Page 20 of Fortuity
“C’mon, you know you’d rather have some homemade pasta instead of whatever crap they’re serving in the cafeteria tonight,” hecoaxed.
“ButI—”
“Take a whiff. You can smell how delicious it is from here, even with the doors and windowsclosed.”
I breathed in, and the scent of garlic, tomatoes, and olive oil filled my nose. “Oh, wow. It doessmellgood.”
“It tastes evenbetter.”
“Fine,” I huffed. “I guess I can eat some pasta for dinnertonight.”
Dillon waited until we were on the sidewalk, and he was guiding me through the restaurant’s front door before he responded. “It’s a good thing you agreed because there was no way I was leaving here without eating the fuck out of someItalianfood.”
Startled laughter burst out of me, and I glanced up to find his brown eyes were filled with humor—just like they’d been when I’d spotted him on campus my first day of school. And damn if it didn’t make my heart race like it had back then...but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to give him ahardtime.
“What would you have done if I’drefused?”
He bent his head low before answering. “If the sniff test hadn’t worked, I would have told you I couldn’t resist ordering myself some takeout to bring home with me. Not when I was this close to one of my favoriterestaurants.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t be able to deny you one of your favorites?” I whispered back as the hostess approached us with two menus in herhands.
“Table for two?” sheasked.
“Yes, please,” hereplied.
“Rightthisway.”
We followed behind as she led us to a booth in the back corner of therestaurant.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t be able to,” Dillon said after we wereseated.
“Hoping I wouldn’t be abletowhat?”
“Deny me a meal from my favoriterestaurant.”
“Ah, yeah.” The heat of his hand on my lower back as we’d walked across the restaurant had scattered my braincells. “That.”
A busser came over and poured ice water into the glasses in front of us and left a basket of bread with butter on thetable.
“I would have made it worth your while,though.”
A vivid image of exactly how he could’ve done that popped into my brain—one involving both of us naked—and I almost choked on the sip of water I’d just taken. “Pardon?” I asked once my coughing fitwasover.
“I was going to add a few of their best dishes to my order so you’d have plenty of food to take back to your dorm with you.” He widened his dark eyes, pretending to be all innocent, but the wicked gleam in them gave him away. “Why? What’d you think I was goingtosay?”
“Exactly that,” I muttered, opening up my menu to hide behind it while I searched for options that best fitmydiet.
“Uh-huh. Sure it was,” he chuckled. “I’m willing to place a high stake bet that your idea for how I could do it was a hell of a lot more interestingthanmine.”
My cheeks heated as I thought about how that would only happen if he could’ve found someone to bet against him, and it sure as hell wouldn’t have been me. Luckily, he let the subject drop and offered me suggestions for the best items to order. My mouth watered at the manicotti and lasagna listed on the menu, but all that cheese and tomato sauce meant their sodium content was pretty high. I might’ve risked ordering one of them, but the pasta primavera sounded pretty good, too. It was a safer option; pasta with lots of sautéed vegetables and grilled chicken breast in an olive oil based sauce with some fresh, chopped tomato. But I still let out a little whimper when Dillon ordered thelasagna.
“You can have a bite of mine if you’ll give me a taste of your pasta,” he offered. “I’ve never ordered that onebefore.”
“Sure, that’d begreat.”
“Other than watching your diet, is there anything special you need to do because of thetransplant?”
I didn’t like talking about my medical care with anyone other than my doctor, his nurses, or Sarah. So it was a surprise when I found myself answering his question without any additional prodding on his part. “I’ll be on anti-rejection meds for the rest of my life, and I’ll always have to wear this”—I pulled the medical alert tag I wore on a necklace out from under my shirt so he could see it—“just in case something happens because the meds make me immune-suppressed.”
