my own sandwich. A stray pickle has escaped. “That was in a compromised position.”
“Protecting my son’s elephant,” he says, “on a Ferris wheel from hell.”
I reach for another French fry. “Exactly. Where’s your son tonight?”
“At home.”
I look over at him in surprise and he snorts. “He’s not alone.”
“Phew.”
“I’m not that irresponsible of a parent.” Tristan leans back in his plastic chair, crossing his arms over his chest, looking like he’s never been irresponsible a day in his life.
I push an escaped tendril of hair back. “So, as a native New Yorker, what are your favorite spots?”
His smile is crooked. “You want insider tips?”
“I want to see the city. Tell me where I should go.”
“There’s a tiny deli on the end of 74th and West. It serves these great pastrami sandwiches,” he deadpans, “but oddly enough, they also have Chinese food.”
“Watch yourself,” I warn him.
Tristan’s smile is wide and uninhibited, leaving me dazed. “I’d never mock you, Freddie.”
“Sure you wouldn’t.” But I’m smiling as I shake my head. “I should have known better than to ask advice from an Upper West Sider.”
“There’s something wrong with this area?”
“No one talks to one another,” I say. “I don’t know the name of a single person in my building, except the doorman and my super.”
“That’s New York.” He raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you were so sociable, Strait-laced.”
I groan. “I really don’t like that nickname.”
“It’s a shame, because I really do. It’s what I called you in my head before I met the real you.”
My fingers tighten around my sandwich. “So you thought about me after the party, huh?”
His eyes lock with mine. “You thought about me.”
“You’re so confident in that.”
“Well?” he asks, an eyebrow rising. “Didn’t you?”
“I did,” I admit. The tension between us rises another notch, the air vibrating around me. “And when I met you, I couldn’t help but wonder…”
“Yes?” he prompts.
“Wonder why you go to those parties.”
Something sparks in his eyes. “They’re fun.”
“Yes, well, they certainly are.” Heat rises to my cheeks, but I don’t look away from his gaze. “That’s it, then? It’s a fun pastime.”
His eyes darken. I hadn’t meant for my words to sound judgmental, but hearing them back, it’s there. And perhaps I do judge him. Not for going, no, I’d gone too. But for settling for that. He’s in his mid-thirties, after all.
“They are what they are,” he says gruffly. “No strings, no attachment, no commitments.”
I bite my lip. “It’s simple.”
“It’s simple,” he agrees.
I think of his son, his job. The commitment to making Exciteur the best it could be. “So you don’t have the time to date properly, then, and the Gilded Room is the second best option,” I summarize.
“You have me all figured out, do you?”
My heart does a double-take, but I give him a confident grin. “I’m something of a people-reader.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“Then finding the mole in the Strategy Department should be a day’s work for you. Tell me, Freddie,” he says, reaching for the French fries, “why are you single?”
“Why am I single?”
“Yes. If you think you have my dating habits all figured out, it’s only fair I get a look into yours.”
“In that case, you should be guessing,” I point out. “Since I guessed yours.”
“Hmm, right.”
“Equality and all that.”
He braces his arms on the table. “God forbid we forget equality. Right, then. It’s my turn to read you.”
“I’m an open book.”
“You just moved to the city, so you haven’t had time to meet someone yet,” he says. “That makes sense. But did you leave someone behind in Philadelphia?”
I cross my arms and meet his gaze with my own. “My lips are sealed.”
“Unhelpful,” he comments. “My guess is that you didn’t.”
“I didn’t?”
Tristan leans back in his chair, mirroring my cross-armed stance. He pulls it off better. “I think you’re afraid of men.”
My mouth drops open at that. “I’m sorry?”
“Oh, not the kind of fear you have for heights. I mean the fear of being burned. You see, Freddie, I think you like to be in control.”
“I do, do I?”
“Yes. You’ve kept your head down and focused on school, on internships, on your work. Told yourself there’s no time for dating, but the truth is, you’ve never made the time… because it scares you. It’s the one realm where you’re not in control at all.”
I stare at him, the half-eaten sandwich forgotten in front of me. Tristan stares gamely back at me with eyes that burn with triumph, and something else. Something that picks at my soul as surely as his