are from England and Scotland. And well, I could never live in England.”
“Oh, I love England. Why couldn’t you live there?”
“It’s just so gray and gloomy. Like I could live there during the summers, but in the winters, no.”
“But we’re pretty gray and gloomy here in Manhattan too.”
“That is true. But I like to go down to Miami and then over to LA in the winters normally.”
“Oh, but you’re here this winter?” I asked him, wondering. If he was about to tell me he was hopping on a plane to Miami or LA for the next couple of months, this was not going to work. I mean, I wasn’t interested in getting to know someone long distance.
“Oh no, no, no. We have a couple of cases coming up in the new year. So I’ll be here for the foreseeable future. Aside from the new year when I’m going to see my family.”
“Oh, okay. Well that’s good. Do you spend Christmas and New Year’s with your family then?”
“Actually, yeah. I do. We have an annual sort of New Year’s Eve party for everyone. This Christmas though is going to be a little bit different. My grandparents and my parents are going over to England to visit some relatives. So we won’t be spending Christmas Eve or Christmas Day together. We’ll be doing our own thing.”
“Oh, okay. That sounds a little bit sad. I couldn’t imagine being by myself for Christmas without my big family.”
“Yeah, it is what it is.” He shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m close with my family, but I don’t mind having a little break from them.” He looked around the restaurant. “Let me see where this waiter is so we can place our order and then we can continue talking.”
“That sounds good to me.”
He looked around and then called over to a waiter who came over to the table and took our order. He looked surprised when we ordered four different cakes and pies, but just shrugged and went on his way. “I have a feeling that the waiter thinks we’re really greedy,” I said to Lucas with a small smile.
“Who cares what he thinks. So Gemma, tell me a little bit more about what you do. I read that you were a part-time model?”
“You did?” I raised an eyebrow. Oh shit, maybe I shouldn’t have included that joke in my dating profile. “I wouldn’t exactly say I’m a part-time model.” I gave him a warm smile. “I work at a museum. I’m a researcher.”
“Oh, so you are smart then?”
“Well, yeah. Did you think I wasn’t?”
He laughed, “No, I didn’t mean it to sound like that. It’s just saying that most women I meet who are models, they’re not the most intellectual. So it’s really cool to meet someone as beautiful as you who also has another career aside from strutting their stuff, you know?”
“Yeah. I know what you mean. I work at the American Museum of Natural History. I mainly research some Amerindian tribes in the rainforest of South America, known as the Amazon.”
“Oh wow. That sounds really interesting,” he looked impressed. “Could you tell me a bit more?”
“I don’t really know that you’d be that interested, but we’re tracing a particular tribe that is known as the lost tribe in Manaus, Brazil.”
“Oh, I didn’t know there were lost tribes. If they’re lost, how did you know they exist?”
“Because we have found different artifacts and there have been sightings and local people have heard their local tribe whistles. At the museum we have a lot of different pottery that has been excavated from some caves in the rainforest. Basically I am the point person between the archeologists and anthropologists that are actually doing the work in the rainforest over there in Brazil and Guyana and the team here in New York.”
“Wow. Color me impressed. I take back all my doubts about you being an intellectual. You’re obviously very, very well-informed about humanity.”
“Yeah, you could say that. But enough about me. I don’t want to bore you. You’re in corporate litigation?”
“Yeah. And I don’t want to bore you either. So tell me about your interests. What do you do for fun?”
“I love to play tennis. It’s my dream one day to go to Wimbledon.”
“Oh yeah. Well, if things work out, I’ll have to take you.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I grinned at him. “So what about you? What do you like to do?”
“I actually love cycling.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. When I was eighteen years old, I actually cycled across the United States.”