Nervous

“That’s so sweet!”

“Ah-ha, speaking of sweet, I have a lot of sweets for you.”

I blushed. “You do?”

“Yes, and I also have dinner prepared for you, but we’r

e going to do things a little differently.”

“How so?” I asked, overwhelmed by the total experience.

“We’re going to eat backwards.”

“Eat backwards?” I laughed. “Never heard of that. You mean we sit at the table backwards and try to eat? As clumsy and uncoordinated as I am, I’ll make a mess.”

“No, that’s not what I mean.” He chuckled and kissed my hand again. “We’re going to start with dessert and work our way back. First, we will have dessert, then the main course, the salad, and finally the appetizer.”

“Now that sounds very interesting.” I took a good whiff of the air. “Something smells yummy.”

“Hopefully, it will be.”

“Did you cook?”

“Um, no, I cannot tell a lie. I did not cook one single thing.” Mason snapped his fingers and three people came flooding out of the kitchen carrying trays—two men and one woman who were all dressed in black suits with white shirts and black ties.

“You are too much!” I exclaimed.

For the next hour, Mason treated me like royalty. The “staff” as he continuously referred to them, served the food on fine china and crystal. What was missing were utensils. Mason informed me that it was a commonly known fact that food eaten by hand is sexy. I wasn’t going to argue with him and we ended up feeding each other.

We started out with Chocolate Heart Layer Cake with Chocolate-Cinnamon Mousse along with Heart-Shaped Dried Cherry and Chocolate Chip Scones and strawberries sprinkled with sugar and marinated in wine. Then we had Chicken in Red Wine Sauce with Root Vegetables and Wilted Greens followed by Red Leaf Lettuce, Watercress and Cucumber Salad with Buttermilk Dressing. Lastly, we had Skewered Scallops with Orange-Sesame Dipping Sauce as an appetizer.

To say the least, I was stuffed after dinner. The “staff” cleaned up everything and departed. At some point, I must have fallen asleep and I was terrified when I woke up. I hoped that Jude hadn’t taken over for a period of time, said or done something crazy, and ruined my perfect date with Mason.

I was relieved when I saw Mason coming down the hallway grinning at me. “Hey, you! The food did you in, huh?”

I giggled. “That’s an understatement.” I decided to be honest. “I’m glad to see that nothing went wrong.”

“What could possibly go wrong?” he asked, sitting down beside me on the sofa.

“I thought you-know-who might have reared her ugly head.”

Mason ran his fingers through my hair. “No, there’s no one here but you and me.”

“How can you tell?”

“Come again?”

“Realistically, how can you tell that I’m really Jonquinette and not Jude?”

He shrugged. “When I met Jude, and to my knowledge I’ve only come across her once, it was obvious that something was wrong.”

“How so? I mean, besides the obvious with her declaring herself a major whore and all of that.”

“She had a different air about her, a different way of carrying herself.”

“What do you mean?”

“She had this attitude like she ruled the world and you’re more, more . . . ”