Page 26 of Cognac Secrets
“Ah, not bad. I’ll just pay it and get on with life. No big deal.”
“I feel like it’s my fault and I should pay half,” I said and he laughed.
“Nah, the risk was all mine. I knew what I was doing. Besides,” he said. “It’s my bad for not having a spare, which I aim to fix that right now. We can go grab some dinner and forget this little stumbling block even happened.”
“Seems more than reasonable,” I said with a smile and he smiled too.
“Great,” he said and that was that. He let it go, the whole interaction with the cops. He didn’t swear or rage or let it linger and ruin anything.
It was nice… different. It was like, dare I say, he was an actual adult.
I couldn’t help my smile as we walked steadily on, and I was honestly so grateful the cop hadn’t made such a big deal about getting in touch with my family. I was actuallysuperglad for it.
When we got to the Harley dealership, Bennie even held the door.
CHAPTERSEVEN
Bennie…
I had her fitted for a helmet and picked out something suitably pretty for her, with an airbrushed skull and flowers on it. She balked at the extra price, but you know what? I didn’t care. She’d hung in there, hadn’t judged or pried, and I appreciated it.
“This is really too much,” she tried one last time when I brought out my card to pay for it.
“It’s not. I’m buying it, and you just need to hush,” I said with a grin.
“Austin…” she said glancing at my card. “Austin Irby. I never would have guessed that in a million years,” she said.
“Yeah?” I asked.
She smiled at me and said, “You look like a Bennie, not an Austin.”
I laughed then and shook my head.
“Come on,” I said, taking the receipt and stuffing it in my wallet. We didn’t take any of the packaging, just the helmet, and walked out the door, headed back down the street for my bike.
When we got to the parking lot, the cop was still in his cruiser parked where he’d been in full view of the bike. I went over to it, stuck the key in, and told Sandrine to let me back it out before she got on. I put my helmet on, and she put on her new one, and then hysterically vogued and did a little dance for the cop, showing it off. He smirked and chuffed a laugh, shaking his head, but there was nothing he could do about it. We were legal. The citation was riding in my pocket, and it was done.
I backed the bike out of the spot, Sandy got on behind me, and she blew him a little kiss with a wave as we pulled off. I couldn’t help but laugh.
She had spunk, and I liked that.
The ride to our final destination was short, and it wasn’t a place that was much to look at. It’s parking lot small, the corner business not having much fanfare to it other than the sign out at the street and the blue-and-white awning over the door.
Charles Seafood was one of the best spots around and was a nice enough place for an official first date – I guess, if that was what this was.
Shit.
I honestly didn’t know what I wanted right now. I did know I wanted to spend more time with Sandy, I just didn’t know in what capacity, you know? I was maybe too fucked up for anything serious. I didn’t know… but judging by two nights ago? It was seriously pretty jacked up.
“Two?” one of the waitresses bustling around the small front dining room asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Gimme just a second,” she said.
She fulfilled the drink order in her hands, swept by the empty podium, and grabbed two menus, and said, “Y’all come on this way, now,” with a cheerful smile.
We followed her, threading through the occupied tables out front and bypassed a few unoccupied ones that would have suited us as well, to go up the few steps to the back raised part of the dining room. She did us a solid and sat us at a small, two-person table at the back and I nodded, taking the seat with my back to the wall out of habit.
