Chapter 14 Liana

There was no competition; this was the best date of Liana's life. She and James had indeed played nearly every pinball game in the bar, and James' prediction that he'd beat her at every game was only slightly exaggerated. Liana had always been terrible at video games, and it seemed that lack of skill translated to pinball. Still, she had fun, and she also thought she could chalk up some of her losses to the distraction of James standing so close behind her, his hand on the small of her back, his low voice murmuring encouraging words in her ear.

Next, they played ping-pong. Unsurprisingly, James was incredible at ping-pong, and after beating her, he offered to play doubles. They'd won every doubles game they'd played against random challengers.

Now, they were settled at a table in the back patio under rows of twinkling lights, sitting with three of James' friends whom Liana had met at the synagogue event: Isaac; another guy who had been super drunk at the sports bar, whose name turned out to be Will; and a woman with long curly hair named Zoe. Every so often, Will would play with Zoe's hair, wrapping a strand around his finger until she swatted it away. "Will and Zoe are kind of maybe a thing," James whispered to Liana. "They say they're just friends, but…" he shrugged.

"Definitely more than friends," Liana whispered back.

James had insisted on naming their trivia team The Pickle Brains, against Will's loud protests. "It doesn't even make sense!" Will argued. "What's a pickle brain?"

"A pickle brain is an actual thing," James countered. "Scientists used to put genius people's brains in jars when they died. For future research. Like Albert Einstein."

"Oh, great," Will groaned. "So we're named after brains in pickle jars? That's some Hannibal Lecter shit."

"I've already written our name down," James said smugly, pointing to their submission form. "Can't change it now."

"You wrote it in pencil," Will pointed out. "Give it here. I'll erase it."

"Too late," laughed James, standing up and using his considerable height and armspan to hold the paper high above his head. Will grabbed for it but couldn't reach.

"No fair," Will grumbled. "I hate being friends with you. No one should be as tall as you and also as smart as you."

"Hey, I'm saying it's a team name," James lobbed over his shoulder as he passed the paper to the middle-aged bartender in red cat-eye glasses who was emceeing the bar trivia. "As in, Will, you're also a genius. You're so smart that you'll get your brain pickled."

"Shoot me now," Will muttered. Then, to the table, he said, "Putting up with this guy all night calls for carbs. I'm gonna go order pizza. You guys want?"

"Oooh, oooh!" Zoe cried. "Mushroom truffle pizza for me, please. Extra truffle oil."

Will shook his head. "You know that last time, they charged me $2 extra for one more tiny splash of truffle oil?"

"So?" Zoe shrugged. "You can afford it, Mr. Big-Shot Lawyer."

Will rolled his eyes. "Anything for Her Majesty."

Zoe batted her lashes. "You're the best."

"You two are insufferable," James cut in, having arrived back at the table with their first round of trivia clues. "Will, I'll come to the bar with you." He leaned down to Liana. "Want anything?"

"That plain focaccia with olive oil and salt would be amazing. Thank you so much." She pulled out her credit card, but James put his hand over hers and gave her a look.

"Don't try that," he said, low in her ear.

Liana watched him walk away toward the bar, and she couldn't help staring for a moment at his legs, flexing calf muscles visible below the workout shorts he still wore. She still couldn't quite get over the fact that this Greek god of a man was interested in her — and that he was going out of his way to accommodate her.

"He's quite a catch," Isaac said, startling Liana out of her reverie. Her cheeks flushed; no doubt Isaac had caught her staring after James. "And he's super into you."

"Really?" she asked hopefully, and then, "It's still early. It's our first date."

"He hasn't stopped talking about you since you first showed up to his class. It's super annoying, really." Isaac smiled. "But seriously, I don't have to tell you that he's truly an amazing guy. One of the good ones."

"He is," Liana agreed.

"And I suppose we'd better get the talk out of the way."

"The talk?"

"Yeah, the obligatory one where I tell you that our boy has been through a lot in the past few years, between losing tennis, losing his nightmare of an ex, and never being good enough for his father. So don't hurt him, yeah? If you fuck with him, you know," he gestured to his friends, "you fuck with us."

"I don't plan on hurting him," she said honestly. "But it's still super early, and we're just kind of seeing how this thing goes. We're not official or anything."

"Early or not, trust me when I tell you he wants to be official," Isaac said. "That's why I'm talking to you now. He's already developed feelings for you, and if you don't feel the same, it's best that you stop now before things go further. James falls hard and fast, and once he chooses you as one of his people, he's fiercely loyal and reluctant to let go. That's why he let that thing with Mary Grace go on for so long, years longer than it should have."

