My Secret Mobster Boyfriend

It Won't End In Tragedy, Right?

The first thing Dray learned about Cate that night was that she loved all different kinds of food.

In fact, he didn't know a woman could eat this much. He had taken girls to star restaurants and they claimed they were full after the meal. Ridiculous. Noone was ever full after the tiny portions that were served there. He always had to get a late-night snack afterward to appease his hunger.

Dray had also eaten lunch with his private secretary before after she had managed to complete a special task, but she always counted her calories and only lived off of salat and weird-smelling smoothies, making it was hard to find anything to feed her. Compared to this, Cate's appetite was a pleasant surprise. For once he wasn't the only one eating.

They had stopped at almost every food stand along the way, trying grill skewers with various kinds of meat, different types of pasta and also a number of fried vegetables as well as seafood. He inhaled all the different smells: hearty, smoked, sweet and even sour. Now they were onto the second round of dessert and Dray actually wondered how her little body could take all these portions.

He couldn't remember ever doing something like that before. Usually, he would pick a restaurant and just stay there. This way, he was easily to be guarded by his men. But he had to admit that it was fun. He got to try dishes which he had never eaten before.

He himself wasn't a picky eater, but Cate was surely on another level. When it came to food, she was fearless. She had even looked at a small stand with grilled insects with interest, but Dray had quickly pulled her away. When she had noticed his face, she had just quietly chuckled but decided not to address the issue. Dray was rather thankful for it. He was a feared mobster boss, but for some reason, he had never felt comfortable with those ugly little creatures...

"So... should we try and get to know each other better now that you are not starving anymore?" he asked after Cate dropped her latest paper plate in a nearby rubbish bin.

"I'm getting to know you already, but sure..." Cate answered mysteriously, handing him another spit with dark chocolate-coated fruits which he silently started to eat.

Dray looked at her so she would continue talking.

"You like all sorts of meat and most of the seafood as long as it's nothing too special like blue mussels. You are fine with the majority of noodle styles and, although you don't seem like an overly sweet guy, you enjoy the dessert you are eating right now. You hate insects and, by the way you scrutinized them,  I expect it's not just about the food..." she retorted and Dray couldn't deny that she had summed him up pretty well.

It dawned on him that, as a doctor, she needed to have at least some observation skills to diagnose the diseases of her patients. Previously, there had been moments when he had wondered if she was a bit slow; he knew better now. Cate paid careful attention when she focussed. But she also appeared to be caught up in her own world a lot of the time, pondering over things she didn't like to share. This distracted her from what was happening around her quite often.

"You, on the other hand, eat pretty much everything, no matter how gross it looks," Dray countered, half-serious and half-jokingly.

"Hey, don't talk down on food! It's what we need most after water," Cate exclaimed in a playful yet slightly offended voice and softly nudged him with her elbow out of reflex.

It was another one of those moments when her reaction surprised him. However, given their goals, he considered it a good thing that she seemed to relax around him.

"And you are violent when you don't like an answer," he added teasingly, trying to go with the flow. But, unlike what he predicted, his remark caused Cate to instantly become shy again.