They dropped off her car at her hotel before heading to dinner together. Will was eager for some alone time with Keisha. He wanted to get to know more about her, but, to his dismay, the ride in his silver Audi Roadster to the restaurant was carried out in silence. Will kept glancing over at Keisha, who for some reason sat motionless in the passenger seat beside him with her hands in her lap. He wanted to say something to her but didn’t. He wanted to touch her again but felt he could not. He had sensed this tension between them before, but tonight it felt as if it had been turned up several notches. This was no longer a mix of flirtation and frustration that left their stomachs in knots. Tonight something was going to happen, one way or the other.
When they arrived at Lugiano Ristorante, Will held the door open for Keisha and motioned for her to step inside first. As she passed him, he tried to lock eyes with her but she avoided his gaze and smiled nervously. That worried him.
Keisha had asked Will to be honest with her, but maybe he had been a little too honest. He knew his confidence often came off as cockiness, but there was no way he could deny the attraction he felt between them; tonight they had the choice of either walking away or finally acting on those emotions. He could feel it. She had to feel it, too. Was acknowledging that being cocky?
He let his gaze trail over Keisha’s back as the maître d’ guided them through the maze of candlelit tables in the bustling restaurant. Will’s eyes lingered on every curve of her body, from the slope between her neck and her shoulder to her plump backside. He watched as she lowered herself into the chair the maître d’ held out for her, crossing her legs and carefully adjusting her skirt as she did so. She fidgeted, adjusting the water glass and cutlery, as Will sat down in the chair across from her. She turned and smiled as a waiter handed them both brown leather-bound menus. “Thank you,” she murmured.
“And what can I get you to drink,” the wiry waiter asked, leaning forward slightly as he clasp his hands behind his back. “May I suggest our sauvignon blanc? It goes well with many of our staple dishes. Or perhaps the pinot grigio? That’s a popular choice.”
“I’ll take the blanc,” Will answered quickly, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on Keisha.
She tucked her hair behind her ear, a nervous tick, he assumed. Keisha smiled. “Then I guess I’ll try your pinot grigio.”
The waiter nodded. “Good choices. And would you like to order your meal now or will need a few more minutes to review the selections?”
“I don’t know about you, Will, but I think I’ll need a few minutes to look over everything,” Keisha said demurely. She gave a helpless shrug.
“That’s perfectly fine. Take your time,” the waiter insisted. “I’ll be back with your drinks.” He quickly departed the table.
Keisha examined the menu, slowly flipping each page. “I’m glad you chose this place. I’ve wanted pasta for a few days now,” she murmured, gnawing on her lower lip, a lip that begged to be kissed again, in Will’s opinion. “I can tell I’m going to have a hard time choosing which dish to order, though.”
He watched as she picked up the locket around her neck. Keisha then began to toy with the long silver chain, unwittingly drawing Will’s attention to the shadow between her cleavage and then the swell of each breast, both of which were currently showing over the low-slung baby blue silk top she was wearing.
“Everything looks so good,” she murmured.
I couldn’t agree more, he thought. This dinner is going to be torture of the worst kind. He hoped Keisha would show some mercy and skip the appetizers and dessert.
She must have instinctively felt Will’s heated gaze upon her for she hesitantly looked up from the menu and gave a shy, crooked grin. “What? What are you staring at?” she asked.
Uh-oh. Busted, Will thought. He had been caught ogling again. He had to come up with a good excuse for this one. Will cleared his throat and smiled. “Your locket,” he lied as he pointed at the silver jewelry piece around her neck. “I notice that you wear it all the time.”
Keisha nodded as she looked down at the silver dollar-sized locket and took it in the palm of her hand. “Yeah, it’s pretty old. I should probably send it to a professional to get it cleaned, but I feel so weird not wearing it. I’ve had it for so long that I’m…I’m kinda attached to it.”
“You said that your parents gave it to you, right?”
“My mom gave it to me,” she clarified before tucking her hair behind her ear again. “I never met my father. He died before I was born.”
Will flinched. “Oh,” he murmured. “I’m sorry. I…I didn’t know.”
