Page 57 of Legacy Ascended

"That's what I'll be thinking about all evening," Ander says, and offers me his arm, and I take it.

He doesn’t take me into town.

He takes me to his room.

"You're having dinner in your room?"

"We are."

"You made dinner?"

"I considered it."

"And?"

"I wanted the evening to end well." He stops at his door and doesn't open it yet. "And I didn't know how far you'd want to go in a car. You haven't been down that hill since the kidnapping, and I wasn't going to make you on my account."

I hadn't thought about the car. I hadn't thought about it once, all afternoon, and he had.

"Open the door, Ander."

A woman in a black catering jacket is setting the last covered dish on a small table by the window.

She tells him when to uncover the second dish, points out the dessert, and leaves with the empty cart.

I look at the table. "You had dinner catered to your academy room."

"I wanted privacy."

"You own three forks."

"I don't know what all of them are for either."

It's warmer in here than I expected, and untidier. Books stacked in the places where somebody's actually reading them. A chair by the window that's worth more than everything in my suite put together, sitting next to an academy desk with a wobble in it. His tie is on the back of the door, where he clearly threw it.

And on the desk, an old radio sits open, its wooden case removed and its insides spread over a folded towel.

"Does that work?"

"Not currently."

"Did it work before you touched it?"

Ander looks offended. "That is not relevant."

"Ander."

"It worked intermittently, which is worse than not working, and anybody who understands these things would agree with me." He pulls my chair out and then looks faintly embarrassed about having done it. "It came last week. I asked for them to be sent. Somebody in my father's house packed them without comment, which is the only correspondence I've had from that address I've actually enjoyed."

"You had them sent."

"You were extremely insistent."

"I was extremely right."

"Those are frequently the same thing with you," Ander says, and uncovers the first dish.

The bread is still warm, the salad is sharp with vinegar, and there is enough food for twice as many people. Ander has planned all of it.