voices, and the quiet sound of the violin in the distance creates an incredibly romantic and secluded atmosphere. The perfect place for a first date with someone you already know well.
Dante reaches out his hand to touch me. I pull my hand out of my lap and he intertwines his fingers with mine.
"I've been wanting to do this for a long time,” he says, gazing into my eyes.
"Yeah, me, too," I say.
"I'm sorry that I lied to you. It was incredibly stupid and selfish."
"Selfish?" I ask. "No, it was stupid maybe, but it was the opposite of selfish. You saved my mom's life and you did it in secret. I'm just sorry that I got so upset."
"Let's just forget about it and start new."
"I'd like that," I say.
When the menu arrives, Dante orders us some wine that I've never heard of, which isn’t saying much since he could order the cheapest wine on the menu and I wouldn't know the difference. When I tell him this, he laughs.
"That's what I like about you," he says, "you're unassuming, unpretentious."
"I thought you would use this opportunity to teach me about wine."
"If you ask me, I can tell you, but I'm not going to be so presumptuous and self important to go around and mansplain stuff to you."
I laugh at his use of the word mansplain. "I'm not sure that applies here, but I appreciate the sentiment."
We both laugh.
When the bread arrives, I grab a roll trying to appease my anxiety. It's not that I'm not happy to be here, more than that.
It’s just when suddenly you're doing exactly what you've wanted and thought about for months, you start to question things, you get nervous.
While I let the bread melt in my mouth, I ask Dante about his life, his brother and his wife. We talk briefly about what happened at Central Park and he apologizes once again for not coming after me.
“I had a lot on my mind," he says.
“Like what?”
"I'm just having some issues with my work. It's hard to explain."
"Try," I urge him.
We have talked enough about the past. Now I want to know more about the present.
The first courses are the Caesar salad with freshly made dressing.
"Wow, I've never had dressing that was this good," I say, taking a bite and then impaling a crouton along with the greens.
He takes a bite and nods in approval.
"Tell me about your work," I say when the smile disappears and he gazes into my eyes.
"I have this client out in Seattle, my boss forced me to invest with him and his company and usually those decisions are made entirely up to me. I promised myself that I would oversee every part of that investment because he didn't deserve it. I have a feeling that my boss is getting a kickback or there's some sort of fraud going on, but what it is exactly I don't know."
"I thought that you were in charge of who you invest with."
"Yeah, I thought so, too," Dante says, "but he basically told me that you either invest the company's money with this guy or go and find another job. So that's what I'm doing."
"What are you doing?"
"A little bit of both. I invested the money and I'm actively looking for other employment."
"Oh, wow. So, there are other companies that do what you do?"
"Of course, competitor companies, some not so good, some a little bit more shady. That's what I liked about Cedar in the first place. He seemed really on the up and up, which is hard to find in the financial world, especially when you're talking about these types of investments. I'm actually considering starting my own."
"You are?"
"Yeah.” He nods. "Wow, it feels weird to tell someone this, but it's the first time I've ever said it out loud."
I smile. "I like that," I say.
He smiles, too, reaches over, and squeezes my hand again. I'm having an elderberry martini. I take a sip and the alcohol calms me down a little bit, relaxing my nerves.
"I've missed you," Dante says out of the blue, just like that. It makes my breath lodge in the back of my throat.
"I missed you, too," I mumble and just as he's about to lean over and kiss me, the waiter comes back with our main course.
I ordered some Atlantic salmon and he got a lobster. I finish the rest of my salad and ask for more because it's so good.
The rest of dinner proceeds quite casually: no more intense conversations, no