Just Another Silly Love Song - Rich Amooi Page 0,34

waiter placed our lasagnas and garlic bread on the table in front of us. “Buon appetito.”

“Thank you,” Ben and I said together.

We sat in silence, enjoying our first few bites of the food.

Finally, Ben looked up from his plate, grinning. “This is nice when we don’t argue. We should not talk more often.”

“Not a bad thought, but that would make it extremely difficult for us to get to know each other.”

He raised his bottle to his lips and paused. “Good point. Okay, so, tell me something about you.” He took a sip of his beer.

“What do you want to know?”

“I don’t know. I guess we can start with movies. What are you into?”

I smiled. “Romantic comedies.”

Ben shook his head and sighed. “Of course. Should’ve known.” He broke off a piece of the garlic bread.

“And what about you, Mr. Tough Stuff? I’m guessing you like the shoot-em-up-bang-bang-action-mafia movies.”

“Nope.”

“The world is ending, and someone has to stop it from happening.”

Ben shook his head. “Uh-uh.”

“Blood and guts and gore. You like war movies and assassins?”

“You’re so totally off the mark, it’s not even funny,” Ben said. “I’m a fan of the classics, if you must know.”

“The classics . . .”

“Yes, the classics.”

“Can you be a little more specific?”

“Sure.” He counted the movies off on his fingers. “Roman Holiday, His Girl Friday, Pillow Talk, Bringing Up Baby, The Shop Around the Corner, The Philadelphia Story.”

I blinked.

There was no way in hell Ben liked those movies.

He probably just memorized them on the way to the restaurant to try to impress me.

I was the one who liked those movies.

I knew what he was up to.

We were supposed to be getting to know each other, but Ben wasn’t playing nicely and wasn’t going to tell the truth, because he didn’t want me to use anything against him during our show. But if Ben didn’t want me to know anything about him, why had he even agreed to lunch? All he had to do was tell me that.

The only thing I could do now was either play along with his charade or extract the truth out of him, which would be challenging, but worth it in the end.

I opted for the latter.

Ben studied me. “Why are you looking at me that way?”

“You like those movies?”

Ben nodded and took a bite of his lasagna. “Love them. I watch them over and over again. I own them all, actually.”

“You.”

“Why do you find that so hard to believe? They were and are still very popular movies.”

“I don’t doubt the popularity of them. I’m doubting that a caveman would ever watch those movies, let alone enjoy one of them.”

“I’m curious . . . when are you going to stop calling me caveman?”

“When are you going to stop calling me sidekick?”

Ben nodded and took a sip of his beer. “Caveman is fine.”

“I still don’t believe you about the movies.”

“Well, I don’t know how I can prove it to you since you and I both know you won’t be going to my house anytime soon to check out my movie collection or my etchings.”

I wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily.

“It’s not difficult to prove. I mean, if you own them all and watch them repeatedly, you must have some favorite lines from one of the movies. Give me a quote from one of them to prove this is not you just being ridiculous again. Heck, I’ll even stop calling you caveman if you come up with something. Any line, and then I’ll be quiet.” I pretended to zip my mouth shut.

He leaned closer to me. “Now, it isn't that I don't like you, Lori, because after all, in moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn toward you.” He winked. “But—well, there haven't been any quiet moments.”

I swallowed hard.

Grandma Joyce was right; Ben’s voice was deep and smooth and hypnotizing.

How had I not noticed that before?

I glanced at my beer.

I wasn’t drunk, so that’s not where the thoughts could be coming from.

Ben took a bite of his lasagna, looking quite satisfied with himself.

I was at a loss for words, really.

He just quoted one of my favorite lines from the movie Bringing Up Baby, except the part where he inserted my name.

That freaked me out a little.

Or a lot.

We had something else in common? Just the thought was making me a little queasy.

Ben pointed to my face. “There you go again, doing that staring thing. Are you shocked that I could come up with a line, or is it just because you now