The restaurant was lit with a soft glow, and all the walls were brick. It looked semi-Italian and cozy.
“Perfect,” I said as he opened the door and I walked through. We were seated in a corner booth, and it was kind of quiet, which was great. Soft music played through hidden speakers, and I was reminded of the spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp. I bet if I asked him, Lucah would reenact it with me, but I wasn’t going to ask him to. That would be silly.
“I would pull your chair out for you, but seeing as how it’s a booth, I can’t really do that. But I would. If I could.”
“You’re forgiven,” I said, reaching across the table and patting his arm.
The waiter came and we ordered garlic knots for an appetizer and a pizza with the works, and a bottle of cheap red wine.
“Shit,” he said.
“What?” He looked like he was reaching for something under the table.
“You’re too far away for me to grope. I was hoping to feel you up during dinner, but I can’t reach.” Something touched my knee, but couldn’t go much further.
“Stop that. You don’t have to grope me in public,” I hissed at him.
“But I want to grope you in public,” he said and he was almost pouting. Impossible. He was impossible. The waiter came back with the garlic knots and I tried to smack Lucah because he was groping my knee now and it tickled.
“Stop that,” I hissed when the waiter left us again. He just smiled and grabbed one of the garlic knots and dipped it in sauce, but he did stop touching my knee. I took one of the garlic knots and dipped it in sauce as well.
“No double dipping,” he said as I took a bite and went to put it back in the sauce.
“Are you serious? I have had your dick in my mouth. I don’t think double dipping is that big a deal.” He was opening his mouth to argue when a female voice invaded our little bubble.
“Tyler?” If she hadn’t been standing right beside our table, I would have just ignored her, but she was and she was staring at Lucah like he was a ghost. She was tall and leggy and dressed like she was going clubbing in a silver skintight dress. A definite glamazon.
I gave her a WTF face, but the color drained from Lucah’s face and his expression froze.
“Oh my God, Tyler!” The woman’s face broke out into a smile and she leaned down to try to give him a hug. He just sat there as she kissed him on the cheek.
What. The. FUCK.
“Stef, wow. Long time no see,” he finally said and it was like he had to choke out the words. He stood up and let her really hug him. Okay, so clearly he knew this girl, but she had called him Tyler. I knew that wasn’t his middle name, or a nickname, or any other name that I’d ever heard him ever use. So now I had to wonder why this woman knew him as Tyler and what that meant.
“Oh my God, what are you doing here?” The glamazon named “Stef” hadn’t even looked at me. I knew I was short, but I wasn’t f**king invisible. I wanted to say something, but I had no idea what that should be until I could figure out what the story was.
“Oh, I’m just traveling.” He sat back down and he didn’t look at me either. HAD I TURNED FUCKING INVISIBLE AND I WASN’T AWARE?
“I can’t believe this!” Stef was gushing and I wanted to punch her in the face, even though I didn’t know her. “What has it been? Almost a year? Where are you working now?” Lucah cleared his throat and she FINALLY looked away from him and saw me. Her smile dropped for a second as she glanced down at me, but it was back on a second later, although it was tight and not as friendly. Fake.
“Oh, I’m such an idiot,” she said with a fake laugh that made my ears burn. “I’m Stefanie. I used to work with Tyler out in LA.” Okay, first of all, his name isn’t Tyler. Second, nothing in his résumé had mentioned LA. NOTHING.
The three of us were suspended in the moment, none of us knowing what to say. I was waiting for someone to explain what the FUCK was going on, Stefanie seemed to be waiting for me to leave so she could have a joyous reunion with “Tyler” and Lucah (or Tyler) seemed to be waiting for the world to end.
“Okay, since I’m clearly in the dark, I’m going to go ahead and say it. What the f**k, Lucah?” I turned my anger and confusion on him and his face turned red.
“Tyler? I can come back. Or you could call me.” Shut up, bitch. I don’t care about you.
“I think that would be best, Stefanie.” She smiled and waited for him to give her his number, but he was staring at me.
“Okay, well. Here’s my number.” She fiddled in her purse and pulled out a card and set it on the table, then waited for him to say something else, but he didn’t so she slinked away.
Thank God and good riddance.
“Explain,” I said, crossing my hands on the table.
He put his head in his hands.
“I don’t even know where to start. Fuck, I knew this was going to happen.” The waiter came back with our pizza, but I ignored him as he set it in front of us and then, sensing the tension, hurried away.
“Let’s start with why the hell she called you Tyler? How about that?” The pizza smelled good, but there was no way I could eat now. A sinking feeling had entered my heart and a little voice said, I told you so. The secrets that he’d hidden from me? They were starting to come out.
“Because that was my name when she met me.”
“Why?” He took the world’s biggest deep breath. “Are you sure you want to do this here?” He looked around as if someone was going to jump out and come and bail him out, but he was shit out of luck.
“Oh no, we are doing this here, Mr. Blaine. Why does she know you as Tyler?” Maybe I was overreacting about the name, but I knew it was all part of what he was hiding from me and I wanted to know the truth.
“Stefanie knew me as Tyler because that was the alias I was using in LA.”
AHA!
“So you are in the CIA!” I said it so loud that half the restaurant turned and stared at us. Oops.
“I am not in the CIA,” Lucah (or whatever his name was) hissed in a whisper as his face turned red again.
“Then why did you have an alias? Is Lucah an alias? What other reason would you need an alias for than being in the CIA? And why the hell did that girl act like you knew each other REALLY well?” I knew how a woman looked at a man she’d slept with and that was the look on her face. We’d get to that later.