Mason nodded. “Might as well. My tongue’s not doing me any good.” He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. “Don’t make that into an innuendo.”
“Too late.” David gave his hand a little squeeze. “I’m going to guess that it makes you self conscious to eat in front of a gorgeous, sexy creature like myself.”
“I probably wouldn’t have shined you up quite so much, but…yeah.” Mason’s shoulders drooped. “Something like that. It’s not…a guy who looks like me doesn’t need to—”
“Well, we’re stopping that right now.” David reached over and lifted Mason’s chin until they were making eye contact. “You need to eat, and you deserve to eat. The only thing a guy who looks like youneedsto do is look sexy and make out with me when we get done with dinner.”
“That’s easy for you to say.”
“It’s not. At all.” David sighed. “I hate bringing it up because I don’t want you to think that it bothers me. I don’t even notice anything about your body shape or whatever until you start to act uncomfortable.”
“Right. Itotallybuy that.”
David was ready to refute that, but the waiter came back. So instead of pushing the issue directly, he smiled at the waiter. “I would like the…fufu and ofada stew.”
Then he gestured to Mason. Yes, it was putting him on the spot a little bit, but David wanted him to understand that he didn’t care about this. He didn’t want Mason walking on eggshells forever.
Chapter twenty-one
Mason
Sittingthere,withawaiter staring at him, pen poised, Mason wished he could disappear. Not that he didn’t want to spend time with David. He absolutely did, would even love to get together afterward and make out if that was really what he wanted.
The two sources of embarrassment fought inside of Mason. He could either order food and eat it in front of David, with the waiter thinking whatever he was thinking about Mason’s body, or he could make David look like a total fool.
Even though Mason was sure David could handle it, sparing him the embarrassment still won out. He quickly scanned the menu, looking for anything that caught his eye. “Can I get the otong?” It was an okra soup, and Mason didn’t get to enjoy okra all too often.May as well if I’m going for it.
The waiter took their menus away and strode off to put in their orders. Once they were alone again, Mason took a heavy gulp from his water glass, then launched back again. “I’m sorry for getting short.”
“Oh, you don’t have anything to apologize for.” David rubbed a hand up and down his face. “You should get short with me sometimes. I’m…let’s be generous and say that sometimes, I push too hard. I know I shouldn’t have put you on the spot like that. It just would burn me every time I would see you try to make yourself less than. I know the food thing is a stupid place to put my attention, but…”
It took Mason a couple seconds to realize what emotion that was. David was always so confident that Mason didn’t exactly expect to see embarrassment. Not so strongly, with his cheeks and ears flushing and his gaze downcast.
It didn’t seem to last long. David took in a deep breath, and although his volume was lower than before, his voice was still clear. “I don’t want this to be a recurring thing. I’d like this to…maybe not be the last dinner we have? A lot easier if you know I don’t care about the fact that you’re a human who sometimes eats food.”
Mason swallowed hard. “Oh. You mean—”
“I don’t just mean while you’re doing the job.” David’s usual braggadocio was bleeding back in, and Mason kicked himself for finding it so damned attractive. But when he sat up taller and got that little smirk, and tossed his hair back out of his face, Mason was even more into him than he had been two seconds earlier. “I like to think that we work pretty well. At least we have so far. And you said yourself, Pine Point isn’t all that far away. I assume you must have said that because you still live there.”
Mason nodded, his spine crackling. He wanted to smile, but he didn’t want to seem too eager. This didn’t feel real…in the best way.Is he really suggesting that we could…date?As soon asthe thought fully formed, Mason almost laughed out loud. They were in a restaurant alone, not a mention of the job, getting ready to have dinner.Yeah, I guess he is suggesting we could date.
“Okay, then can I just lay this out for you, then?”
“You lay out anything you want.” David folded his hands on the table in front of him. “I’m all ears. Whatever you need to say, I need to hear.”
Mason nodded. He did want to share this with David, but that didn’t make the words weigh any less as they gathered on his tongue. Eventually, though, enough weight building without him swallowing them back meant the words fell free. “When you tell me that you don’t care what I look like, it sounds fake. And I’m not saying you’re lying. I just look at you and know what I look like, and then I can’t help but think there’s something wrong. There’s a kneejerk thought that you must be pulling some long-term ruse or practical joke.” Mason waved his hands in front of himself. “And I’m not saying that’s what you’re doing or planning or anything.”
“I didn’t think you meant that. I don’t know if it’ll help, but I don’t have any plans like that. My only plans…I think you can figure out what my immediate plans are. We talked about making out already.”
Mason nodded with a slight laugh. “Objectively, I can see all this. It just doesn’t connect.”
“Well, can I help it connect?”
Mason froze, his brain completely locked up. All the gears of his thoughts ground to a halt and he simply let those words echo in his thoughts.
“You good?” David leaned back. “Did I break you or is this a senior moment, old man?”
Mason shook his head. “I’m only thirty. Cool your jets, whippersnapper.” Once he started talking again, Mason’s brainbegan to clunk forward once more. “I don’t know. That’s what stopped me up. I’ve never thought about anyone…how would you help those thoughts connect?”
