The Love Wager by Lynn Painter

Chapter

TEN





“Hi, um, I’m supposed to meet someone—”

            “Hallie?” Stephen appeared beside the hostess, smiling and setting a hand on the hostess’s arm in a way that told her he was who Hallie was looking for.

            “Hey, Stephen.” Wow. He looked nice; like, really, really nice. For starters, he was wearing khaki pants and a black cashmere sweater. His brown hair was thick and styled in that sweet spot that hit on well-coiffed without being high-maintenance, and he was wearing glasses that made him look like he needed a book in his hand.

            “It’s so nice to finally meet you,” he said, giving Hallie just the kindest grin.

            “You, too,” she replied, unable to hold in her smitten smile.

            He pointed to where their table was, and she followed him over. She almost tripped when she saw Jack, seated at the table right beside them. His eyes caught hers and widened just the tiniest amount, showing he was just as surprised as she was that they were sitting in such close proximity.

            She recovered and took a seat, reminding herself to focus on Stephen.

            “I used to eat here all the time, back when I was in college,” he said, reaching out for his menu. “I’m so glad you suggested it.”

            “Me, too,” she said, grabbing her menu and quickly muttering, “Not the dental school part, but the other. It’s my first time here.”

            He gave a little laugh. “Noted.”

            “So what’s good, then?” she asked, eyeballing the appetizers. “What was your favorite dish?”

            “The lamb with mushroom risotto,” he said, and Hallie realized that his college experience had been vastly different from her own Top Ramen version. “You have to try it.”

            Shit. Hallie was a picky eater. Picky as in most third graders had a broader palate than her own. She liked burgers and chicken strips and the occasional spaghetti, but lamb? With mushrooms in the risotto? No, no thank you. But since she’d asked his opinion, she kind of had to take his suggestion, right?

            “I was kind of feeling like a burger, but maybe now . . .” She trailed off, hoping it would prompt him to say, Get whatever sounds good.

            “Get the lamb.” He smiled, snatched her menu out of her hand, and said, “You won’t regret it. I ordered you a glass of chardonnay, by the way.”

            “Okay.” Hallie reached for her glass. “Thank you. And I’m trusting you on the lamb.”

            “Good girl.” He cleared his throat, picked up his wineglass, and said, “So how was work today? Did you make it through the marathon meeting?”

            She’d told him about the quarterly business meetings that had been going on since Monday, and she was impressed he’d remembered. “I made it. It’s amazing how challenging it is to look interested in very boring information.”

            “I bet.”

            She said, “I’m sure you have to listen to lots of rambling from your patients.”

            “Yeah, but I can stick my hands in their mouth and make it stop,” he quipped, which made her laugh.

            She glanced at Jack’s table, where he and his date appeared to be deep in conversation. She was very pretty and wearing the cutest red dress, so unless she was a total bore, Jack was off to a great start.

            She looked back at Stephen, the dentist, and felt pretty good about her start, as well.

            They started talking about his job, and he was super interesting and funny as he told her dental horror stories. She interjected with her own stories, and she was surprisingly relaxed and comfortable.

            She was actually having a good time on her date.

            The food came, and she didn’t want to eat lamb or risotto. But she started with the meat, which was tolerable if she didn’t picture fluffy little baby lambs, and she pushed around the risotto so it looked like she’d eaten some.

            While saying a lot of Mmmm, this is so good.

            “So we should probably cover relationships, right? Isn’t that a first-date thing?”