"Reservations for Payne. I confirmed this afternoon." I twisted the clutch nervously in my hands as Ezra spoke to the bored but beautiful hostess at the front of the restaurant. She swiped her finger across a tablet of some kind before nodding and tapping on something else. The click of her fingernail against the glass was eerily similar to that of Molly's against her phone.
"Party of two?" she asked, looking first at Ezra, then at me. I could feel her perfect green eyes sweep judgingly over me; but I must have passed inspection because she cradled the tablet in the crook of her arm and added a polite, "Follow me, please."
The table she led us to was placed almost in the direct center of the tightly packed but quiet restaurant. Two menus- fancily bound books, not the plastic covered trifolds that I found at diners all the time- were placed at each spot and a bottle of red wine sat in the center of the table. "Do you think you'd be able to move us somewhere a bit more private?" asked Ezra as the hostess gestured for us to take our seats. He slipped something into her palm and I watched her glance down with disinterest before raising one eyebrow coolly.
"Sir, it is a Friday evening in one of the busiest cities in the world, in one of the best restaurants in the city, and you have a reservation at one of our busiest times. If you did not specifically request a table out of the way, I can guarantee you that we don't have one for you. I'm sorry, but you can keep your money." She wrapped his fingers back around his money, patted his hand twice, and walked off prissily. Ezra glared down at his clenched fist, dumbfounded, before shaking his head and pulling a chair out for me to sit down.
"So you like to flash your money around, huh, rich boy?" I asked, smirking as I picked up the menu. After a second, I realized what I'd said and ducked my head shamefully. "Oh, God, I'm sorry, that was so rude of me." I struggled to open the menu before realized that it wasn't paper or plastic but a cover for a tablet similar to the one the hostess had used to check us in for our reservation.
Ezra chuckled. "No, no, I can admit it. You're right. I do flash money around, but I try and repress that urge unless I'm trying to impress someone...like you."
"Oh." I blinked roughly, slightly taken aback by the comment. "Well, you didn't need to do that to impress me. This is by far one of the most impressive things that anyone's ever done for me."
"You deserve it, Mina. You're a very impressive girl," he said as he picked up the bottle of wine and poured some into the glass by his plate. My cup was already filled with water, due to the little fact that I was still only just eighteen. He must have known that, and I guessed it was because he already knew that I was only a freshman.
"Oh, am I?" I asked, taking a sip of water. "And how would you know that?" I flicked through the tablet's menu thoughtfully, although I had to say it confused me. More than half of these words seemed to be in another language and for the few things I could understand, I had no clue what they tastes like. I would have easily killed for a burger or a quesadilla, but sole grenoblaise and squid-ink risotto were the norm for this menu.
"I have my ways." Ezra smirked at me knowingly, flicking through his own tablet with ease. He hadn't struggled with the cover and he looked oddly at home here. Most of the other diners were wearing stiff suits and fancy sport coats, even though we were inside. Fancy cufflinks decorated their wrists and plain black bowties adorned their necks. Ezra was wearing a nice button up shirt, but it was different than the others. He lacked the cufflinks and the black bowtie; the tie that he had chosen was black with ombre white swirls. The jacket he'd worn when he picked me up was now hung over the back of his chair, and it seemed as though no one but Ezra was doing this. The top button of his shirt was unbuttoned and his tie was loosened accordingly, allowing me a glance at a thin silver chain that hung around his neck. His sleeves weren't rolled up, at least, but the fabric of his white dress shirt was thin and when the light hit it in just the right way, I could see hints of a black tribal tattoo swirling delicately along his left bicep.
Fuck. I was always a sucker for a guy with tattoos. "So, does your ink have any meaning in particular or what?" I asked, pointing at his shoulder and letting my question drop off at the end. He glanced down, realized that the light was making his tattoo visible, and grinned.
"Oh, yeah." He pressed the fabric of his shirt flat against his skin, so the black markings underneath were more visible. I could see that the tattoos covered his entire left shoulder; the ink wove in and around the other lines, tracing intricate designs across his arm. "It's pretty complicated, I think, but you can pick out a few designs if you look closely. That's a wheeled triskellion...there's a Carolingian cross...and this one's my favorite. This is a knot designed specifically for me, given to me by a guy I once knew. It's from the Book of Kells."
