A quizzical expression crossed her face. “What? I thought you meant just at work. I didn’t think you meant I couldn’t talk to my best friend about it. We talk about everything.”
“Great,” I said. It always baffled me how most women had this insane need to have some sort of confidante to spill every last detail of her life to. Not saying that guys didn’t also talk about shit with each other, but not to the degree the women did. I’d overheard girls talking about dick size, how many fingers he put her up her snatch, whether or not he had hair around his asshole. What his come tasted like, if he was circumcised, how he cried out like a girl when he came. Don’t get me wrong—guys bragged about bagging girls all the time, but they didn’t go into minute fucking detail, the way I was sure that Daisy and this friend of hers would.
“What did you have in mind?” I asked.
“I don’t know—do you feel like going out for sushi?”
“Sure,” I said. “Tomorrow night? I’ve got to come in and do a couple things around here, but I can come by your place around six?”
Daisy grinned. “That’d be perfect!” she said, and just from the way she said it, I knew she had already set the whole thing up with her friend.
We met up with her friend, Caroline, at Unscaled, which was one of the newer restaurants that I hadn’t been to before. Sushi was not, actually, a culinary favorite of mine, though there were a few things that I didn’t mind.
The place was crowded, and there was some sort of shitty electronic music playing. We were seated at a table in the middle of the dining area; Daisy and me on one side, Caroline on the other. She was cute—though not as cute as Daisy—and was definitely one of those women who was used to calling the shots about everything.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” she said as we sipped our hot green tea.
“Likewise,” I replied, though Daisy hadn’t really told me that much about her.
“So you’re the owner of the company?” she asked.
I pulled my chopsticks out of the wrapper and snapped them apart. What was this—a job interview? No, this was the friend interview, to see if I was worthy enough to go out with her friend.
“What’s good here?” I asked, sliding the menu toward me.
“I like the crazy roll,” Daisy said. “Caro and I sometimes get the sushi platter for two. And the Harmony roll—it’s salmon and avocado topped with fresh lemon slices.” She grinned. “My mouth is just watering thinking about it.”
Fortunately, I noticed a small section dedicated to their cooked selections; and there was salmon teriyaki, front and center.
“I am going to go with the salmon teriyaki, actually,” I said. “But maybe I’ll try a piece or two of sushi if you get enough.”
“Oh,” Daisy said. “Are you . . . are you not a fan of sushi?”
“It’s all right,” I said. “There’s a few things I like, though I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite food.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “You should have told me! We didn’t have to come here.”
“Aren’t you like, an avid fishermen or something like that?” Caroline said.
I smiled thinly, just wondering what Daisy had told her about our little boat outing. “I have a boat, if that’s what you’re referring to. And I do enjoy fishing, though that’s some
thing I haven’t done in a while. Eating raw fish, though, is not one of my favorite things, though I have tried it on numerous occasions.”
Caroline smirked. “I figured a guy like you would be into that sort of thing.”
I had to try mightily not to roll my eyes. It was going to be a long evening.
Chapter Fourteen
Daisy
After my second cup of green tea, I had to pee, so I left Caroline and Ian at the table, waiting for our food. We’d gotten some sake, too, though I’d only had one cup so far, and my face felt pleasantly flushed and everything seemed to be going so well that I grinned like a fool all the way across the dining room and into the restroom.
As I was standing there washing my hands, the bathroom stall next to the one I’d just been in opened and a girl stepped out. She was probably around my age, athletic and pretty with long brown hair and large blue eyes. I could tell she was looking at me in the big mirror as we stood there, running water over our hands. I looked up and caught her eye; she looked away.
I was just reaching to turn the water off when she spoke.
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean for this to sound weird, but . . . is that your boyfriend?” she finally said. “That guy you’re with out there?”