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It took twenty minutes to get to Amore, and when they did, Charlie handed off the car to a valet. Olivia stared. “I thought you said I would be fine in jeans!”
“You are fine,” Charlie assured her. “You look good.”
“This place is so nice!”
“You’re dressed as casually as I am,” he pointed out.
“Well, maybe you should have worn something nicer too.” But his point did help her to relax a bit. At least she wasn’t going to stand out by herself. They both would.
That was proved false when they got inside. The place was nearly empty, with the exception of the staff. “I don’t get it,” Olivia murmured. “There’s really no one here?”
“Hardly anybody knows about this place. It’s a very well-kept secret. You didn’t know about it, did you?”
“No, I didn’t,” she agreed. “But that can’t be what they want, right? That’s a terrible business model.”
“Nah. At a place like this, the exclusivity is built into the prices.”
They sat down at the table the host indicated for them, and Olivia took the menu that was handed to her. “There aren’t any prices listed,” she observed.
“I’m buying.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
“Of course you can. This was my idea, and I picked the restaurant. Of course I’m going to pay. It’s not up for debate.” He flagged down a server and handed over his credit card. “Everything tonight will be on this card,” he said, and the server nodded and went away.
Olivia had to laugh. “You’re really used to getting your own way about things.”
“Olivia, respectfully, this is an expensive place.”
“You don’t think I can afford it?”
“I have no idea what you can afford. I don’t know anything about your personal finances, and I’m not asking. What I know is that Icanafford it. It won’t make any significant difference to my bank account. So just let me get it, all right? Consider it a part of your compensation for this whole fake marriage situation.”
“I guess if we were really married, I wouldn’t object to my husband buying dinner.”
“Exactly,” Charlie agreed. “So there you go.”
Wine was poured for the two of them. Charlie sipped his and nodded to the server, who went away again. Olivia picked up her wine and swirled the glass slowly, unable to quite shake the feeling that it would be wasteful to drink this. This wine seemed too rare and special to be used as something so common as a beverage.
Charlie drained half his glass at once. “All right,” he said. “What’s the story?”
“The story of how we got together?”
“Yeah.”
“We already told your family that we met in Boston at some kind of work thing, so I guess we have to stick to that story.”
“But we need details,” he persisted. “What was the work thing? What kind of work event would you and I both have been at?”
“Do you even have a job?”
“I’m on the board of my family’s company, but I can’t think how you and I would have crossed paths.”
“Okay, so let’s try a different tact. Let’s say I was at a realty conference and you just happened to be at the hotel bar,” Olivia suggested. “You saw me and offered to buy me a drink.”
“People will believe that,” Charlie agreed. “It sounds like the sort of thing I would do.”
“You do that a lot, do you?”