I laugh just thinking about it. We played fetch with her for at least an hour, maybe longer.
“Sounds fun.” He smiles, tilting his head back when the server stops by our table and sets our plates in front of us.
“Here you go, kids,” the older woman says, snapping her gum. “You need anything else? More water? Maybe a Coca-Cola?”
“I’ll take more water,” I say as Perry leans over for the ketchup and plucks the bottle from where it sits, cracking open the lid and dumping a bunch onto his plate.
“I’m good,” Perry tells her.
“Be right back.” She smiles at us before she takes off.
“This place feels straight out of a movie,” I tell him when she’s gone. It’s all kitschy red and white diner décor with Coca-Cola signs everywhere, mixed with a couple of cool neon signs. There are rows of vintage records pinned up on the top of the walls and the floors are black and white checkerboard.
“It’s cool, right?” Perry picks up his burger and takes a giant bite, groaning as he starts to chew. “This is fucking delicious.”
I grab my burger with both hands—it’s huge—and bite into it, moaning in pleasure as soon as it hits my taste buds. “Oh, this issogood.”
“Right?” He keeps taking bites, like he can’t stop.
“How was work?” I ask after I set my burger down and grab the ketchup, adding some to my plate before I drag a couple of fries through it. They’re crispy, hot, and delicious.
“Long day.”
That’s all he offers.
“How’s your brother?”
“Grumpy.” He takes another bite.
Again, that’s all he says.
Why is he not telling me much? I don’t even know what he does for Halcyon. Something about customer care? No, that doesn’t sound quite right. Winston is the grumpy CEO who makes demands and Perry is the one who sweeps in afterward and sweetens the deal with his endearing personality and charm.
My husband, the sweetheart.
Though he can be ferocious. Moody and gray. Mean and restless.
“Are you grumpy too?” I ask after a few minutes of silence while we eat.
He lifts his gaze to mine. “I’m not grumpy. I just—don’t want to talk about work. It’s boring.”
“You don’t like your job?”
“I love it.” His smile feels downright false. “I’d just rather focus on other things. Like how Jasper supposedly trained your cat to fetch.”
“There’s no supposedly about it. He totally trained her. I’ll have to show you when we get home, though she’ll probably be snoozing.”
“Catch it on video and send it to me,” he suggests, his phone dinging right on cue. He checks it, frowning slightly before he shoves his phone back into his jeans pocket. “You having fun?”
His question catches me off guard and I smile at him, touched that he asked. “Yes. This is the best date I’ve ever been on.”
“You must not have dated much.”
“Not at all.”
His gaze is assessing. “You don’t even want to know what I’m thinking right now.”
I know what he’s thinking about, because I’m thinking about him too. Is Seamus always going to pop up between us like this?