He saw the moment she caught on. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “Oh.” A faint flush of color bloomed across her cheeks.
“It was completely and totally inappropriate, and I was embarrassed. So I jumped ship. It was never about you doing anything wrong.”
“Well,” she said after a pause, “that’s…illuminating.”
God. He actually felt the embarrassment crawling up his neck and twitched his shoulders as if he could shrug it off. “When I found out you were gone, I thought you left because you were…freaked out or thought I was trying something. I didn’t want you to think I was taking advantage.”
The look she shot him was full of more insult. “I was fifteen, not a child. Perfectly capable of saying no. Or yes, for that matter.”
“I couldn’t afford to even think about you saying yes. You were jailbait. Smart, funny, attractive jailbait. You can let that insult you all you want, but it doesn’t change the facts.”
Gemma studied him over the rim of her glass. “Probably good you didn’t say that back then. Everybody treated me as an adult from so early on, that would’ve just pissed me off to no end. I wanted to be taken seriously.”
“Acting adult and being adult are two different things. And believe me, I took that damned seriously.”
After a long silence, she nodded, “Fair enough.”
Aaron considered them even on the mortification scale for the night. He lifted his beer. “To our mutual embarrassment. May we now be able to get past it.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Gemma touched her glass to his.
The charged moment was broken by the arrival of their meal. In the wake of their server’s departure, a new layer of awkward seemed to descend. Aaron floundered for a good way to break it. “So,” he began, “tell me about this Victor guy.”
Smooth, Hendricks. Because you really want to hear about the other dude she’s into.
“He’s an art dealer,” said Gemma.
Aaron’s brows winged up. “An art dealer. Not what I expected. Are you into that kind of thing? Shows and galleries and whatnot?”
“Not generally. But a good friend of mine is a metal sculptor. She recently had a show at a little gallery downtown. I went to be supportive and met Victor. He was…amused by my interpretations of the structures as an engineer. He was charming and attentive, so when he asked me out for tonight, I said yes.”
“Exactly how broken up are you that Rick blew your shot with him?”
Her lips quirked. “Subtle.” She shifted in her chair to cross those amazing legs and Aaron had some difficulty keeping his eyes off them. “I’m far too literal and grounded for the art crowd. Rick probably did me a favor. And if you tell him so, I’ll call you a dirty, dog liar. He’s still absolutely on my shit list for being an idiot. But I can’t see myself being with anyone long term who would expect me to put a swanky dinner over the welfare of family. Victor wasn’t concerned. He didn’t even offer to come with me.”
“Jerk.”
She tipped her head in acknowledgment. “Enough about me and my lousy date. What about you? Why aren’t you out on the town with some hottie tonight?”
Aaron smiled. “Last time I checked, I was.”
God, she was so cute when her cheeks pinked like that.
“You know what I mean,” she said. “Why weren’t you out on a date yourself when you got the call? Or were you?”
“I was playing through Call of Duty for the twenty-seventh time, so no great loss.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. New Year’s Eve dates seem to carry so much more weight than normal dates. There’s all that expectation of a midnight kiss, and all this meaning attached to it. Like those are the lips you’re supposed to be kissing the rest of the next year. And if the date bombs, then there you are with a lousy start to the new year. It seemed safer all around to just stay in.”
“In that case, I’m glad things tanked with Victor. That’s a lot of pressure on one kiss.”
“Exactly. There wasn’t anybody I felt like jumping off that bridge with, so I opted to stay in.” And thank God he’d been there to get the message.
~*~
The sting of embarrassment had faded by the time they made it through their meal. Maybe because they’d finally cleared the air. Or maybe because the waitress brought a second glass of wine to replace the one she’d drained.
“Better?” Aaron asked.
Knowing he saw too much, she shrugged and admitted, “You still make me nervous.”