He looked up from his menu and dazzled her with his most charming smile. “Yes, I would like to order a bottle of wine.”
“Certainly. Would you like a recommendation?”
“No thank you, Tiffany. I know which Pinot Noir I’m after.”
The nerve.
I didn’t even hear what Ian ordered. I was too busy bristling at the way he was looking at the server and too caught up in my emotions to focus on much else. I was upset but mostly angry. Sure I’d witnessed him in flirtation mode before, but I’d been fairly certain that behavior would end once we started dating.
The poor girl blushed a dark red and didn’t even glance in my direction before taking off to grab the bottle. I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms.
“What?” Ian asked, the side of his mouth turning up. “Why are we pouting now?”
“Don’t turn this on me.”
He rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair, his posture mimicking mine. “You’re jealous.”
“Let’s talk about jealousy, Mister makes Daniel all flustered over a stupid poem.”
Ian’s lips twitched and he raised his eyebrows. “Seriously? That’s the worst comeback ever.”
“You get my point!” I snapped. “No guy can talk to me, not even my peer, but you can flirt with the server right in front of me?”
Ian sighed and sat forward, placing his forearms on the table and speaking low over the candle. “For your information, I did that for you. I wanted to order one of my favorite Pinot Noirs and didn’t want her to ID you. Because let’s face it, sweetheart, you still look like a high school student.”
My cheeks heated in both embarrassment and indignation. “I do not.”
He splayed his hands helplessly. “I’m just stating the facts. It’s not likely you could pass for twenty-one. Frankly I think you should be thanking me.”
“You’d like that,” I mumbled.
He laughed just as the server returned with our bottle of wine. She uncorked it with shaky hands, shooting Ian nervous smiles, but didn’t spare me a glance. When he put the glass to his lips to taste it, she licked her own lips.
“It’s great, thank you,” Ian said. “I think we’re ready to order too. We’ll both have the lasagna.”
My mouth fell open. Now he was ordering meals for me too? The moment she left, I jumped on him. “Let me guess—you don’t want her to notice me and realize she served a minor. Lamest excuse ever.”
He grinned. “Nah. The lasagna is just really good and I wanted you to try it.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
I left the restaurant feeling stuffed and warm from the lasagna and wine. Everything felt right driving together through the night in Ian’s car. When he pulled onto campus, I wished we could pull a U-turn and go back to being just us.
Ian took my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze as we walked from the parking lot to campus. He released me only to open the door to my building, held it open for me. We climbed the steps in silence, Ian staying behind me even as I walked down the hall to Melissa and my room.
The door was open and Melissa was lying on her bed reading a magazine. She glanced over when I entered and did a double take when Ian followed me inside. Her eyes moved between us suspiciously.
“Hey, you guys just finish studying or something?”
“Not exactly. We have something to tell you,” Ian said. “Alexis was going to tell you alone but seeing as I’m your RC, I thought I should be here.”
She pushed to her feet. “What is it? Is something wrong?”
“Not at all. It’s good news.” Ian put an arm around me. “Alexis and I have decided to pursue a relationship.”
I flashed her a smile but inwardly I was rolling my eyes. Of all the stiff and formal ways to tell someone—RC or not.
Her eyes widened. “You two are dating?”