Descent (Black Heart Romance)

The waitress nods.

“Great, I’ll have that and a glass of water, please.”

The waitress smiles and tells me she’ll be right back. I consider digging into the appetizer, but if it tastes as good as it looks, I’ll want to be able to look back on its beauty when I’m longing to taste it again.

Since I have my phone on me, I dig it out and take a picture.

I watch Charity attack the dish first, using the edge of the toasted bread to smear off a little goat cheese and then drag it through the tomato sauce.

I grab a little toast for myself and do the same thing.

As soon as the food hits my tongue, my taste buds explode in a fit of flavor-induced pleasure. Covering my mouth, I murmur, “Oh my god.”

“Right?” Charity nods knowingly.

“I don’t even like goat cheese. Why is this so good?”

She smirks and double dips with the bottom half of her toasted bread. I take another swipe too, then as I’m chewing, I shoot a quick text to Calvin with the picture of the food. “Can Chef Ryan make this? If not, we have to come to this restaurant for dinner one night because you need to try this.”

He responds immediately. “Chef Ryan can make anything, but I’m happy to take you out for dinner anytime you like.”

Charity’s singsong voice pulls me from my texting. “Is that the boy?” she teases.

I nod, but don’t want to talk about Calvin, so I volley the conversation back to her love life. “Who did you say brought you here? Some guy from work?”

I watch her face to see if she looks guilty. Before, I would have never regarded Charity with suspicion, but now that I know she cheated on Tyler the night before she married him, I’m wondering if she just flits around having affairs and I somehow never noticed.

She nods, not looking at all guilty as she scoops up more of the appetizer. “Brian. He’s a major foodie and a major bragger. Bringing me here, he got to introduce me to an amazing restaurant and make me die of jealousy by comparing it to food he had when he was in Venice, so it was his ideal night.”

I smile faintly. “Is he cute?”

She frowns like that’s a weird question, which I guess it is. “Um, kind of. He’s like a more pretentious Joe Goldberg, but he’s also super, super gay. I take it things between you and Jackson’s boss aren’t going so well?”

“No, they’re… as well as can be expected.”

“What does that mean?” she asks, frowning at my discomfort.

I’m anxious that this conversation could go very, very wrong, so I scoop up another bit of goat cheese and tomato sauce, but as I do, a wave of nausea hits me.

No, no, no. Behave yourself, stomach.

The last thing I need is to get sick here in front of Charity.

I will the little devil’s seed lodged in my womb to behave itself and look around to see if the waitress is any closer with my iced tea.

“How’d you meet him, anyway?” she asks, gazing at me across the table as she takes a sip of her martini.

“Um… well, I guess the first time I saw him was actually at Jackson’s office Christmas party. I don’t remember him, we weren’t actually introduced, but he remembers seeing me.”

“Aww.”

“Yeah,” I murmur, even though I know it’s decidedly not an aww situation. I don’t know how to explain how I met him. I don’t want to tell her I blew off her bachelorette party to go hang out with my ex and his boss, but I can’t tell the truth, either.

I’m saved by Charity’s phone. She holds up a manicured finger and says, “Hold on one sec.” Then she puts the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

Phew.

That was too close. She’ll be distracted when she gets off the call, so I try to think of something to change the subject to when she gets off.

While I’m brainstorming, my phone vibrates, too.

I grab it and see a message from Calvin that reads, “Do you know your ring size?”

My eyes widen. “Um… yes? Why?”

“Just curious. What is it?”

That seems like a dangerous question, so I don’t answer it. Instead, I tuck my phone away and return my attention to Charity while I wait for her to end her call.

We have a nice lunch chatting about Charity’s honeymoon and the mountain of work she has had since she got back. I try to keep the spotlight solely on her, and only mention what I’ve been up to in vague, passing terms.

It feels a lot like lying, but I’m not ready to tell the truth.

Thankfully, despite her similarities to Calvin in some ways, one way she differs is that she doesn’t pay as close attention to me. She’s not as hung up on the truth, either, so I’m able to skate through lunch despite a few pretty obvious glaring moments that should have aroused her suspicions.