He looked between us. “Yeah, well, regardless, I think it’s rude that you’ve been standing here chatting it up while I’m over there.”
Aspyn looked around like she was readying herself to flee the scene. “I’m sorry you feel that way, but—”
“Don’t apologize to this psycho,” I said.
“You like that word, don’t you?” She flashed me a sarcastic smile and turned to him. “I don’t appreciate your attitude, Brian. You have no right to tell me what’s right or wrong when we’ve only just met. Moreover, you have no right to raise your voice to me or my friend.”
Second reference to friend. Boo-yah.
She reached into her purse. “Here’s a twenty to cover my half of the drinks.”
The loser actually took the money from her before shaking his head and walking away in a huff.
I couldn’t help calling after him. “You should use that money toward a suit that actually fits, asshole. What, were you playing in your daddy’s closet? Fucking loser.”
“Jesus…” she muttered.
Aspyn and I stood in silence for a few moments.
“I’d ask you how your date went, but…”
She rolled her eyes as her hair blew in the breeze. “Very funny.”
“Okay, you have to admit, this whole thing kind of is funny.”
“Actually, you crashing your car in front of the restaurant was the best thing that happened. I was looking for a reason to escape that miserable date.”
“Well, then I took one for the team. Maybe this is the first step toward me getting into your good graces.”
“If a car accident is step one, I’d hate to see the next level.”
“One might say I started the process…with a bang.” I chuckled.
“Indeed.” She laughed.
Damn, she has a pretty smile. And she looked so nice tonight, dressed in a green dress that hugged her curves in all the right places. Goofy scrubs be damned. I think you have some competition.
I sighed. “Seriously, though, what a loser.”
“Yeah. His reaction to my coming over to talk to you wasn’t the only red flag. He was getting all touchy-feely earlier when we were waiting in line for a table. To be honest, I should’ve just said I was feeling sick a while ago.”
I swallowed my anger. “Well, if you had ditched him, this awesome spectacle wouldn’t have occurred. Now I have an interesting story to tell my grandfather when I bring him breakfast tomorrow.”
“He’ll get a kick out of this for sure.”
I cleared my throat exaggeratedly. “I noticed you used the F word to describe me.”
She wrinkled her forehead. “I did?”
“Not the F word you usually use.” I laughed. “You referred to me as a friend. Twice, actually.” I shrugged. “Not that I was counting or anything.”
“Ah. I suppose I did, didn’t I?”
“Should I not get too excited about that?”
“Yeah. Don’t go, you know, crashing your car or anything.” She chuckled.
My eyes briefly traveled down to her cleavage. I felt my heart race. Shit. My grandfather was right. My intentions couldn’t be pure. I must’ve been kidding myself.
“Did you even get to eat?” I asked.
“We’d only had drinks. He had an appetizer, but I can’t eat that crap anyway. We were supposed to order the main meal right when you crashed.”
“Let me buy you dinner. It’s the least I can do for crashing your date.” I held my palms up. “I promise. No funny business. Just a friendly dinner between friends.” I winked. “Friends. That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
To my surprise, she agreed. “Yeah. Okay. But you’re not paying for me.”
“We’ll talk about it,” I said, knowing damn well I wouldn’t let her pay. “You wanna eat at that place or somewhere else?”
“Actually, there’s a Japanese restaurant around the corner I’ve been wanting to try.”
“Cool. Let’s go there, then.”
Since it was so close, Aspyn chose to meet me there while I found parking in the same area where she told me she’d parked her car.
Once I found a space, it was only a three-minute walk to Yamaguri House of Sushi. You had to go down a set of stairs to enter the restaurant in the basement. It was a cool little place with bright red wallpaper, relaxing lighting, and a large tank filled with tropical fish in the center of the room. We got a table in the corner. A small candle flickered between us as we opened our menus.
She sighed. “This is so much better.”
“Sitting across from me instead of Brian, you mean?” I smirked.
“Well, I was referring to the place, the food, the ambience… But I guess the company is a step up, too.”
“Unfortunately, considering who you were with, that’s not saying much.”
“True.” She giggled.
Okay. That fucking giggle? I could get high off it.
One step closer to making her scream.
Jesus.
Where did that come from?
My horny subconscious mind must have thought it could crash this party, too.
Ignoring the fact that my dick was having a field day, I casually asked, “You said you’ve never been here before?”
“It’s my first time. I love sushi. It’s one of the only restaurant foods I can eat without having to be a pain in the ass to the waiter, asking to modify everything.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, what’s up with all of your dietary restrictions?”
“You probably just assumed I chose to be miserable, right? You know, bitter coffee girl and all?”
“I didn’t say that…” This time.
She took a sip of her water. “Let’s order first. The answer to your question is not a quick one.”
That had me curious. “Okay,” I said, perusing the menu.
I wasn’t typically a sushi guy. I liked my fish cooked. So, I opted for a chicken teriyaki dish. Aspyn asked for two orders of raw salmon and tuna wrapped in cucumber and a side of edamame.
After the waitress left with our menus, I crossed my arms. “Okay, so now tell me about your diet.”
“It’s not a diet,” she corrected. “It’s a way of life. And it has nothing to do with a need to be boring.”
“Tell me more.”
She exhaled, playing with the wrapper from her chopsticks. The skin on her neck reddened a bit. “A couple of years back, I started having all of these weird symptoms. At the time, I didn’t know if it was stress-related or if there was something more to it.”
My eyes narrowed. “What kind of symptoms?”
“Weakness, tingling, fatigue, some weird rashes that would come and go.”
“Okay…”
“The doctors ran a bunch of tests for things like MS, lupus, thyroid issues. Nothing came back definitive. They basically ruled those specific things out, but some autoimmune markers in my bloodwork were mildly elevated. So, they came to the conclusion that I have some form of autoimmune disease, not otherwise specified.”
“I’m sorry… I don’t know much about autoimmune diseases. How bad is that?”