JAE

"Okay, wait," I blinked several times, my elbows on the table as I tried to understand Harley's reading habits. When I looked back up at her, she was smirking at me with her straw between her teeth. God, she was beautiful.

Harley giggled, "Yes, what?"

"You read three chapters of one book, then jump to another to read five, and then-?" I could barely understand it, and we'd been talking about this for like ten minutes.

She shook her head, then sat up, "No, no, listen. Are you listening?"

"Yes," I grinned.

Those beautiful brown eyes looked me up and down, then stayed on my mouth for a little while before they finally came back to my eyes. "I don't do it on purpose, or with every book I read. Only if they're dragging, which is usually at the beginning. If the book snatches me up early-."

"'Snatches you up?!'" I started laughing, and she rolled her eyes.

Harley smiled, "As in 'captures my attention'. Yeah. If they get me, then I won't hop from book to book because I don't have to."

"Fair enough."

She kicked me gently under the table before she mixed her noodles around in their bowl. Only half of her food had been eaten, and she started working on putting it into a container by the time the cheque arrived. As I pulled my card out of my wallet, I noticed Harley looking at the receipt before she reached into her bag.

"Let me get this one," I said when I put my card into the leather folio. Once I placed it at the end of the table, I went to work packing up the rest of our food.

Though we moved in silence, I could feel Harley's eyes on me. That was something I really liked about her but also made me nervous. Like, if I did something, how would that look she gave me make me feel? At the moment, it just made me curious.

Without looking up from the containers I was stacking in a paper carryout bag, I asked, "Yes...?"

"You said 'this one', but you always get the bill, Jae."

Just then, Mrs. Kim popped in. Harley and I smiled at her as she picked up the cheque. "I'll be right back. Thank you."

Once she'd left, I looked over at Harley. "Have I really paid every time?"

She glanced up, then nodded, "Pretty much, yeah."

"Does that bother you?"

When she didn't respond immediately, I wondered if just pulling out my card to pay for each of our dates had been a mistake. I knew Harley could pay, and I appreciated that she tried to offer or even thought to do so. Yeah, it was the 21st century and all that. But, to me, it was the least I could do. I made plenty of money, and I wanted to treat her. Maybe it made me sound a bit archaic, but I felt like this was something I could take off her plate.

It was entirely possible that she felt differently about it. Conversations I'd had with my sister growing up came to mind, about letting women decide what they wanted for themselves without inserting my male ego into situations.

With my sister's voice in my head, I told Harley, "If I've been presumptuous about it, please tell me. The last thing I want is to seem like some domineering asshole."

Harley sighed, "I just... In the past, I've always split dates with guys. They asked me to, though, or I'd offer to pay because he couldn't even cover his part. So, this feels weird. Like, I feel like I shouldn't just be getting a free meal, you know?"

The idea that some guys were out there, lucky enough to have the chance to even go out with Harley, and managed to make her feel like shit about the cost irked the shit out of me. I reached out to take her hands, "You don't have to worry about that with me. I want to cover the cheque, as long as that's cool with you. Okay?"

She moved her hands so that our fingers were interlocked, then gave me a warm smile. "Okay."

The curtain by the table got pulled back, and Mrs. Kim came through with the receipt and a pen in that same folio. She put it down, then smiled at each of us. "Thank you for coming! We'll see you next time, okay?"

"Gabsahabnida, Mrs. Kim!" Harley exclaimed. "See you soon."

"Thank you so much," I told her.

Mrs. Kim smirked, "Come back together, okay? Good night!"

The curtain closed, and she was gone before either of us could say a word. Harley looked down at our hands, and I watched her. Part of me definitely hoped, even though it was early, that I would come back with Harley time and time again. But, I kept that to myself. The night was still young, and I didn't want us to go our separate ways just yet.

I looked up at Harley, "How about some dessert?"

*********

A/N

It's been a long week, so this is just a short and sweet one for today. I hope you enjoyed the read! As always, be sure to vote and comment!

See you next week~

-Ruth.