Hmm.“Good point. And I wouldn’t necessarily classify good takeout as a total gamechanger. Unless it’s like…reallygood.”
“What if he’s going to finally ask you out?”
I wish.But I refused to get my hopes up. “He’s not going to do that. Because if he does, bad people will kill me. Or something like that.”
“Maybe he got rid of them.”
“I doubt it. And anyway, I’m not sure he likes me like that. Two weeks ago he took me to a sauna so I could bang some rando named Karl.” Kind of. It had been a terrible misunderstanding and I could still picture how upset Tanner looked when he thought I was going to go through with it. Either way, thatsauna had haunted my dreams. Although not always in a bad way. Because in my dreams, Karl and his friends all looked like Tanner. And I didn’t run away from them. I crossed my legs and tried not to think about it.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” said Chastity. “He could have just been testing you. Or maybe he’s a swinger and he doesn’t want to ask you out until he knows you’re cool with his lifestyle.”
“I guess I’ll find out tonight.”Maybe.
***
“So what’s my surprise?” I asked as Tanner and I dug in to our takeout.
“You mean this Michelin-star risotto isn’t a good enough surprise? In that case…” He grabbed my bowl and took it away.
“Hey! That’s mine!”
“Oh? Because just a second ago you were talking about how it wasn’t a worthy surprise.”
“No. It was a good surprise.” Just not the surprise I had been hoping for. I tried to visualize him getting on one knee and asking me out. Wait, that was how people proposed. Well…that wouldn’t be so bad. I’d say yes to that. I cleared my throat when Irealized he was staring at me. “But I think that calling it a game-changing surprise was overselling it a bit.”
“You’re right,” said Tanner. “Your real surprise is like…a thousand times better than this.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Well can I have it?”
“Let’s wait until I’m finished eating all this.” He picked up his spoon and acted like he was about to dig into my bowl.
“Don’t you dare!” I snatched it back from him just in time. And then I made sure to put it well out of his reach.
“Don’t I dare eat your food? Or make you wait for your surprise?”
“Eat my food. Actually, both. You know I hate waiting.”Why do we have to wait until after dinner?That kind of did make it seem like it was gonna be a sex thing. I gulped and tried to focus on the delicious risotto rather than his delicious cock. God, why was my mind even going there? He wasn’t going to ask me out.Or is he?
He smiled at me, like he could hear the internal struggle going on in my brain. “Don’t you have a question to ask me tonight? Chastity wanted to know if I’m a vampire, yes?”
I laughed. “Nice try, buddy. But I’m not gonna waste my question on that nonsense. Tonight I’m going to get to the heart of your deepest, darkest secret.”
“You’re welcome to try.” His eyes dropped to the side of my neck.
Holy shit.He was just trying to throw me off.I hope.I took a long drink of water to give myself time to decide which question I wanted to ask him. I’d narrowed it down to two options.Where were you born?Or… “Who was your high school crush?”
He choked on his risotto.
“Yes! I knew this was gonna be a good one.”
He took a big swig of water and cleared his throat. “You know you just celebrated me nearly choking to death, right?”
“Well it sounds bad when you put it like that. But you’re fine. You’re talking. Now spill it. Who was your high school crush?”
“I went to an all-boys school.”
“Is that your way of telling me that you experimented in high school?”
He nodded. “We did experiments, yes.”
