Page 4 of The Year of Us: March

Tony, according to their name tag, greeted us warmly and led us to a table. The restaurant was small and intimate, but it had a nice vibe to it. It seemed welcoming and warm, cozy even. Leaving us menus, Tony vanished with a promise that our server would be by shortly to take our drink orders.

“Do you come here often?” I asked Reese as I flipped the menu open.

“Not as much as I’d like, but often enough. When was the first time you had sushi?”

I grimaced at the memory. “I took a job in Washington State and the client took me out for dinner on my last night working with them. He insisted on taking me to his brother’s restaurant. His brother was one of those types who’d always wanted a restaurant, but had never worked in one, and it showed.”

“And you ordered the sushi? Brave man.”

“Brave isn’t the word I’d use.” I closed the menu and set it to the side as our server approached.

“Good evening, gentlemen. I’m Ruby, I’ll be your server tonight. Can I get you started with something to drink?”

“I’ll have a Jack and Coke, please.” I met Reese’s amused gaze and he ordered the same thing.

“I’ll get those drinks and give you a few more minutes with the menu.” Ruby disappeared, leaving Reese to grin at me.

“What?”

“Aren’t you going to grill them about the quality of their whiskey?”

Leaning forward, I pinned him in place with my gaze. “Did you want me to flirt with the staff here, Reese?”

He scoffed. “Flirting? You call that flirting? You were insulting my whiskey.”

“And yet you still came to my hotel room.”

Reese licked his lips and flicked his gaze to my menu. He hadn’t even opened his, which told me he knew it pretty well. “Have you already decided what to order?”

“I thought I’d leave the ordering up to the expert. My sushi experience extends to that one restaurant experience, some room service California rolls, and a place in Colorado that had no business being open in the first place.”

“Fair enough.” Reese smirked at me and when Ruby returned with our drinks, he put our order in. I didn’t understand half of what he asked for, but I liked watching him do something he felt confident doing. Hell, I liked watching him in general. Reese was easy to look at. I especially liked that he was taller than me, broader, stronger. He looked like he could pin me down and ruin my life. But he kept coming back to me. Kept playing this game of push and pull as he struggled with whatever need in him I’d awakened.

I didn’t think it was as simple as Reese realizing he liked submitting. I think if that were the case, he’d take to it a lot easier than he currently did. What Reese struggled with, by my best guess, was letting someone take care of him.

I took a sip of y drink. I’d had better, but I’d also had worse.

“How did you end up consulting? And what kind of consultant are you?” Reese asked.

“It’s on my card.” I offered him an easy smile. “I’m an architectural consultant.”

“That explains the watch.”

“Actually, old money explains the watch. I don’t have to work and neither did my father, but he wasn’t the type who couldsit around and do nothing, so he went to school, became an architect. He fell in love with New York and the buildings there, the history. I learned everything I know from him.”

“Are you close?”

“My father was a hard man to get to know. He passed a few years ago, but no, we weren’t close. He tried, though. And I think that matters.” I slugged back a hefty swallow of my drink and enjoyed the way it burned on the way down. “Your turn. Do you like your job or is it just a way to pay the bills? Is there something you’d rather do?”

“I like the people,” Reese answered. “The job pays the bills and it keeps me around people.”

“Ah, a social butterfly. I bet you have some great stories from work.”

“I guess, but don’t we all?”

I raised an eyebrow. “I work with men in suits who want to make more money to buy fancier suits. So no, not especially. I have better stories from all the time I’ve spent in airports.”

“Do you ever get tired of travelling?”