Western Flame

Chapter 14

She had picked Indian food.

Somewhere he would never have thought to set foot in before tonight. It wasn't as if he didn't try new things. Jake was expanding his mind to different food cultures, and always complained his palate wouldn't know the difference between good food and cardboard.

He reckoned that he was in for it as he stared down at his plate, where Liana was dishing out a bright orange sauce overtop of some rice, and then plopped some oval flatbread beside it that smelled like garlic and butter. There was also a dish with green sauce that had white chunks in it. It looked wholly unappetizing to his uneducated eye.

She had given him one of those looks to challenge him to say no the moment she pulled into the parking lot, but he was not going to give her the satisfaction of succeeding in shocking him. So he'd said nothing and held the door open for her when they walked in. She ordered, because he didn't know what he was looking at, and just said "Get your favourites".

"What is this stuff anyway? I've never seen food that colour of orange before," he said.

She didn't reply right away, just looked over the table at him as she tore into her bread, folding it to pinch up some of the sauce and rice using her fingers. He eyeballed her abandoned fork.

"It's called Tikka Masala. It has chicken in it. The orange colour is the combination of paprika and turmeric, the heavy cream added in at the end lightens it to that colour. Don't tell me you've never eaten Indian food before," Liana said, as she chewed.

"Nope. I suppose I should have but we don't have a restaurant like this in Brightside," he replied, feeling chastised like a kid who was refusing to eat his peas.

"Don't worry, I ordered it mild. Some folks can't handle the heat."

Well, he had to try it, and given he was hungry, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. He looked at the flatbread again, and decided not to eat with his hands and advertise he was out of his element. Not today at least. Picking up the fork, he did as she had, mixing some rice into the sauce and taking a bite.

Not spicy his ass. It had a kick like the hot wings from The Minute Man in town, but the flavour burned all the way back to his throat. He cleared his throat and reached for his water. He looked up to Liana with her hand covering her mouth, trying to laugh quietly. That was a feat in itself.

"This isn't mild," he coughed once he'd drained half his glass. It had a really deep tomato flavour to it, but damned if the heavy spicing wasn't going to kill him later. Sweat beaded his brow as he shovelled another forkful in. Brady would find this hilarious if he were here.

"Ahh, well, yeah. Mild can still mean rather hot to you meat and potato guys," Liana teased.

"Very funny," Tanner replied, and looked for his napkin to mop his forehead discreetly while she giggled some more.

She let out one of her happy sighs, and he swivelled his focus to her as she leaned on her bent wrists and looked around the restaurant. "I fell in love with this place when I came here for school. Haven't been back since."

The entire space was colourful, with pictures of elephants and women all decorated with jewellery, scenes of men in turbans. Gold and red everywhere, including the chairs. He could see her liking this, the chaos of the colours and detailed art suited her personality. It was another glimpse into who she was now, just like her apartment. He'd seen all the romance books on her shelf, the trinkets. Rocks in a vase, a picture of her with her gown at her college graduation with her foster parents.

What he hadn't expected to see was a picture of her on Dolly, that his mother had taken not long after they'd started dating. He was in that picture, turned away from the camera, holding Dolly's lead rope while she was beaming, sitting atop the horse. She'd kept it, even after all that happened. He needed to learn more about this Liana, the one he never got to experience, spicy food and all. The one he'd pushed away.