Keisha shook her head and smiled. “It’s okay. How could you have known if I didn’t tell you?” She shrugged. “It’s not that touchy of a subject. I never knew him, and it’s hard to grieve over someone you didn’t know. But I’ll always wonder what he was like, what he could have been like as a father.” She fell into silence as she smiled at the locket, fingering its clasp. “You know, when I was little, I used to pretend that my father did give me the locket. People used to ask me all the time if he left me anything when he died, but, of course, he didn’t. He was twenty-eight. Someone that young wouldn’t make up a will. But everyone kept asking, so I had to come up with something. I lied and said it was the locket.”
“Well, it’s very pretty,” Will said. “Even Dupré noticed it.”
Keisha’s smile abruptly disappeared. She dropped the locket back to her chest and returned her attention to her menu. “I don’t think that’s what got Dupré’s attention,” she muttered.
Will frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Your wine, sir,” their waiter said, seeming to materialize out of nowhere. He placed a glass of white wine in front of Will. “Your wine, ma’am,” he said as he turned to Keisha. Will slowly drank from his glass. When he lowered it back to the table cloth, he found Keisha glaring down at her menu.
“Are you ready to order now?” the waiter asked.
Keisha didn’t respond.
“We’re going to need a few more minutes, I think,” Will muttered.
The waiter tightly smiled and nodded before disappearing again.
Will sighed. Something he had said had pissed her off, though he could not fathom what it was. They sat in silence for several seconds. “What’s wrong, Keisha?” he finally asked.
He watched as she clapped shut her menu and leaned across the table toward him. “Will, you’re a decent guy,” she began. “I had my doubts before but…I can see it now. I just don’t understand how…how you can work for a man like Vincent Dupré.”
Will rolled his eyes. More questions? He thought he had addressed everything back at Towson. His frown intensified. “What do you mean, ‘a man like Vincent Dupré’? There’s nothing wrong with Vincent.”
“There’s nothing right with him, either!”
Will closed his eyes. He should have anticipated this. Their old debate was once again rearing its ugly head.
“Vincent is a politician, Keisha, just like any other,” he said calmly, though he could see her opening her mouth to argue again. He held up his hands to stop her. “Yes, you may disagree with him on some issues, but Vincent hasn’t done anything to you personally. He’s a pretty good guy. He’s a great father, a loyal husband to Sara, and a good friend. He and Pops were in the same law firm. I’ve known him for years. Hell, Vincent was the one who helped me get into politics! He’s been honest and honorable as long as I’ve known him,” Will insisted, making Keisha snort and roll her eyes. “I don’t understand what you find so repugnant about him.”
“Would you like the full list, or should I summarize?” she spat. “I mean, honestly, Will. How can you be so naïve?”
How could I be naïve? Will’s nostrils flared as he fought back his burgeoning anger. This…this was the part about Keisha that irritated the hell out of him! Her foolish self-righteousness was one of her worst traits.
“Look, it’s not like Parker walks around with a halo over his head, either,” he argued. “I disagree with Vincent on some things. I know he isn’t perfect and I’m willing to accept that. Unlike you! You may worship at the altar of Saint Parker, but I’ll tell you something, he’s not perfect.”
Keisha quickly shook her head. “I never said he was perfect, Will. In fact, his imperfections are…,” she paused, “…they are…what make him a…a complex human being. They’re what make him a man I…,” she paused again, “…deeply respect and look up to.”
Will cocked an eyebrow. Looking for a daddy figure, are we? Keisha was the classic case. She hadn’t grown up with her father and it was starting to sound like Parker had filled that role for her in her mind.
“Great,” Will muttered sarcastically. “Parker’s imperfections make him a ‘complex human being’ and Dupré’s imperfections make him Satan incarnate. You have heard of the phrase ‘double standard,’ right?”
“Parker,” she growled, “has had a much harder life than that rich, self-entitled hypocrite that you call a boss and Parker has still made something of himself!”
Will leaned back in his chair and glared at Keisha. He slowly counted to ten. “Let’s drop this,” he finally said as he unfurled his dinner napkin and laid it across his lap.
“No, Will.”
“Keisha, drop it,” he said through clinched teeth.
“No!” she exclaimed indignantly, drawing the attention of a couple at a nearby table. “Why should I? Because you don’t want to hear the truth?”
“No, because I’m sick of arguing with you,” he blurted out as he slammed his napkin back to the table. Will closed his eyes and sighed. “You don’t care about the truth, Keisha. You care about being right, which is why you won’t stop arguing with me. It’s like you’re addicted to it! You don’t know a damn thing about Dupré besides what you’ve read and what you’ve heard through the liberal rumor mill. How the hell do you know if Dupré is self-entitled? Have you ever had a conversation with him? Have you ever exchanged more than four sentences with him? How the hell do you know if Parker’s had a harder life?”