Liana's mind was reeling. Sure, she liked James too, but this was still their first date. This conversation was a lot to digest, and Isaac was bringing up things James hadn't opened up to her about yet.

After a moment, she said, "I'm not sure if this is serious or not. But I'll do my best to be honest and communicative with him at every step."

"That's all I ask," Isaac said. "Just be open and honest. He's an open book. Wears his heart on his sleeve. It's one of the things I respect about him the most."

James and Will choose that moment to return to the table, and the conversation shifted to the first round of trivia, but Liana was still watching James closely, promising herself to be honest with James about her feelings. And that meant being honest with herself. Right now, she knew she already had feelings for this man. It was too early, but still, they were there, making her chest flutter every time he looked at her.

◆◆◆

"That was epic," said James as they got back into the car a couple of hours later. They'd placed second to a team called Lord of the Drinks, who clearly played trivia every week. Liana was proud of their team's showing; they'd done particularly well on the 2000s pop music round and the "obscure" sports round — clearly, James not only about pickleball, but also about everything from bowling to cricket.

"I had so much fun," Liana said. "How do you know so much about cricket?"

"My college roommate's family was from Pakistan, and he watched it religiously, every game that Pakistan played. He bought some kind of world cricket TV package so he could watch the Indian league, too." He paused. "That's actually a big part of why I decided to stick with pickleball. The way my roommate was so passionate about cricket, even though the rest of our friends didn't understand it — he taught me that it's okay to be into a sport nobody else around you cares about."

"I think that's an admirable quality," Liana said. "Liking what you like, and not being afraid to own it."

"That's funny you say that," James said, "because I always thought that about you in high school. Mary Grace wasn't the nicest to you — I'm not blind, and I regret not speaking up for you — but you just seemed to brush it off. And you didn't care about being popular, or doing what the other kids liked —"

She scrunched her nose. "Yeah, yeah, I know I was a nerd in high school. Don't remind me."

"Sorry," he ran a hand through his hair. "That wasn't what I was trying to say at all. I was actually trying to say the opposite — that I thought you were a really cool girl."

She frowned. "Thanks, but I'm curious: why didn't you ever talk to me?" she asked. "I mean, it's not like I ever talked to you, either, so I guess I'm not one to judge. Honestly, I wasn't sure you even knew who I was until the last day of high school."

He winced. "No excuses. I regret a lot of things about high school. The choice of girls I hung out with — or didn't hang out with — is one of my big regrets."

He leaned closer to her, and her heart hammered. "Hopefully, I'm making up for it now."

She nodded and tried to keep her voice from shaking and betraying her hammering heart. "You are. You're more than making up for it."

He brushed his hand softly down her cheek. "May I kiss you?"

She was sure he could feel her pulse now. It was jackhammering everywhere. She wanted him to kiss her so badly she thought she might crawl out of her skin. She managed a "yes," this time unable to keep her voice from shaking.

Without hesitation, he pressed his lips to hers. The kiss began chastely, but gradually, James began teasing her mouth with his tongue, a silent question, letting her decide if she wanted to take the kiss further. She parted her lips, eagerly letting him in, and his tongue reached in to tangle with hers. She felt the low, guttural sound in the back of his throat as he kissed her harder, deeper. One hand went to her neck, tangling in her hair, as the other gently touched down the curve of her jaw. She sighed in pleasure and grabbed for him, wanting to eliminate any shred of space between them.

Too soon, he pulled back. After a couple of final light kisses to her ear and throat, he leaned back to look at her, awe clear in his eyes.

"Fuck," he sighed. "I promised myself that I wouldn't try anything with you tonight."

"Why?" she asked, genuinely curious. "It was just a kiss. And I wanted it."

"You're too damn beautiful," he surprised her by saying. "And just… too damn good for me. And knowing you haven't always been treated the best, I wanted to be a gentleman, to show you how you deserve to be treated."

"You have," she hastened to reassure him. "You've been a perfect gentleman. Please. I wanted to kiss you. I want to do more, if I'm honest."

He growled and shifted in his seat. "God, don't tell me that. I do, too. You have no idea how much I do. But not tonight. I need to take things slowly. If not for you, then just for me, okay?"

"Of course it's okay," she said.

He took her hand and kissed it gently. "I really want to see you again. May I?"

She smiled. "Definitely."