I laughed lightly, and we gazed at each other for a few seconds. I could see that there was an appreciation in his eyes that made me feel warm inside. Lucas was really thoughtful and really a nice guy, and it surprised me because he was just so attractive. I figured that he could be with absolutely anyone. Was this really that special to him?
“I chose foods that I thought would be easy to serve in an environment like this. I hope you like them,” I said, as we sat down at the table.
“Oh, I’m sure I will. What did you get?”
“Well, of course, I have champagne and strawberries because what date doesn’t have champagne and strawberries?” I laughed. “And then we have some chicken wings, some garlic bread, some pasta, some potato salad.”
“Wow. That all sounds like a delicious meal. I thought you were going to say something like cucumber sandwiches and scones.”
“Oh, no.” I laughed. “As much as I do like a good English afternoon tea, cucumber sandwiches are not going to fly right now.”
“No, they’re not. I’m very hungry.” He laughed. “Also I know you’re the one setting up this picnic, but I wanted to bring something as well.”
“Oh?” I looked at him in surprise. “What did you bring?” He didn’t have anything in his hands aside from the flowers.
“Well, maybe I’ll wait until later to show you.”
“I’m very intrigued now. What could you possibly have that I can’t see?”
“Ah, do you think you can see everything on me?” He winked.
“Well, I don’t know if I can see everything, but—”
He interrupted me and grinned. “I’m packing quite a lot, you know.”
“Oh yeah?” I teased. I laughed at his double entendre. “What are you packing?”
“Ah, do you want to unwrap the package and find out?” There was a light in his eyes that thrilled me.
“Hm, I don’t know about that. But let’s eat and then I’ll decide.” One of the waiter’s poured champagne into our glasses and I took a small sip. “So Lucas, I’d really love to hear a bit more about your work. I know you said that you think the law is boring, and being an attorney is tedious, but I’d really like to hear more. I mean, obviously, you can’t find it that boring if it’s what you do for a living.”
“Yeah. I mean, I really like the intricacies of the law, and I really like fighting to uphold the letter of the law. But I know most lay people aren’t interested in legal precedents and the black letter of the law. I can be a little bit intense at times.” He shrugged. “And I don’t want you to think that’s all there is to me.”
“No. I mean, I understand how you feel. With my job, unless you’re interested in history and anthropology, you most probably won’t really care what I’m doing, and I can get really intense about it as well. But I do enjoy other things as well so I understand and appreciate that.”
“Your job sounds absolutely amazing.” He laughed. “I guess we have similar jobs in a way.”
“Oh really? How do we have similar jobs?”
“Well, we both study people, and we both figure out the truth of situations. You figure out the truth of the past and how people and culture lived and evolved. And I figure out the truth of a situation and how the law works and who comes out on top.”
“Well, you’re not a judge, are you?” I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t figure out who comes out on top, do you? You just try and help your clients.”
“That’s true.” He looked at me admiringly. “I don’t figure out who comes out on top, but I’m pretty confident that I know who will come out on top based on the facts of any given case. And depending on the side that I’m on, I try to work with what I have to ensure that my client has the best possible outcome that they can achieve. So in a way I am figuring out who comes out on top, just not always good news for my clients.”
“That makes sense. So exactly what sort of law do you practice again?”
“Mainly commercial real estate. But I do take on a lot of pro bono cases in other areas, mainly family law court stuff.”
“Oh, wow. Really?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I was always interested in family law, but it doesn’t pay as much as the litigation corporate side. So I