Thank goodness for the casual California dress code. Lex entered Crustaceans Restaurant in Santana Row and knew her simple cotton skirt wouldn’t look out of place. Some diners were dressed up, but others wore jeans.
She actually felt kind of special being seated with such a good-looking guy. Except that George also noticed the appreciative feminine glances he collected.
“Do you know those girls?” Lex nodded at the scantily-clad gigglers who were batting their eyelashes from a couple tables away.
George whipped his attention back to Lex. “Uh . . . no.” He flashed that bright, warm smile. Lex would have felt enveloped by it if she hadn’t seen the girls over his shoulder still ogling him. Look all you want, girlies. He’s with me.
He seemed to welcome the attraction, which didn’t bode well for item number five on her Ephesians List — the whole faithfulness issue. Well, she had all dinner to weigh him against the List.
Lex skimmed the menu, but she knew what she wanted to eat. Same thing she always got.
George glanced up at her. “Want to split a crab wonton appetizer?”
“Sure. Good choice.” To add to the List: Must enjoy good food as much as me.
The waitress appeared at the table like a genie, and dressed like one too, in a gauzy jewel-toned Vietnamese dress. “Do you know what you’d like to order?” Her bell-like voice tinkled.
George’s eyes didn’t immediately raise from his menu to the waitress’s face — he took a rather slow journey over her slender curves. Lex’s jaw flexed. That was strike two on the faithfulness point of the List. This might be a short date.
“We’ll share the crab wontons. I’ll have a Caesar salad and the garlic-roasted crab with garlic noodles.”
At least he had good taste in food. “I’ll have the same.” Lex handed the oversized menu to the waitress.
George leaned forward. “You work at Pear Technologies?”
She winced. So not her favorite topic. “Yeah.”
“How do you like working there?”
“Um . . .” Her boss was Captain Hook, her coworkers were nuttier than the seven dwarves, and she was worked harder than the Israelite slaves in Egypt. Not the most P.C. answer. “It’s okay.”
An awkward silence fell between them. Actually, it felt more like the embarrassed quiet that hushed a restaurant when someone dropped a platter full of dishes onto the floor.
“So, Lex, have you read the bestseller by that Asian author who goes by the pseudonym Mr. Roboto?”
Lex blinked. He was kidding, right? “Uh . . . I don’t think Mr.
Roboto is Asian.”
“What do you mean? Of course he must be Asian. That famous song was Chinese or something.”
She stared at him so hard, her eyes crossed. He was a complete idiot. “ ‘Domo arigato’ is Japanese, and that song was by Styx.”
George gave her a Well, duh look. “And they did that ‘Sukiyaki’ song too.”
“What?” Wasn’t ‘Sukiyaki’ by Taste of Honey or something like that?
He sat back, his eyes heavy-lidded. “You didn’t know that? I thought you would, being Asian and all.” He smiled. All that was missing was a condescending pat on her head.
Her gaze narrowed. Was it really possible for him to be such a blockhead?
Here in the Bay Area, hardly anyone brought up her Asian-ness —it would be like living in Dallas and commenting on someone’s Texas drawl. A part of her was in shock at how he’d been both insulting and idiotic, while her hand itched to smack that condescending smirk off his face.
Control yourself, babe. You’re in Crustaceans and you’re about to have a fabulous free meal. Remember the free part. She managed a strained smile. “You’re so multicultural.” Oh, gag me. “What’s your ethnic background?”
“Oh, I’m an American citizen. I grew up in San Jose . . .”
To add to the List: No ignorant ethnic remarks. Wasn’t that already in Ephesians somewhere?
While he spouted off on his childhood, her mind wandered.
Maybe she should have politely shut him down instead of appeasing him. This date had already started downhill. Why waste her whole evening?
The burning question: Is the garlic crab that important to you? She hadn’t had it in three months. Ninety-seven days, to be exact. And George was paying. Decisions, decisions . . .