"Was the guy Irish?" I asked as he stopped pulling on his shirt and took another sip of wine. "I mean, it's all very Celtic sounding. Is that your background or do you just have a thing for the Irish?"
He smiled briefly as he swallowed the wine. "You could say I'm part Irish. I'm pretty mixed, actually. A virtual United Nations." He took another swig of wine and put the glass down, picking up his menu. "So what do you think looks good?" He seemed eager to change the conversation to something other than his tattoos and I didn't mind.
"I'm...actually not sure," I said, smiling nervously. "I can't understand what half of these words are."
"Do you trust me?" he asked, smiling back at me comfortingly. His smile was so nice and cute that it was almost enough to put me at ease in this restaurant where I so clearly did not belong.
Almost.
"Why?" I asked suspiciously, as a young woman approached our table. Her all black ensemble, delicately pulled back hair, and cradled tablet led me to assume she was our waitress.
"Hello, and welcome to Elemantra's this evening. My name is Lorena and I'll be helping you this evening. I see that the two of you already have drinks, so can I interest you in an hors d'oeurve? We make a lovely foie gras, if you don't mind me saying so."
Ezra snapped the cover of his tablet closed and smiled at the woman. "Thank you, Lorena, but I think we'll be starting with the canapé and rillettes. Then I think I'll take a confit de canard and my date will have the coq au Riesling." He handed the tablet back to Lorena as I closed my own. "And some bread for the table would be nice, if you have it. Just something to snack on in the meantime." Somewhat stunned with the amount Ezra knew about the restaurant, I handed the tablet I was holding back to Lorena in a sort of daze.
"So you know a lot about French food?" I asked casually. Ezra shrugged in response and took a sip of wine.
"Just enough to get by. Nothing too fancy." If the ordering that had just taken place was any indication, that was just about the understatement of the year. It hit me all of a sudden, harder than it had before, that I was completely out of my league here. I had no clue what to do now, so I stood up suddenly. My chair rocked back into another table and a man glared at me angrily.
"Sorry," I muttered, scooping Nova's clutch up in my hands and fiddling with the clasp. "Um...Ezra, I have to go to the bathroom, so I'll be right back."
"Alright," I heard him say confusedly as I rushed as fast as I could into the bathroom. By the time I pushed the door open to enter the women's room, I had already called Nova and was anxiously waiting for her to pick up. The phone rang, heartstoppingly, once...twice...three times...
"Hello?"
"Nova, I need your help. I'm so out of place here, way out of my league. Tell me how to act rich and fancy!" The words tumbled from my lips as I sat down on one of the chairs that decorated the entry way of the restroom.
"What?" Nova asked as I clutched the phone to my ear. "What are you talking about?" When I bit my lip and declined to answer, she sighed angrily. "Mina!"
"It's just...it's horrible, Nova." I buried my face in my free hand and leaned forward so my elbows rested on my knees and propped my whole head up. "The date, I mean. It's just..." What was the best way to put it?
"Tell me what the problem is," Nova said defensively, and I could hear the same steel in her voice as she got before a major fight. "I swear to God, Mina, I'll fuck him up if that's what you want. Is he being a jerk to you?"
"No," I said, dragging my voice along so that the one word lasted several seconds. It'd be a whole lot easier if Ezra was a jerk. I could deal with jerks just fine on my own without getting Nova involved.
"Is he boring?" Nova seemed to be wracking her brain for other reasons why the date might be bad. "Do you...need a distraction or something? Do Simon and I have to show up so you can make your escape?"
"Nova, you don't get it. I barely get it. He's being great and that's the thing; he's being an absolutely perfect gentleman." I could just imagine Nova's eyebrows trying to leap off her forehead in shock.
"That...honestly doesn't seem like a bad thing, Mina," she said cautiously, as though she were afraid that I might start freaking out again. "Seriously, tell me the real problem. What's up?"
"It's me. I'm the problem, don't you see? He acts all nice. He's super sweet. He took me to the fanciest restaurant in the entire city and it's all wrong, Nova! I'm all wrong!" I raked a hand through my hair and groaned. "So I need you to tell me how to act rich so I can fit in better."
