Page 95 of Never Alone
She laughed. She closed the menu.
"Shrimp pasta."
The waitress came back. We ordered. She filled our water glasses, her wine, my beer, and went away.
Tessa took a sip of her wine. She set it down. She looked at me across the candle.
"So," she said. "Is this your first date?"
"What?"
"Am I the first woman you took out on a date?"
"Don't make it weird."
"Come on, just humor me."
"You can call it a date if you want."
"Is it a date?"
"Do you want it to be one?"
She looked away and smiled.
Even in the candlelight, I could see her turn red.
"You know what," she said. "Because you've never been on one, I'll be charitable and call this a date."
I laughed.
"Fine."
"So. Since you've never been on a date, I'll take the lead."
"Take the lead?"
"Yeah, because you wouldn't know how these things usually go."
"Fine then. Enlighten me, how do these things usually go?"
"So when you're on a date, people usually ask questions to get to know the other person. Are you comfortable answering personal questions?"
I shrugged again. "Depends on what you ask."
"Can I ask what made you choose to become a firefighter?"
I took a sip of water.
"I almost enlisted."
Her eyebrows went up.
"Military?"
"Yeah."
"That explains the model figures."
