Page 57 of Until You Came Along

“They do belong to me,” he responded.

We entered the place and immediately people approached him. It was obvious he was a regular, and imagining him there with other women didn't make me feel very comfortable. We followed the waiter who escorted us to our table and, once again behaving like a complete gentleman, he pulled out my chair for me to sit down before taking his own seat.

“Nice place, I hadn't been here before,” I commented.

“The food is excellent and varied. I come here quite often.”

“I can imagine,” I said, with obvious irony.

“I think you're imagining wrong. I've only come here with my family, meaning my mother and Baco, and for business lunches or dinners, nothing more.”

At that moment, a waiter came over to take our order. Hermes ordered a bottle of their best wine and suggested I try one of their main dishes, advice that was seconded by the waiter who, according to him, said it was one of the customers' favorite dishes. Following the suggestion, we both ordered “Pork tenderloin medallions with caramelized pears and pear aioli.”

“Well, here we are. We might as well start with what brought us here,” I proposed.

“Wouldn't you prefer to enjoy dinner first and then go to your place to talk? I'm not suggesting mine because you've already ruled out that option.”

“Why can't we talk here?”

“I think today's conversation is too important to have in a restaurant,” he stated.

I looked at him thoughtfully.

“And if you think that, why did you invite me to dinner?”

“Because I want to enjoy a dinner with you. I want to get to know you better,” he said, looking at me with longing.

At that moment, two waiters brought our plates, and Hermes didn't say anything more. When they left, I decided, just as he had said, to start getting to know him better.

“I'd like to know something,” I said, and Hermes left his fork suspended in the air and looked at me warily.

“Tell me,” he finally said.

“If you really want to be with me, why did you go to your brother's birthday with your date? It's contradictory and confuses me.”

“You're right,” he affirmed, andexhaled with resignation. “As I told you before, seeing your friend entering your apartment ruined my day. I was furious and I suppose jealous. I took for granted that you were going to Baco's birthday, but I also imagined you would go with him. If I had been more prudent, I would have forgotten about it and not canceled the meeting I had in Sao Paulo, but jealousy was torturing me and I decided to go see with my own eyes if you were with him. My companion was a last-minute decision to make you feel what I was feeling. I know it was immature, I admit it.”

“You canceled a business meeting in Sao Paulo?” I asked, completely surprised.

“I did.”

“You're absolutely insane,” I said, unable to believe what he had told me.

“It's possible. Now it's my turn. Have you ever been in love?”

“Youthful infatuation, nothing more.”

And now it was my turn for that question that had me very intrigued.

“And you?”

“I was in love and about to get married, to be more precise, hours away from getting married. But that's the story I'd like to tell you when we're somewhere more private.”

That really had left me surprised. I imagined his reluctance toward love was due to some heartbreak, but the marriage revelation was shocking. With the personality I knew him to have, it was hard to imagine him in love, let alone married. He seemed like such an independent man and enemy of emotional commitment that it was difficult to visualize him that way.

“Very well, let's leave it for later,” I said, trying not to appear too surprised.

“Tell me about your family,” he asked.