“True.”
“I don’t think you’re stupid,” he repeated. “That came out wrong.”
I knew he wouldn’t lie to me, so I let it be. “Since you bought me lunch, I’ll let you off the hook.”
He smiled. “That’s a fair trade.”
I pulled out my phone and looked at the time. “I should get back to work. I’ve got a lot of stuff to do today.”
“Alright.” He left the booth and carried the trays to the garbage can. Then he walked with me outside. “Would you like to come to my place for dinner tonight? I’m making chicken Marsala.”
“A home-cooked meal?” I asked, immediately enticed.
“Is that a yes?”
I told him I didn’t want my first time to be in that hotel room where all the other women lost their V-cards. We decided to do it at his place instead, and knowing we would be alone together over dinner made me feel the pressure.
He must have detected my unease. “Until you explicitly tell me you’re ready, I won’t try to make it happen.”
That was a relief. I’d thought I would have to keep my guard up the entire time. Having lunch with him was so nice because there were no expectations. We couldn’t sneak off into the bathroom and hook up. “Then I’d love to.”
“Great. And just to clarify, even though we won’t be having sex tonight, that doesn’t mean I won’t be all over you. Because I will be all over you.”
11
Slate
It was the first time I’d had a woman at my apartment.
This penthouse was my safe haven, the place I retreated to avoid people and bullshit.
But I wanted to spend time with her, and I didn’t always want to do that in public. She didn’t want to go to the hotel, and if she was that uncomfortable, I wasn’t going to force it.
By the time I had dinner ready, she’d ridden the elevator to my floor and stepped inside the large living room that could easily fit twenty guests comfortably. She looked around like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing and then walked up to me. “Your living room is bigger than my entire apartment.”
I didn’t find her financial situation funny, so I didn’t respond. “I hope you’re hungry.” Sometimes when I first greeted her, I was tempted to kiss her like a lover, but I never did because it seemed inappropriate. She wasn’t my girlfriend, so I shouldn’t treat her like she was. When we started fooling around, my mouth would be all over her. But when I greeted her at the door, it felt misleading to kiss her, especially when she was just a friend.
“Always.”
I put the plates on the table, along with a bottle of red wine. I poured the glasses then sat across from her. The dining table was in the corner of the space, so it had glass walls on either side, revealing a breathtaking view of the city by night. All you could see were endless white lights from the buildings and red taillights from the traffic down on the roads.
She cut into her chicken and took a bite. “Wow, this is good.”
“Why do you seem so surprised?”
“I figured you had a maid cook for you.”
“No. I have a maid take care of the house when I’m at work. But I prepare my own meals.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “You’re so busy that the last thing you probably want to do is cook.”
“I’d rather cook than have someone in my apartment while I’m here. I’m not a people person.”
“Not a people person?” She wore jeans and a blouse, her first outfit that wasn’t a dress or skirt. Her hair was curled around her shoulders, and she looked energetic, like she hadn’t been at work all day. “What does that mean?”
“Exactly as it sounds. I don’t like people.”
“Like, all people?” she asked, still eating. “You work in hospitality, so how is that possible?”
“I know how people want to be treated. But that doesn’t mean I want to be the one to treat them that way.”
Instead of calling me bitter and sad, she just accepted it. “Any particular reason why?”
“I think people are terrible—as a species.”
“Are you including yourself in this?”
“Definitely.” I was one of the biggest assholes I’d ever met.
“I think people can be evil, but I think people can be good too. You shouldn’t focus on only the evil and forget about the good entirely.”
I lived at the top of the food chain, so I knew how the real world worked. I knew that corporations purposely misled people for financial gain, that all people cared about was making money, even at the expense of human life. I saw how the wealthy treated the middle class like they were dogs. I saw the way my own brother slept with my girlfriend behind my back and never had the balls to tell me about it. He was my own flesh and blood, my family, but pussy was more important than loyalty. “The whole reason you’re stuck in this loan nightmare is because rich people just want to make money off you. They want young people to make these mistakes, so they can profit off you the second you graduate college. Then you can’t afford to buy property, so you rent somewhere, but then the rent keeps on increasing because they know you’ll sacrifice more and more just to have a place to live. The world is full of terrible people who will trample anyone in their way on the path to the top.”