“I used it like currency,” Michael continues. “I also did my due diligence and taught my younger brothers the same principle. Cats are the perfect excuse for everything.” He picks up his pizza. “They have never failed me.”
I swallow my food. “Until now?”
He shakes his head. “It didn’t fail.”
I lift a shoulder. “I caught you in the lie.”
The grin he shoots me has me rethinking this date. If one smile can cause a swarm of bees to take off in my stomach, there’s no way my heart will be safe.
“But you’re still here. So, it feels like a win.” He winks. “It also got us out of a rodent-infested restaurant, so you’re welcome.”
He’s a flirt. But there’s only one way to my heart, and it’s through a dark cave and a haunted graveyard of the past, only to end up in an empty castle.
Something about Michael makes me think he’d still try.
“So, tell me something you’ve never told anyone before,” he says.
That’s not a question I prepared for. “Um.” I tug on the end of my hair, then twist it around my fingers. “You first.”
“Okay.” He grabs another slice of pizza. “But you have to promise not to laugh at me.”
I bite my bottom lip. “Is it worse than falling over in your chair and blaming a cat?”
“You’re right. Probably not.” He takes another bite of pizza before continuing. “In that case, I’m going to have to swear you to secrecy on both accounts. My brothers would have a field day with this kind of information.”
I bite my bottom lip, excited at the thought of knowing something no one else knows about him. “But what if this goes terribly wrong? I’ll need to complain to my roommates, and I’ll need ammunition.”
Michael fights a smile and loses. I like when he loses.
“Okay, fine,” he concedes. “But you have to leave my name out of it.”
“Deal.” I pop my hand across the table before I can think better of it. He takes it in his and shakes. The movement rocks something else inside me. Something cold and hard around my heart trembles. “Out with it.” I say to him and the earthquake in my chest. I pull my hand from his warm and calloused fingers and rub my palm on the vinyl booth. Get off, tingles. You are unwelcome here.
Michael takes a deep breath. “I only like country music and… Justin Bieber.”
I shrug. “I like Justin Bieber, too. Mostly.” Some of his songs could be better.
Michael scratches at his five o’clock shadow. I wonder what he’d look like with a full beard.
“Well, I went to a concert. By myself. Screamed like a little girl and bought a t-shirt.”
It takes me a full ten seconds to process this information. “Do you have video evidence of this?”
He pulls out his phone and within a minute has a recording of himself, up in the nosebleeds at a Justin Bieber concert, surrounded by women and preteen girls.
I promised I wouldn’t, but I laugh. A little. “I’m sorry.” I cover my mouth. “I can see you are very confident.”
He scratches his arm. “Most of the time.”
It’s a confidence I wish I possessed. He’s not a showoff, but simply content with who he is. Well, mostly. I understand why he felt the need to hide that from his brothers.
“Okay.” He straightens in his chair and picks up his cup. “I’ve embarrassed myself enough for one night. Mind taking some of the pressure off me here?”
I tap my chin. What have I never told anyone? I think Disneyland is overrated. I don’t want to get married.
Yikes, not that.
“I got my bellybutton pierced.”
