One More Chance

Date Night

Giana

Though Bryce had wanted to pick me up, I insisted we drive separately. We meet at Sun and Moon an hour later, an Asian fusion restaurant I'd only heard of but never been to. With my tight budget, I hardly ever go out to eat and treat myself, and certainly not the place Bryce picks. It's in a part of town I hardly go to as well, Auburn Springs' version of Rodeo Drive if one could call it that.

"You changed," he says when I meet him at the restaurant lobby.

"You don't like it?" I figured I'd put the clothes I'd bought during my makeover to good use. Harper would certainly like that. Tonight's attire is a floral dress that hugs my curves, its flirty skirt skimming my calves.

"I love it," Bryce says, not even hiding his admiration as his gaze sweeps over me from head to toe. "That color suits you, Giana. And you're wearing contacts this time."

I shrug. "I never said I didn't like to wear them. Only that they get itchy when I wear them too long."

"You're beautiful with or without your glasses, but I think I already told you that."

"You did." I gesture at what he's wearing, a form-fitting shirt and dark jeans. "You changed, too, and you look great."

"That's because we're on a date."

"We're just supposed to get to know each other better."

"Also known as a date, from what I've heard." He offers his arm. "Shall we?"

We follow the server as he leads us to our table. It's a long walk across the restaurant with part of the floor made of glass mimicking a winding stream with real koi swimming beneath it.

"I thought this was a casual dinner," I say when he pulls a chair for me.

"I wanted us to have some privacy and this place is one of the most private places in town."

It's also one of the most expensive, I almost say out loud but stop myself. There's a reason why Bryce's world and mine never collided until the day he needed a fiancée. We come from completely different worlds and this just proves it. What he considers normal is far from normal to me but it's not his fault. And as his fiancée, I shouldn't be shocked. This should be normal for me, too.

"How's your grandmother? Is she out of the hospital?" Bryce asks after the server takes our orders.

"She's back at the nursing home and getting a lot of physical therapy. She can't wait to get back on her feet again and walk." I pause, smiling wryly. "Although the lack of prices on the menu just might make me reconsider."

"I'll bring you both here sometime."

I laugh. "You don't need to do that."

"I'd do so happily."

"However it happens, she'll get here somehow. She once lived in an ashram for a month and before that, she traveled to Thailand on her own and lived with a mountain tribe. She's always been an adventurer until she had my mom and became active in the PTA instead."

The server arrives with our drinks and for the next few minutes, we people-watch although, from the way some of the guests steal glances in our direction, we're not the only ones.

"How many times have you been here?" I ask as I take a sip of my wine. The restaurant staff did address him by name and led us to a spot that's pretty private.

"A few times. But enough about me," he replies. "I want to know more about you."

"Ask away."

For the next two hours over dinner, we talk about each other. Nothing too deep but enough for us to know more than just our names and what we do for a living. I tell him about growing up with my mother and my grandparents in the same house, of spending summers camping or going on road trips, and weekends at the flea market selling my mother's crafts. It's such a different life from what Bryce knows but I'm not ashamed of who I am. My family, as eclectic as they were, made me the way I am right now.