“Because I know Dupré didn’t live on food stamps when he was a child like Parker did!” she barked as she pointed at her chest. “I know that Dupré didn’t have to wash dishes to pay his way through college! And I know Dupré didn’t get dumped in a jail as a fifteen-year-old boy who was only trying to survive and make some money! Tell me what the Great Almighty Vincent Dupré went through that was worse than that!”
Will frowned. There was a long pause as he stared at her in amazement. Had he heard her correctly? “Jail?” he repeated vaguely. “When did Parker go to jail?”
Keisha gaped. Her face reddened as her eyes widened with alarm. Her gaze fell to her lap as she nervously adjusted her skirt.
“Have we made a decision?” the waiter asked loudly as he reappeared. “Are we ready?” He looked eagerly from Will to Keisha and back again.
Will stared at Keisha. She looked as if she wanted to throw up.
“Five more minutes,” he muttered, making the waiter grit his teeth in frustration and walk away from the table again.
Will reached across the table top and placed his hand over hers. She was trembling.
“This is why,” she murmured. “This is why I shouldn’t have come.”
Will frowned.
“I knew…I knew I would end up blurting out something. Please tell me this isn’t going to come back to haunt me, Will,” she pleaded softly, now on the verge of tears. “I’m not going to hear on the news tomorrow night the story about Dr. Sydney Parker serving jail time when he was a teenager, am I?” She leaned forward. “He really is a good man! He regrets what happened when he was younger. It was a mistake. He knows that. Please, don’t tell anyone. Don’t let it be held against him. Please, Will. I—”
“Keisha,” he whispered, squeezing her hand reassuringly, “you can trust me. Whatever is said between us, stays between us.”
She sniffed, took a deep breath and slowly shook her head. “I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t. One minute it seems like if I put as much distance between us as possible, if I walk away, the safer it is for both of us. We wouldn’t have to worry about anyone finding out. I wouldn’t have to worry about saying anything stupid.” She shrugged. “Well, anything else stupid. I wouldn’t have to worry about disappointing Parker or worse, getting fired. But the next minute, it all changes. I can’t stop…” She sighed and finally locked her eyes with his. “I can’t stop thinking about you, Will. I’ve tried to but I can’t. I can’t walk away.” She dropped her head into her free hand. “I’m so confused. I’m almost thirty and it’s like high school all over again.”
Will slowly smiled. He tugged her hand away from her face so that he was holding both of her slender, soft hands in his own. He rubbed his thumbs over her knuckles and gazed at her, trying to lock with her doe-like eyes which were still downcast. He was touched by her confession.
“Keisha, look at me. Look at me, please.”
She finally did, begrudgingly. He could see the vulnerability in those dark eyes. He leaned across the table to kiss her but stopped midway, making her frown. He cocked an eyebrow and gave her a lopsided grin. “The only way this is going to work is if you meet me halfway,” he whispered.
Keisha slowly smiled. She caught his double meaning, and it was true. Nothing between them could happen if she and he weren’t both willing to take a chance. If she really wanted to do this, she did have to meet him halfway. Keisha slowly leaned across the small bistro table and they joined in a kiss, feeling the warmth from the candle flames on their faces. Like before, the kiss started off sweet and tender but Will quickly lost all sense of where he was, allowing the kiss to become more earnest and passionate, despite the fact that he and Keisha were in the middle of a crowded restaurant. She held his face in her hands and tilted back her head, opening her mouth to him, making his heart thud in his chest. If it wasn’t for that damn table between them, he could get at her even better. By the time the waiter loudly cleared his throat and they both reluctantly pulled away, Will was fully aroused.
“Excuse me but…have you decided?” the waiter asked, his voice now filled with irritation.
“Can we just get the check?” Keisha murmured seductively before licking her swollen lips.
Will nodded, quickly dug into his pocket, pulled out his wallet and removed a $20 bill. “That’s for the wine,” he muttered to the waiter as he grabbed Keisha’s hand. “Keep the change.”
She giggled as Will tugged her to her feet. They both left the table and the bewildered waiter standing there as they swiftly walked to the restaurant’s front door, eager to get back to the hotel.