Inside, the dark ambience took a second to adjust to even if I’d had sunglasses on. “You do realize that sounds kind of menacing,” I warned him in a low voice.
“Good,” he grunted, catching my hand as the hostess greeted us. “Two for one of the hibachi tables, and we’d like a private one.” He handed her a credit card and I sighed as she led us through the restaurant and around the various half walls to a hibachi table that could seat nine. She disappeared with his credit card as a waitress came by to offer us drinks and then gave us time to peruse the menu.
“Why do you do that?” I glanced down at the menu, but most of my attention was on Archie.
“Pay for privacy?” He shrugged. “Because I can. Because I have to share you all week long, if I’m lucky to hang out with you at all. And because you deserve to have someone look after you for a change. I managed to talk you into a Friday date, so I want to make the most of it. Is that okay with you?”
And that was what I meant about his charm. “Would it matter if it wasn’t?”
He took a long breath, then said, “Yes. I can tell her to seat us with others.” When he brushed his hand over mine, an awkward feeling slid through me. This felt more like a realdatedate than just a study date. “But it might make it awkward if we start grilling each other on vocab terms, too.”
Reality check served.
I shook my head. “It’s fine. Besides, we have to eat soon or we’re going to end up at the game starved.”
“Tell you a secret,” Archie said after squeezing my hand then flipping open his own menu. “The guys won’t know if we’re there or not. As long as we know the score at the end of the game, we can be as late as we want.”
Except—I would know I wasn’t there, and I didn’t want to lie to them. “Coop would know,” I pointed out.
Archie made a face. “Yeah, yeah. Next week, Coop gets his own ride, and you and I get a proper dinner we don’t have to rush.”
I hadn’t agreed to next week. Not yet. “We’ll see,” I said noncommittally.
“About what?” he asked.
“Maybe I’ll have a date, and I can find out if his interesting factor matches his hotness factor.”
He frowned and opened his mouth but the waitress and then our chef arrived. After we placed our orders, he kept giving me the side-eye, but our chef was funny and entertaining. I’d seen the volcano trick with onions a dozen times, didn’t make it any less fun. And the guy could flip shrimp tails right into his hat, not one miss. The spinning eggs were also a fun act.
Eventually, he’d done the fried rice and veggies, steak and shrimp for me, steak and scallops for Archie and our show was over leaving us with our food and our drinks.
“Who exactly are you dating?” Archie asked, pinning me with a look.
“Does it matter?” Yes, I’d tweaked him.
“Yes, it does. You don’t date.”
“I never said I didn’t date.”
“I didn’t say you said you didn’t date, I saidyoudon’t date. I’ve known you since week one of freshman year, Frankie. You don’t date guys and you don’t date girls. You barely notice when someone’s flirting with you. Who the hell are you dating?”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Archie didn’t stop staring at me, so I had to say something. I went for the truth. “I’m not.”
“You’re not?” He focused on me, studying my eyes like they might tell him something else.
“No. I said maybe—you know, like Coop.” Then I smirked. “Maybe I’ll trip and fall on someone’s lips.”
His answering scowl was not what I was going for at all. He went silent as we both took a couple of bites and when the silence dragged out, I sighed.
“Archie…”
“It’s fine,” he said, waving me off. “You were teasing me, I get it.”
I was and I wasn’t, but…
“Look, maybe we should go over some of this, so you’ll see the value in doing it regularly.” He tapped the folders and gave me a quick smile. “Don’t want you to think you could be out tripping somewhere instead of with me.”
Yeah. Maybe I should let the whole dating issue go. Yet, there was a message waiting on my phone from a guy I was kind of excited about getting to know. Based on Archie’s reaction, I really needed to make sure theydidn’tknow about it.