"Mina, just calm down," I could hear Nova's fingernails tapping away on her laptop. Seeing as how it wasn't even nine on a Friday night, there were two things she could be using her computer to do right now. The most obvious answer was homework, although I knew from searching her computer's history that her classes this semester consisted mostly of English and Finance classes, with the exception of Italian; I also knew that, again with the exception of Italian, she wouldn't have any essays or big assignments due yet...that is, nothing she'd waste a prime Friday night on. It was too early in the year. That only left one logical option for something that she could be doing right now.
Trolling for dates.
Nova was a serial dater; in fact, Simon had affectionately nicknamed her the Ted Bundy of Online Dating one day when he was trying to make a point about our horrible dating lives. But the thing was, he was pretty spot on. For as long as I'd known her, Nova had never been one for settling down or even doing the same thing in one place for more than a few hours. Her longest romantic relationship was during our sophomore year of high school, when a popular football player had asked her to the prom months in advance; unromantically, Simon and I were the only friends she'd ever retained for more than a few weeks at a time. She frequented dating websites on a regular basis and I hadn't seen her remain in a long-term committed relationship outside of that one football player.
"It'll all be okay," she reassured me. "You're awesome. You're a robot. You are Mina Freaking Percival. Ezra should be counting his lucky stars that he even gets to take such a fantastic girl out to dinner." I took a deep breath and smoothed my hair back into place. Nova was right. He was the lucky one of the two of us; I was just the girl who got a free dinner. My job tonight was to sit there and look pretty.
"Thanks for the encouragement, Nova. Breakfast tomorrow, right?" It was a standing engagement for Nova and I to have breakfast every Saturday morning at the diner across the street from Nova's dorm. Simon used to come with us, but nowadays, he liked to spend Saturday mornings sleeping off the hangovers he got from going out with his art buddies. It was okay with us, though; I personally met up with him at least once a week to go out drinking and that was guaranteed to lead to chatting and gossip.
"Yeah, I'll see you there." She hung up on me and I was about to slip my phone back into the clutch when it rang. This time, it played a funeral march; a drastic opposition to my normally cheery ringtone of bells. I didn't even need to glance at the caller ID to confirm it was my mother.
"Hey, Mom," I said, standing up and straightening the dress. I began the walk back to my table as I answered, knowing that if I played it right and walked slowly, I could push her off the phone by the time I got back to Ezra. "What is it?"
"Where are you?" My mother was always short in her responses with me, a fact that I normally celebrated, but this time it was different; I could tell almost instantly that something was wrong. Her tone was even more brusque, harsh, and short tempered than usual.
I was now being faced with two different options to respond. She thought I was out to dinner with my friends, so the obvious answer was to lie again and support that idea by saying we'd already eaten and I was now at a party with Nova and Simon. It would explain away the dress and the insane amount of effort I put into looking pretty, too. But if I got caught in that lie, I'd be in monumental trouble. I'd still be in monumental trouble if I told her the truth now, but hopefully not as much.
Before I could admit to her that I was out on a date, she sighed and said, "You know what? Just forget it; you'll only lie to me. I need you to come home right this instant. No exceptions."
"But Mom, that isn't fair!" I started to protest, but she cut me off quickly.
"Not another word from you, Wilhelmina. Come home. Now. That's an order and I expect to be followed." The phone beeped as she predictably ended the call before I could get a word in edgewise. I reached the table again, to find Ezra likewise talking to someone in hushed tones.
"Ko..." he said warningly into the receiver as I approached my seat. "Ko, I need you to stop overreacting. I'm at dinner, using the reservation that you insisted I make for you and then decided to neglect at the last minute without giving me proper warning. You are absolutely capable of taking care of yourself and whatever happens, you can handle." He rubbed the bridge of his nose, obviously frustrated with whoever he was talking to. "No, I don't know where Zoey is. Why the hell would I know where she is? She's not my best friend and she's obviously not in the mood to talk to you right now, if the little spat you got into last night is any indication." He groaned and looked up at me; his demeanor seemed to change in an instant as he smiled at me. "Ko, I have to go now. Yes...yes, fine. I'll try, but it's not up to me. You have to understand that the world doesn't revolve around you anymore....okay. Fine, Ko." He hung up his phone and gestured for me to sit back down across from him.