“You know, you remind me of someone.” He squinted at her. Problem was, he squinted quite a bit below her chin.
Lex sensed another goober remark up ahead.
George snapped his fingers. “I know. You remind me of my ex-girlfriend.”
Hadn’t anyone told him that mentioning ex-girlfriends while on a date was like begging to have his car keyed?
“Yeah, you look exactly like her . . . except she was cuter — er, younger.”
Younger? She was only thirty!
“And she had a different body.” He sketched an impossible hourglass in midair — something like a 42 – 12 – 42. “And she had a larger caboose.”
The room darkened. A blood-red haze blurred his face in her vision. “That’s a little too personal.”
He waved a hand. “Oh, I don’t mind talking about it.”
“Well, I do.” You cretin. She could barely spit the words past her gritted teeth.
Oblivious to the gathering storm, George leaned forward. “But today’s technology is so great.”
She spoke as slow and measured as a speech therapist. “And-what-is-that-supposed-to-mean?”
“Well, you know . . . plastic surgery. It can help . . . people . . . look so much better.”
She couldn’t speak. Her vocal cords weren’t responding.
The moron kept talking. “You can get surgery for cheap. If you go to Mexico, you can get it for half the price as the U.S.” He beamed at her in friendliness mingled with pity.
She wondered how she could dispose of his body.
George was begging to get decked. With a two-by-four. Or maybe the aluminum baseball bat Lex kept in her car trunk. She’d forgotten to include on the List: Must never mention body parts, or else risk decapitation. They hadn’t even gotten their appetizers yet. He’d ruined her entire evening and she wouldn’t get dinner.
She was starving. She wanted crab.
No, she would walk out on him, breathe fresh air, clear her head, shake the dust from her shoes.
Or she could endure the evening and stick him with the bill. This place didn’t exactly have McDonalds’ prices.
Escape or revenge?
Freedom or suffering?
Peanut butter sandwiches or garlic roasted crab?
A steaming plate appeared in front of Lex — the crab wontons, nestled in a lettuce leaf. Blond deep-fried dumplings.
Maybe she’d walk out without braining George . . .
Another waiter swept past their table holding two platters of Crustaceans’ signature entrée. Rich, briny crab. Nutty brown butter. Lex’s stomach growled. “Let’s just finish dinner.” Granted, it came out sounding a bit strangled.
George smiled and tucked his napkin into his shirt collar.
Lex paused as she settled her napkin in her lap.
Her look must have clued him in, because he stiffened his shoulders. “This shirt cost me three hundred dollars and the tie is Ermene-gildo Zegna. I’m not getting it dirty. Do you know how much good dry-cleaning costs?”
Why was she surprised by anything that came out of his mouth by now? Just eat and leave.
As Lex pierced a wonton with her fork, its bubbled surface flaked pastry onto the stainless steel tines. She brought it to her mouth. The outer shell crunched against her teeth while the satiny, cheesy filling melted on her tongue. A ribbon of sweetness from the fresh crab lingered in her mouth.
Aaaaaahhhhhh . . .
George bit into a wonton with relish. “I had a girlfriend who could make these.”
Lex bit her tongue. The pain made her start and drop her fork with a clatter against the porcelain plate.
Her next wonton didn’t taste so divine.
He looked like he would expound on his master-chef-ex-girlfriend as soon as he finished chewing. She needed a tangent. “Do you cook?”
“I make a jambalaya that women swoon over . . .”
Could the man ever say something that didn’t involve other females? Lex listened with half an ear to his masterful feats of culinary genius. At least getting their food meant that he didn’t talk as much.
The Caesar salad arrived, aromatic with garlic, studded with caramel-colored anchovies. The crisp lettuce popped in her mouth with freshness. The perfect balance for the wontons, and a way to ready her palate for the crab to come. The dressing sizzled with hot pepper, tangy vinegar, creamy mayo, and bright lemons.
