I didn’t want to be the kind of person who focused on money and prices. But it had been a long, long time since I’d had really good food in an expensive restaurant, and it wasn’t like I was going to put out because Josh bought me dinner. He was looking at me like a puppy begging for someone to rub his belly. “Fine. I’m going to pretend I didn’t see the prices.”
He grinned. “Why don’t I just tell you what they have, and you pick without seeing what it costs? Because otherwise you’re going to pick the cheapest thing. Which is lobster, by the way.”
I snorted and pressed a hand over my mouth. “Lobster is not the cheapest thing on this menu.”
Josh used his quick reflexes to snag the menu from me. “Sorry, but it definitely is. How long since you’ve had some good, cheap lobster?”
“It’s been a while.”
Josh tucked my menu under his and kept them both out of my reach. “Hmmm. You have a point. Lobster is cheaper with one of these shitty steaks.”
The waiter stopped behind Josh, a pained look on his face.
“Um, Josh, I think this man wants to take our order.”
Josh jumped. He looked at the waiter with rounded eyes, but managed to order some wine, the cheap lobster and shitty steak, along with appetizers. The waiter was polite but cool.
As soon as he left, I dissolved into giggles. Josh reached over and poked me. “That’s not polite, laughing at the servers.”
I swallowed another laugh. “His face when you said shitty steak.”
He shrugged. “I’m just a dumb jock.”
That removed any desire to laugh. “That’s not true.”
“I barely finished high school. Never got more education.”
“I’m at university now, Josh, and I guarantee you that a college degree does not equate to intelligence.”
“Katie, you’re nice, but we know I’m not smart.”
This was one of the things that really rubbed me the wrong way. “You aren’t a person who learns well from reading and sharing knowledge in standardized tests.”
He rolled his eyes. “And how else do you figure out if someone is smart?”
I waved my hand over the table. “We’re here, eating at an expens—” He opened his mouth to argue so I switched to, “At a restaurant that serves cheap lobster and shitty steaks. You make millions of dollars, according to the salary that’s published, and I know you have some sponsorship deals too, right?”
He shrugged, cheeks slightly pink.
“You have your own place, take care of it and yourself. And you must be hockey smart or you wouldn’t be playing in the NHL.”
“It sounds a lot better when you say it.”
I held up a finger. “Plus, you can carry on an intelligent conversation about Star Wars for hours, if someone is willing to listen.”
“A lot of people don’t think that Star Wars is important.”
I leaned forward over the table. “People can be smart about popular, commercially viable things just as well as about Greek philosophers or classical music. You can also be stupid about Greek philosophers and classical music, or Star Wars.”
Josh smiled at me, a warm smile that sent fizzy bubbles through my body. “You’ve always made me feel better about myself.”
I liked that comment more than I should have. “You did the same for me. I thought I wasn’t pretty, or interesting to boys.”
He cocked his head. “I remember, but I told you, you were hot and a lot of fun. How did you put it back then? Big boobs do not equate to pretty or interesting.”
I rolled my eyes. “In high school they did.”
“Not for me.” The sincerity was impossible to miss, and he was right. I had bigger boobs now than I did then, but he hadn’t ever made me feel like I was lacking. Until that breakup text.