I bit my lip and frowned. "Um... about that. My mom just called me and I might have done something to make her mad." A small, nervous chuckle escaped my lips and I toyed with the clasp on my bag. "I'm really sorry to ask you, because you've been so nice tonight, but could we go? I have to get back to my house as soon as possible and I don't have the time to wait for a taxi."
"It's not a problem," he said, smiling to himself. "I understand. Families, they can be...demanding to say the least. I'll pay for the check up at the podium and we'll head out. Is that okay?" I nodded and a few minutes later, we were back in his fancy car, on our way to the house.
Things were quiet as he drove. I'd turned on the radio with Ezra's permission, but I couldn't find anything good, so a classical violin piece was softly playing instead. The song was vaguely familiar, although I couldn't place where I'd heard it before. My dad used to hum classical music whenever he was driving, but that was ages ago; I doubted I remembered one specific song he liked in particular. I was in the passenger's seat of his car, sitting on my hands so I didn't harm any of the leather detailing. It didn't look particularly expensive, but I didn't really expect him to be able to drop hundreds on dinner and not have a gloriously fancy car. Ezra's hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, tinting his knuckles white with the force. After a while, he took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry."
"What?" I asked him, utterly surprised. "I must have misheard you...did you say you're sorry? For what?"
"For this date. I pressured you into coming somewhere where you clearly felt uncomfortable going and you looked gorgeous but so out of place." He laughed one, low and under his breath. "I kept looking at you and you were so nervous. You looked like you were afraid to touch anything, like you might break it. And you kept mouthing all the French words to yourself with the most confused look on your face. It was pretty obvious that you didn't understand any of them."
"It's not nice to make fun of people," I said, smiling as I glanced over at him. "It's just that some of us don't have random cash to flash around on getting better tables and fancy cars and...thousand dollar dinners."
"Oh, so that's how it's going to be, huh?" he asked, grinning. But the grin slipped from his face. "But anyway, like I was saying, I'm sorry. I mean, if you hadn't ended the date when you did, I would have had to anyway."
"Really?" Oh, crap. Was it going that horribly for him? I mean, he was nice and I'd probably consider going out with him again, but I hadn't stopped to think that maybe I was just too out of place for his tastes.
"My sister called and she needed me to come home. She's seventeen, but she likes to pretend that she's practically helpless if I'm not there to do everything for her. Her name's Rhyannon, but my nickname for her is Ko." So that had been who he was talking to on the phone.
"Why Ko?" I asked, wrinkling my nose slightly, and he shrugged.
"No particular reason. My parents just liked the sound of it, I guess; they used to call us Lo and Ko when we were kids. You know, the two of you would probably get along pretty well now that I think about it. It'd be cool to have you guys meet one day." As soon as the words left his lips, he sucked his breath in through his teeth and grimaced. "Awkward. I...can't believe I actually just said that. Here I am, first date, and I'm telling you I want you to meet my family." He grinned again. "I'm sorry. I make stupid choices when I'm around pretty girls. My brain doesn't work right."
"Aw, sweet talker, aren't you?" I asked, smiling.
"Yes, I am. I am very good at the sweet talk." He laughed and it made me giggle for some reason, filling the car with noise. I never giggled. Oh, God, what was happening to me? "But in all seriousness, Ko's the best. Our parents haven't really been around for us and they left Ko in my care as soon as I was legal. Unofficially, she's been my only real family. We mostly grew up alone together. A few years ago, though, Ko's best friend moved in with us after her parents died. It's almost like I have two sisters now, Zoey and Ko." He tapped his fingers against the wheel, which he was no longer clutching with a death grip, and grinned. "So what about you?"
"What about me?" I asked, trying to detract him from what I knew he was going to ask.
"Well, you've heard me drone on and on about my tiny family. Tell me about yours."
"There's not that much to know."
"Come on," he said. "I know you have a mom, at the very least." As if on a scheduled cue, my phone rang once more to the tune of the funeral march.
"Speak of the devil," I said, smiling wryly before accepting the call. "Hey, Mom. What's up?"