George cut into an anchovy. “Salads are a great way to lose weight.”
That was random. “Um-hm.” Just keep chewing, Georgy-boy, so I don’t have to listen to you.
“But you need exercise too. Increase muscle mass, increase metabolism.”
Where was he going with this? Lex cleared her throat. “How often do you work out?”
“Three times a week minimum, but I try to make it more often.”
Lex did a discreet appraisal. Not a powerhouse, but not flabby. He probably only made it to the gym twice a week on average. She sighed. She and George didn’t even have athleticism in common, because she worked out much more than he did. “Do you play sports?”
George swallowed a bite. “I’m taking kickboxing right now. You should try it, it’s fun.”
On the volleyball court, she didn’t mind getting bruises and floor burns on her body, but blows to the head wigged her out. Kickboxing? No, thank you. “Mm-hm.”
“It’s great exercise. You’d tone your body a bit.”
Uneasiness and suspicion caused a prickling at the back of her eyeballs and a humming along her jaw. “What do you mean?”
His handsome smile could charm the knife away from a serial killer. “You’d fit your clothes better and feel great about yourself.”
What?
Sure, she didn’t have curves, but she never thought she looked out of shape. She glanced down. Her tucked-in blouse ballooned out from her skirt waistband. She thought the loose top would hide her flat chest while the pleated skirt would give her hips, but maybe it gave another illusion entirely. Did he actually think she looked fat?
Lex didn’t say anything for a long time. A weird emotionless feeling had descended on her. She blinked, wondering what her reaction should be.
Gee, I ran five miles yesterday, and the day before that, I did lateral movement drills on a sand volleyball court. Not enough toning?
You know, I didn’t care much for sparring sports, but you’re making me rethink that.
My life has been completely changed by your sensitive insight into my weight and self-esteem.
The waitress saved him. Maybe she had a premonition of George’s imminent demise and swept in to rescue him. She removed the salad plates and presented the garlic roasted crab with a flourish.
Hot, pungent aromas steamed Lex’s face as she leaned over the plate for a long, ecstatic breath. An exotic mix of spices melded with the warm richness of browned butter. Only a whiff of brine. The shells had a warm, healthy sunset color. Her mouth watered.
She lifted the top shell and inhaled a sweet tang of the sea. She picked out a forkful of feathery meat and took a bite.
She magnanimously forgave George for everything. Because of him, she sat here in pure bliss.
George nattered on about fat cells, he checked out the miniskirt of the woman sitting at the next table, and she thought he called her Alicia once. He could call her Big Bird for all she cared. She had reached Shangri-la.
“Hiya, Lex!”
She plummeted straight into hell.
Mimi posed beside their table. Her sleek black dress revealed her curvy hips, while her perky C-cups squished under the low, tight neckline. She flashed white teeth framed by lipstick that screamed “Red Light District.”
“How nice to see you here, Lex.” Mimi tossed her shimmering, calf-length ponytail. She then ignored Lex and sidled up to George.
“Hi, I’m Mimi, Lex’s cousin.”
He seemed dazed by the jiggling mounds waving in his face.
“George.”
Her mesmerizing, half-lidded eyes drew close to him. “You seem familiar. Have we met before?”
Wait a cotton-pickin’ minute. What was Mimi doing? She already had Kin-Mun, and if the two-hundred-pound hunk of steroid-built muscle glaring at them from across the room indicated anything, Mimi had men by the dozen. Why go after Lex’s measly lamb? Well, granted, George was more like good-looking slime, but still. Lex sat forgotten on the other end of the table, a lump on the couch watching a bad soap opera.
George lived up to her abysmal expectations with a delighted reply. “I promise, I wouldn’t have forgotten you if we had.”
“Are you sure? I could have sworn I saw you at a naked coed Ultimate Frisbee game.”
His answering look smoldered with wicked glee. “Oh, darling, I would only flaunt this body for a private audience.”
