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“Or we could just have dinner here like we planned, and you can work on charming me out of my pants the old-fashioned way.” He winks and then heads for the patio seating a few feet away, leaving me momentarily stunned and staring after him like a puppy until I manage to pull myself together, grinning, and follow him.

DYLAN

Guillermo happily settles himself under the table and I tie his leash around my chair. My lips are still tingling from that kiss and part of me is tempted to say ‘fuck dinner’ so I can drag Bas back to my apartment now. And that part of me is currently hard and throbbing, trapped against my zipper as I spread my legs to try and get comfortable.

Bas takes the seat across from me and we both pick up our menus. I’ve been here a hundred times since it’s the only place I can bring Guillermo, so I know the menu by heart at this point. But looking it over is a good way to take a minute to pull myself together and convince my dick to calm down, at least for another hour so we can have dinner and get to know each other a little bit before we get naked.

“Was it always your dream to own a taco truck?” I ask once he sets his menu down.

“Kind of, but not exactly. I’ve always loved to cook. I grew up in the kitchen with my Abuela, learning all of her tricks and recipes before I was even tall enough to reach the counter without standing on a chair. I just love that feeling of filling people’s bellies and seeing the smiles on their faces when they first bite into something. So, I knew I wanted to cook, but the truck was just because I had no idea how expensive it would be to rent or buy a restaurantwithoutwheels under it.” He chuckles, then reaches under the table to scratch Guillermo’s ears. “What about you? What do you do at the vet clinic?”

“I’m a technician, mostly working with my best friend, Robbie, who’s a large animal veterinarian.” I have to bite my tongue to keep myself from excitedly going into too much detail. Inseminating cattle and assisting with bloat surgeries might be endlessly fascinating to me, but I learned a long time ago that most guys don’t consider conversations about deworming sheep to be all that seductive.

“That’s cool.” Bas plants his elbows on the table and leans in towards me. “What’s the grossest thing you’ve ever had to deal with?”

I sputter a laugh. “Really? That’s what you want to know when we’re about to order food?”

He shrugs. “I have a friend who’s a nurse and I always figured she would want to brag about lives she’s saved or something, but I notice she always gets most excited when she has an absolutely nasty story to tell. I figured it was probably a universal thing with medical people.”

I bite my lip to keep from laughing again. “Okay, yeah, you’ve figured out the deep, dark secret we all have. Sure, we love helping our patients, but at the end of the day, there’s nothing we want more than to squeeze an abscess and watch the pus shoot out.”

“I knew it,” he crows, then makes a bring-it-on gesture with his hands. “So, out with it. Your favorite, most gross thing you’ve seen or done.”

I cringe, but it doesn’t erase the smile on my lips. “Okay, fine, but you asked for it. We were at this farm for a herd check and the farmer asked if Robbie could take a quick look at his dog, who’d been lethargic since the night before. We’re both expecting a typical farm dog, but he brings out this trembling chihuahua with the most bloated belly I’ve ever seen. Long story short, the doc decides the bloat is something in his belly and wants to try puking him before we move on to surgical interventions. We gave the dog an emetic and within minutes he’s vomiting up handfuls of maggots and rotting meat. I shit you not, before he was done, he even puked up an eyeball. It turned out there was a rotting goat in the compost heap and this tiny dog had found it and gone to town on it.”

To Bas’s credit, he doesn’t turn the slightest bit green or even squirm in his seat, he just keeps grinning at me like I’m telling him the best story he’s ever heard while I excitedly delve into all the gory details.

When I’m finished, I wrinkle my nose and drag my fingers through my hair. “More than you bargained for, right? Feel free to pretend you need to use the bathroom and then quietly slip out through the back if you have to.”

He snorts. “It’s going to take a lot more than maggots and partially digested eyeballs to scare me off.”

The poor waiter chooses that moment to approach our table, glancing between us with a crinkle between his eyebrows like he isn’t sure whether he’d like more orlesscontext for what Bas just said. I stifle a laugh, and Bas smoothly smiles at the man without missing a beat.

“Hi, what can I get you fellas to drink?”

“I’ll have a New Glarus, and do you have a bowl of water for the dog?” he orders.

It’s a small thing, but the fact that he thought about Guillermo right away gives him major points. The waiter nods and I order a New Glarus too.

“And are you ready to order, or do you need a few minutes?” the waiter asks.

“We’re ready,” I answer. “I’ll have the steak frites.”

Bas orders a cheeseburger and then looks under the table at Guillermo again. “Is it rude for us to eat and not get anything for him? Can he have unseasoned chicken or anything?”

Gah, all the points.Millionsof points. Who is this man and why didn’t I work up the courage to ask him out the second Jake and I broke up?

“Unseasoned, grilled chicken breast for Guillermo,” I tell the waiter without taking my eyes off of Bas.

“Coming right up,” he says, taking our menus and leaving us alone again.

“Okay, so, you passed the gross-out test and the Guillermo test.” I grin and mirror his pose, elbows on the table, leaning forward so there’s less space between us. “What about you? What are your deal breakers? What hoops do I have to jump through to impress you tonight?”

“Deal breakers?” He hums thoughtfully, stretching out his leg under the table until his foot bumps against mine. “Well, politics is one, but I saw you wearing a ‘Childless cat ladies against fascism’ T-shirt a few months ago, so I think we’re all good there. Liking animals is another one, so big check on that. Unless you’re one of those people who has an inexplicable and pathological hatred of Nickelback, I think we’re safe.”

I bark out a laugh. “I can safely say that I’m indifferent towards Nickelback.”

“Thank fuck for that. I’d hate to have to end this date early.” He smiles a little wider, and I push myself out of my seat so I can close the few inches of space between us and steal another kiss.