"Where are you?" This was the harshest I'd heard her speak in a while and her tone made me visibly flinch. I'd been good since I got out of the hospital, though, and I didn't know what I'd supposedly done this time to deserve such treatment from her.
"I'm on my way home. I'll be there in, like, two seconds." With Ezra sitting right next to me, I didn't want to be the bitch I normally was when my mother spoke to me like that. "Why?"
"Where were you before that?" Of course she'd decide to completely brush off my own question. If there was one thing I should have learned growing up, it was not to ask questions that I actually wanted an answer to.
"I...was at Elemantra's. I had a date." What the hell, I was already in trouble now and I figured that if I just fessed up to lying, I'd probably get a lesser punishment than if it came out in the middle of a fight. Hopefully, anyway.
"Okay, one. You said you were out with friends. You lied. That's..." I could practically hear her clenching her manicured fists over the phone. "Two, why the hell would you go to fucking Elemantra's? Of all the places in the world to go, you intentionally pick there?" I must be in some serious crap if she was cursing. She hated sinking down to such a "vulgar level".
"Well, I didn't want Molly to know I was going out on a date so I lied and it sort of...carried over to you, I guess." No matter what excuse I would be able to come up with, I knew she wouldn't accept it, but I still had to try. "And I didn't pick Elemantra's. Ezra...my date did. He paid and everything." It was one of the most adorable things I'd ever seen. While I was getting my coat, he managed to convince the hostess to seat one of the couples who were sitting at the bar desperately waiting for a table to open up. He also convinced her that, in addition to the unused table, they should have the leftover wine and the food that we'd ordered. All on his card.
My mother snorted ungracefully, as though this were one big joke to her. "Uh-huh. Sure he did. Hey, Wilhelmina, why don't you put this Ezra person on the phone so I can talk to him and find out exactly how much of a liar you are."
"Oh, I'd be perfectly happy to let you talk to him, Mom," I said sweetly, glancing over at Ezra, "but unfortunately, he's driving the car right now and I don't want to distract him and get in another accident..."
"It's cool. I can talk," Ezra said, snatching the phone out of my hand and grinning at my scowl. "Hello, Mrs. Percival. It's so nice to talk to you. My name's Ezra Payne." There was a brief pause and he winced. "Vincent. Right. Mina didn't tell me you were divorced." Another wince. "Widowed and remarried. That's...good information to know for future reference. As for your other question, I did happen to have reservations. I'd made them for my sister, but she decided not to use them at the last minute. I'd seen that Mina was very pretty and obviously smart so I asked her out." Just watching his facial expressions and over exaggerated tones as he spoke to my mother was enough to send me to quiet laughter. I was going to get absolutely zero brownie points for this. "We went to Elemantra's, left before we could eat anything, and we're just about to turn onto your street. I paid for the meal and with any luck, I'll be able to take your wonderful daughter out again sometime on a true and proper date." There was a longer pause as Ezra pulled up outside of my house and he laughed suddenly, although I wasn't sure why. My mother was not a funny person, nor did she particularly enjoy joking around. "Alright, Mrs. Vincent. You make sure to have a nice night, too. Of course I'll tell her. Goodbye."
"What'd she say?" I asked warily, making a face.
"She wants you to come inside. I'm a wonder with moms, you know. They really seem to like me for some reason."
I laughed quickly, unable to stop the bubble that escaped and instead covered my mouth with my hand. "I'm sorry, but she doesn't like you, Ezra. She doesn't like anyone I know. Secretly, she's seething with anger and she doesn't like the people outside our house to know." I opened the door of his car and slid out, walking around to the other side so that I was just in front of his window. My house was just up the path, but I didn't feel like going inside just yet. "So I'll see you?"
"Yeah. I'll call you." He smiled and I turned away. The 'I'll call you'. It'd had been a long time, but I had gotten that response before. Date number two was a no-go. As I was about to start up the pavement, Ezra grabbed my hand and turned me back around. "Mina. I know what you're thinking and I'm not just saying that. I promise. I'll call or text or message or something. I really do want to go on a real first date with you."
"Okay," I said, smiling back at him this time as I felt my insides melt to complete mush. "Good night, Ezra."
"Good night, Mina," he said as I started the doomed walk up to my house.