and Ran must mistake that for a nod because he slinks his fingers through mine and then we’re out the door to the garage.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“What do you like to drink?” Ran grabs two cups from the counter and stands in front of the soda machine, surveying the eight different beverage options before him. “Let me guess. Not Mountain Dew; you probably think that looks like toxic slime. And it’s evident you could definitely use some caffeine in your life, so I’m guessing no on the Caffeine Free Pepsi. I bet you’re a Dr. Pepper drinker, no?”
I make a loud buzzer noise, indicating his fail. “Diet Coke.”
“Diet Coke? Really?” He says it like it should reveal something monumental about me, like he’s uncovered some hidden secret just by discovering my soda preference. “You don’t strike me as a Diet Coke type of girl.”
“You think what I like to drink sheds light on who I actually am?”
I take our tray of food to a booth at the back of the burger joint. A young mom pushing a stroller and grasping the hand of a toddler just vacated the seat, and the oversized wheel of the jogger lodges between two chairs in front of her. Ran slides the table barricading them to the side and they squeeze past. He gives her a genuine, full smile in return for her mouthed ‘Thank you,’ and continues toward our table.
“I think you can learn a lot about someone by the way they look at you when you’re trying to analyze them,” he says, slipping into the booth and popping a French fry into his mouth at the same time.
I settle in across from him and drop my purse from my shoulder to set it down next to me on the pleather seat cushion. “I think you can learn a lot about someone just by watching them interact with others.” I nod my head toward the family now exiting the restaurant. “Have you always been such a gentleman?”
“Is that compliment number five, Maggie?” Ran flashes me an enormous grin as he continues chewing his food. How can he make eating junk food look sexy?
“No,” I say, collecting my cheeseburger from the tray and peeling back the wrapper. There is cheese stuck to the paper, and I thumb it off with my nail and pop it into my mouth. “Remember that insult-related deduction? I’m back down to four.”
Ran grins and hangs his head. When he looks up, he’s peering at me from under his dark hair and I realize just how attractive he actually is. I thought maybe before it was the whole hero thing he had going for him in his paramedic attire, but seeing him dressed in just distressed jeans and a V-neck white t-shirt, he’s even more appealing. He stretches his arm across the table toward his soda and my eyes trail down his half-sleeve of colorful body art that winds around his bicep.
“Four compliments for me and I’ve yet to give you any.”
I swallow the food in my mouth, wipe my lips with a paper napkin and say, “I don’t need you to compliment me, Ran.”
“No, you don’t strike me as the type of girl that needs any sort of affirmation.”
“I don’t seem to strike you as much today, do I?”
Ran sets his drink back onto our table and stares at me openly. “Wrong. I do find you very striking.”
I pause for too long. I want to kick myself for it. I want to kick myself for a lot of things lately, and all of them have something to do with my interactions with Ran. I’m supposed to be the one with the quick wit and controlled humor, yet I’m having trouble keeping up with this stranger across the table from me.
“What’s your angle?”
Ran swivels his head in surprise. “My angle?”
“Yeah, your angle.” I pull in a long drink of my Diet Coke to buy some time to decide what I’m going to say next. I barely know this guy. I definitely don’t know how to communicate with him. “Why the gifts? Why the lunch date? Do you feel sorry for me because I was in a car accident and now walk like a gimp? Or is it that I’m the girl with the brother dying of cancer and you want to be a heroic shoulder to cry on?” I bite down on the straw, indenting the flimsy plastic with my two front teeth. “What’s your angle, Ran?”
Stopping mid-chew, Ran leans back in his