Firefighter's Virgin

“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 something 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?”

“Um . . . yeah,” I said. “He is.”

“Oh, okay.” She smiled. “That’s what I figured. You guys have this really great energy. But I’m asking because my friend thinks he’s so hot, but I didn’t want her to make a fool of herself by asking him out.”

“Well, that’s nice of you,” I said. “But . . . yeah. Sorry. He’s taken.”

“I told her he was. But couldn’t hurt to ask.” She shut the faucet off and stepped around me to get the paper towels. She pulled one out of the dispenser, handed it to me, then took another for herself.

“Thanks,” I said.

“No problem. You guys have a good night.”

“We will; you too.”

She left the bathroom and I finished drying my hands off, then balled the paper towel up and tossed it into the trash. Had that just happened? Did a stranger just approach me to ask about my boyfriend? Who wasn’t actually my boyfriend, but he wasn’t not my boyfriend, either.

I walked back out into the dining room, past the table that girl was sitting at with two other friends. I tried to figure out which one it was that had wanted to ask Ian out, but I had no clue. Really, for all I knew, it could’ve been the girl in the bathroom who was really interested in him and she was just saying it like that because she didn’t want me to know it was her. She caught my eye as I walked past and gave me a little smile; I returned it, feeling almost giddy. These sorts of things just didn’t happen to me, but it seemed like since I’d met Ian, I was getting to experience all sorts of new things.

As I approached our table, I could see Caroline, laughing at something Ian had just said. I slowed my gait down, just to watch him for a moment. He really was incredibly gorgeous, the sort of physical perfection that made you stop and stare and wondered how on earth it was that someone could be put together that well.

“Thought you got lost,” he said when I finally made it back to the table. He nodded in front of him. “Our food has arrived.”

It certainly had. The waitress had brought out two huge platters, arranged artfully with half a dozen different sushi rolls and sashimi. There were also bowls of seaweed salad and steaming miso soup, and then Ian’s salmon teriyaki.

“Wow,” I said. “It looks delicious.”

Caroline had her chopsticks in hand and was stabbing at a green slab of wasabi. “I dare you to eat this whole thing,” she said to Ian.

“You know, in my youth, I might have taken you up on such a thing,” he said. “But now I’d like to at least think I’m a little wiser.”

“Suit yourself,” she said with a shrug.