Lex tried not to gag. George wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she expected a little consideration while she remained within reasonable distance. Like three feet away across the dinner table.
Mimi gave her a sly sidelong look. Can’t keep your date’s attention, Lex?
Heat rushed into Lex’s face like her head had been stuck in an oven. Her chest tightened in pain, and her lungs felt punctured. She gasped for a breath that burned down her throat. She hunched her shoulders, trying to shrink within her clothes, make herself smaller, more delicate, more feminine.
“Oh!” Mimi’s graceful hand touched her shell-shaped ear.
“Where’s my earring?” She bent to search the floor, affording a generous view down her dress.
George paused a moment to stare down at her like a predatory wolf. Then he scooted his chair back and bent to peer at the patterned carpet.
When his head fell at level with hers, Mimi lifted her chin at him.
He also tilted toward her. She smiled a slow, sensual bedroom smile, as if daring him to move the scant inches between them and press his lips to hers.
George gave an inane smile.
A spasm squeezed through Lex’s chest. Ignored and spotlighted at the same time. Shut out by the two lovebirds exchanging heated glances. Laughed at by everyone else in the restaurant who witnessed the poor plain Jane losing her handsome escort in front of her eyes.
Mimi rose languidly to her feet. A business card appeared between two fingers. Where had that come from? Her bosom? As she tilted it toward George, he plucked it from her without breaking eye contact.
She dragged a seemingly innocent finger down her neck in an unselfconscious gesture. “Nice meeting you, George.”
“The pleasure was all mine.”
Mimi’s eyes flickered to Lex. “How do you two know each other?”
“Me and Lex? Oh, her brother set us up.”
Wait a minute. No, he didn’t. Richard just asked George to show her some condos. Why did George say that? It took a second for Lex to pick up what he didn’t say.
Had Richard asked him to ask Lex out to dinner?!
No way. Richard wouldn’t be that stupid. Or suicidal — because he’d know his sister would hunt him down if she found out.
But drowning her anger, a sludge-filled sea of utter mortification pulled at her with a slow undertow. She’d needed her brother to get a date.
And Mimi would tell everyone.
Lex would never live this down. She closed her eyes to block out the sight of Mimi’s sparkling gaze and surprised, mocking expression. In Lex’s world of warm darkness, Mimi’s high, trilling voice cut through.
“Oh reeeally?” A giggle. “Well, next time I’ll be sure to take advantage of Richard’s dating ser vice.”
Lex’s eyes flew open. She needed to salvage her pride behind some white-hot anger. “Stow it, Skipper.”
Mimi’s smile hardened. She looked like she did when she had ripped the head off of Trish’s Barbie doll when they were younger. A warm, vindictive rush pooled in Lex’s heart at the thought that no amount of push-up bras and scanty clothing could make Mimi look taller than an elementary school student.
Lex tilted her head toward the far table. “Now be a good girl and go home to Papa.”
Mimi turned to George and leaned her face in close. “I hope I see you sometime?”
He gave a confident movie-star impression. “You just might.”
She sashayed away.
Lex regarded George with a neutral face and burning eyes. His smile faltered.
Over his shoulder, she spotted the waitress approaching. She snapped up a hand. “I need a box.” Lex glanced at George’s untouched crab. He’d been too busy spewing out pheromones. “He will too.”
The waitress nodded and hurried away.
George blinked in astonishment. “You didn’t like the crab?”
“I’m not hungry.”
He seemed deaf to her clipped tone. “That’s good. Lower calorie intake will definitely — ”
She couldn’t believe him. “Do yourself a favor and stop talking.”
He halted mid-sentence, his mouth open, but recovered quickly.
“Ah . . . Lex, your brother and I are good friends.”
Another lowering suspicion shot tension down her spine. “And?”
“You see him pretty often, right?”
She pressed her mouth together and regarded him with a narrowed gaze.
“Can you ask him to pay you back for my half of tonight’s dinner? I, uh . . . I’m out of cash.”