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“Call it a thank you dinner for all your hard work of helping the hurt people that come to see me play. I truly do appreciate you for doing that." At that moment, my stomach rumbles at the mention of food, and his lips curl up into a wide Cheshire Cat smile.
"I am hungry,” I say and grab my belly in hopes of stopping the noise. “Just dinner. Somewhere fast, not fancy, and that is close by."
"Deal," he says as he claps his hands once and rubs his palms together as if in deep thought.
"Give me a few minutes to finish here, and then I can meet you somewhere."
“There’s a panini shop right around the corner. Will that work?"
“Yes, that sounds great. I’ll meet you there. Let’s say thirty minutes?”
“I can wait for you and drive us,” he pleads for just a little more time. With a roll of my eyes, I relent.
“Alright, fine, but this is not a date. It’s just dinner, and then we will go our separate ways.”
“I'll go pull my car around and meet you by the exit down this hall.”
***
Sergio’s car is a dark gray sports car with leather seats and a BMW emblem on the steering wheel. The restaurant is literally around the corner. It’s the one I frequent often since it’s on my way to the train station from the stadium. In which, I still have a train to catch home within the next two hours, or I’ll miss the last one of the night.
We order quickly, grab our sandwiches, and pick a table to sit and eat at.
“Mmmm, so good. I love this place,” he says on his first bite.
“You’ve eaten here before?”
“Oh yeah, I normally stop here after my games.”
“Really, I usually do the same after work on my way home.” I take a nice size bite of my own warm sandwich and groan with delight.
“Damn, we must be missing each other and crossing paths by just a few minutes.”
“Or we’ve been in here at the same time and just not known,” I counter.
“No, sweetheart, I would have definitely remembered seeing you in here before.” His mocha eyes meet mine and turn a dark shade, and heat rises through my face, certainly causing it to turn a shade or two red.
“Maybe, maybe not.” I cock my head to the side and lift my shoulder in a motion of nonchalance.
“So, tell me, what’s this all work and no play about? Why are you so busy that you don’t have time to date a little?”
“Oh, we are going deep right off the bat, uh,” I mimic his words from earlier.
“Time is limited, and I figure that is the biggest bang of info for me to get to know you the fastest.”
“Fair enough. I work in an office as a marketing analyst during the day, and then at night, I work the first aid station at the stadium any time there is an event going on. As you know, there are events going on just about every day.”
“For sure, that sounds like it does keep you busy. Are you in some kind of trouble that you need money for?” He takes the last bite of his sandwich and wipes his mouth with a napkin. I watch his oh so kissable lips, mesmerized. I bet those would feel so good against my lips, my neck, my... Get a grip, woman!
“That’s pretty personal, don’t you think?”
“Remember, I’m speed dat… getting to know you.”
“I do it in order to send as much money as possible to my parents. They have a small vineyard in Tuscany that has been struggling for the last few years, and now they need some new equipment to move with the times. They need to buy and bring in the machines before next harvest, so I’ve been working like this for the last few years because we all knew this was coming,” I tell him the truth. I don’t have anything to hide, and since this is just dinner, it doesn’t really matter anyway. It’s only conversation.
“That’s very noble of you. I respect the hell out of your sacrifice you are doing to help your family out. Are you going to go home to see them in a few weeks at Christmas?” His head nods in appreciation towards me.
“Thank you, and yes, I haven’t seen them since June, so I’m really excited, but it will only be a day trip because I have to get back and work for your game the day after Christmas.”
