He follows on our heels. “Yeah.”
“Who?”
He doesn’t say anything as we reach our table, and his face has reddened. “Um, I’m taking a cab to Courtney’s. She needs help moving the furniture around.”
She moved out right after Christmas. “That’s really nice of you,” I say dryly.
“What?” Jasper asks. “I’m a nice guy. It’s what I’m known for.”
Francesca chimes in. “You two seem to have a little, um, opposites-attract thing going on—”
“No, we don’t!” He scoffs. “She’s a total bitch. And I’m a meathead. Not a match. Pfft. Fuck that.”
She shrugs. “Maybe you can help her be kinder, hmm?”
“Um, yeah, totally,” he says as he fumbles around to get money out of his wallet. He puts it on the table. “You don’t mind if I help her, right?”
I grunt. “Please, sohelpher.”
“All right, I’ll see y’all later.” And then he’s out the door.
I toss an arm around Francesca as we watch him go. “He’s totally fucking her. He thinks I don’t know—maybe he’s worried I wouldn’t approve—but it’s been going on since the night he went off on her.”
I tell the valet to bring my car around.
“Back to Wickham?” she asks.
“Not yet. I want to show you something, sort of a surprise.”
Her eyes light up. “Fun! Can we stop at McDonald’s and get some fries?”
I laugh. “McDonald’s seems like a great first date. Thank God they don’t have that clown up anymore.”
The valet brings around my Ferrari. We pull out on the highway. I find the nearest McDonald’s on the map and head that way. When we pull up to the drive-through, she asks the teller to add chopped bacon to her fries. I didn’t know that was an option, and she says that if you ask, you shall receive.
I shift gears as I hit FDR Drive, then head south, leaving Upper Manhattan.
“Where are we going?”
“SoHo, about thirty minutes away.” My body tingles with anticipation.
“You know this isn’t our first date.” She’s got a mulish look on her face.
“Oh?” I grin. “Are we counting Decadence?”
“Hypothetically, that night was like ten dates in one.”
I speed through a yellow light. “Most people call themselves couples after five.”
“Did you just make that up?”
“Maybe,” I say on a laugh.
“Anyway, wecouldsay we met via a blind date. It was an awful date because I called you a pervert. Our second date was when you rescued me from a real pervert and we did shots. On the third date, we played a game and went dancing. By the fourth we celebrated your birthday, then watched live porn. On the fifth, we fucked like bunnies on crack.” She stuffs a wad of fries in her mouth and chews. “Five dates in one. Works for me.”
“We took walks, there was the bookstore, the night at my penthouse, then the Christmas shopping.”
“Hypothetically, we’re going steady,” she announces.