Swallow Me Whole novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: First Date
He wore a button-down shirt, and it was the single most erotic thing I had ever seen.
It was pale blue, with the sleeves rolled to the elbow over his scarred forearms.
He had trimmed his beard and combed his hair back off his forehead with water.
He stood on the back porch at seven o'clock on Friday with a bunch of grocery-store sunflowers in his fist.
"Hi," he said.
"You look like you're going to a funeral."
"I'm taking you to dinner."
"That's what I said."
"A real one. With a tablecloth. A man who says 'this evening.'"
He held out the sunflowers.
His hand shook.
I took them, and I stood on my own porch, in the green dress I'd bought that afternoon with my bakery paycheck.
Discovered that I was shy.
Four weeks of Ashton's mouth between my legs, and I was shy.
"You've seen me naked," I said.
"I know."
"Why is this harder?"
"Because this part is for everybody to see."
The restaurant was Italian, on a corner of Williamson Street with ivy on the bricks and a candle in a jar on every table.
He pulled out my chair.
He ordered wine for himself and a lemonade for me.
When the waiter asked if he wanted to start with the bread, he said "yes, please" like he was asking for a kidney.
I had never seen him nervous around strangers.
I loved it so much I could not eat.
Halfway through the pasta, he reached across the table and took my hand.
He did it slowly, in full view of the whole dining room.
His big palm covered mine, and his thumb found the inside of my wrist and rested on the pulse.
"A hundred and twenty," he said.
"Because you're holding my hand in public."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of Swallow Me Whole are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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