Still, I’m desperate. I want to get to know him more – I do. As an adult this time, not as the kid who kept getting underfoot when he was trying to talk to her dad. And I don’t want today, this perfect moment together, to end.
I just have to think of a way to make it sound like I’m not just being a stupid, clingy kid before it’s too late.
“Thanks for checking on me,” I say. “I know dad kind of pressured you into doing it, but it was nice to see someone I know.”
“No problem,” Oz says. When he smiles, his eyes crinkle in this charming and unexpected way. Almost like he’s not used to smiling often at all, and it’s a brand new look for his face. Come to think of it, his eyes aren’t as lined as my dad’s, or other men around his age that I’ve seen. He looks much younger. In fact, I’d have a hard time guessing his age at all, if I didn’t know it. “The pleasure has been all mine.”
“Actually,” I say. Inspiration strikes and I can’t let it pass me by. I seize hold of both it and the moment. “You’re probably really busy, right? So it’s a big deal for you to take time out of your schedule like this. I should do something to say thank you.”
“That’s not necessary,” Oz says.
I can almost hear what he’ll say next, anything for Dean’s kid. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want him to say those words, to remind me that he only sees me that way. I speak fast, to cut him off.
“No, please,” I say. “I should do something. How about dinner?”
Oz blinks at me like I’ve said something so completely unexpected. Is it really so wild to think that I might be a person who eats dinner and that we might do that in proximity of one another?
“Dinner?” he repeats. “Tonight?”
Oh, god. I’ve made a terrible mistake.
I’ve made myself look like an idiot.
I just hope it’s not too late to take it back. I immediately start backpedaling, trying to figure out how to take the surprised tone out of his voice and make him look at me the way he was before like I’m someone worth looking at.
“Oh, of course, you probably already have plans,” I say, waving a hand dismissively and trying to ignore the blush that must, by now, be creeping over my whole face. “I was just being a little selfish, really. I still want to pick your brain a little more over the whole college thing. And London in general, to be honest. If I choose to study here then I need to know what the whole scene is like, and I’m just a tourist right now.”
“I don’t have plans,” Oz says, making my heart race. Here’s where it gets even more brutal, I think. Here’s where he puts a clear boundary in place, because why would he want to go have dinner with some stupid teenager, and I end up feeling like the smallest thing in the world, and it still won’t be small enough because I’m going to want to completely disappear. “I just think it’s a terrible idea for you to take me to dinner.”
I swallow hard. Excuses, ways to brush this off, anything to save face, start popping up in my head. I just don’t know how to pull them off.
“I’m the resident of the host country, here,” he says. “It should be me that takes you out to dinner. And frankly, I’m embarrassed it took me so long to ask that you had to do it first. Gabriella, will you do me the honor of your presence at dinner?”
I blink.
And then I laugh, in sheer joy and relief.
“I absolutely will,” I tell him.
“Come on, then,” he says, getting up and offering me his hand to help me do the same. “I’ll take you somewhere not far from here. There’s a great little place I know. I’m familiar with the chef, he can get us a nice table.”
“It doesn’t sound like much of a thanks from me, if you go to all this trouble,” I say, my eyes wide at the offer and also at the feel of his hand in mine. He lets go once I’m on my feet, but I swear I can still feel the touch of his hand long after it’s gone.
Oz gives me a smile, and it nearly knocks me back down into my seat.
“Maybe it’s me that needs to thank you, for giving me some entertainment for the evening and a chance to go to a restaurant that I love,” he says. “Like I said – the pleasure is all mine.”
I don’t think he’s quite right in that statement.
Then again, he couldn’t possibly know how much pleasure it gives me just to be around him.