could part at the ideal point in the meal.
“You do have some surprises,” he said, his smile gradually fading.
“Nick, if you’re going to say something honest, then I’m going to return the favor,” I said. Here goes nothing. Better to cut something off like this sooner rather than later. “I’m a single mother. The dad is out of the picture, long story, but the reason I have such drive and focus is that I have a three-year-old boy that is my world. My parents help me raise him, but he comes first in everything. And you need to know that I am not some perfect woman; I am a single mother who is devoted fully and entirely to making her son happy. Full stop. Nothing else matters.”
I couldn’t exactly say that I went on a ton of first dates, but the ones I did go on, this was usually where the buck and everything else stopped. The one guy who had gone on a second date with me had said he was fine with it, but I knew from his reaction he was lying. I waited for Nick to have a similar reaction and mentally prepared myself for the worst.
But instead, Nick just shrugged, and his nonchalance with my revelation seemed quite genuine.
“That sounds great,” he said. “I guess it’s just proof you’re a great mother already.”
“What?” I said, unsure that he was actually saying what I thought he was saying. “You…”
“Of course I want kids of my own,” he said. “Don’t worry; we’ll get to that.”
From just about any other guy, that would have sounded downright creepy, maybe a little disturbing, certainly not attractive. And yet, Nick just had this psychological grip on me without ever having laid a hand on me…
“But I think it’s a terrible decision to mentally exclude women from the list of potential suitors just because they have a kid. Obviously, it could be a deal-breaker, but you being a high-level professional could be a deal-breaker too. I try to keep an open mind about things.”
This guy is way too good to be true. There has to be another shoe that drops somewhere in here. But so far, the only thing dropping was my jaw in disbelief.
“Well, we’ll see if you still say that on the next date,” I said.
Nick’s smile widened, and I could only facepalm in reaction to the slip-up I had just had. I guessed we were going to go on a second date. I wasn’t sure that I was really “ready” for it, but if I kept waiting until I thought I was ready, Ryan was probably going to get married before I even went on a third date.
“I guess we will,” he said.
The waiter came with the bill right after, and Nick paid it without looking at the bill. I wasn’t of the mind that his money made him more attractive, but it definitely didn’t hurt to see that a fancy dinner for two at a luxurious steakhouse in downtown Sacramento didn’t even cause him to bat an eyelash.
“Can I walk you out?” he said.
