I was going to have a great time, even if it killed me.***Benito was actually more handsome in person. He was tall, with naturally tanned skin, almond-shaped eyes the color of honey, and great bone structure. He had an amazing smile that he shared often and a hearty, contagious laugh. If he hadn’t been unknowingly competing with Hollis LaCroix, I would have been thrilled about meeting a guy like him.

“How about some dessert?” he said.

I had eaten too much bread and drank two glasses of wine to calm my nerves. I’d been almost full before dinner even arrived.

“I’m pretty stuffed.”

He flashed a boyish smile. “So am I. I’m stalling because I’m not ready for our evening to end.”

How novel, a man who tells you what he feels.

That should’ve made me want to stay out longer, but I just wanted to go home and get into bed. I’d been struggling to put on a happy face ever since we left my house. Benito was great company; I just couldn’t enjoy it tonight. And for that, he deserved some honesty.

“You’re a great guy—”

Benito interrupted. He covered his heart with one hand like his chest hurt. “No, don’t say it.”

“Say what?”

“You were about to give me the but speech, weren’t you?”

I smiled sadly. “Sort of. I’m a little out of it tonight, and even though we just met, I feel like you know that.”

He nodded. “Your boss threw off your evening. I get it. It happens.”

What a nice guy. “Thank you for understanding. Do you think maybe we could skip dessert and try this again another evening?”

“Sure. I’d like that. I’ll get the check.”

I felt lighter after acknowledging I wasn’t myself tonight. Letting my guard down allowed me to be in the moment. We left the restaurant, and maybe it was only because I knew the date was ending soon, but I felt more relaxed than I’d been all day. Benito and I chatted as we waited for the valet to bring his car, and the conversation continued to flow freely during the drive to my house. When we pulled up alongside a young guy driving a clunker that had the rearview mirror duct-taped on, we laughed about our first cars.

“I had no air conditioning in mine, and a giant hole in the passenger floor,” Benito said and shook his head. “The hole was perfectly round and looked like the previous owner had cut it out with a circular saw or something. I had the biggest crush on this girl named Angie my senior year. A few days after I got my car, I pulled into the gas station to fill it up, and there was Angie with a car full of her friends. I tried to play it cool, but it was the first time I’d actually pumped gas. Angie came over to talk to me, and I got completely distracted and forgot to take the nozzle out of the gas tank when I was done.”

I covered my mouth and laughed. “Oh no. And you pulled away with it like that?”

Benito nodded. “I did. It had a quick release on top of the handle, so it didn’t make too much of a mess, but the tug of the hose line set off some kind of alarm. The entire gas station, inside and out, flashed lights and a high-pitched siren blared.”

“Was Angie still there?”

“Oh yeah. Laughing her ass off with her friends. The following day in school I admitted to her that I’d been trying to act cool and hadn’t known what the hell I was doing.”

“What did she say?”

“Crazy enough, she agreed to go out with me. It was a good lesson. I learned honesty gets you much farther with women.”

“You learned that pretty early compared to a lot of men. How long did things last with Angie?”

Benito pulled off the highway at my exit. “One date. It was pouring the night I took her out. I drove over a big puddle, not thinking about the hole I had in the floor on her side, and a giant spray of dirty water came through the bottom of my car.” He laughed. “She was soaked. The thing was like a geyser, I swear. I learned a second lesson that night. Women will only put up with you being an idiot once.”

We laughed, and Benito navigated through the side streets on the way to my house. I’d really relaxed. It was too bad it hadn’t happened on the way to our date, because he was good company. We made the last left, turning onto my block, and my heart skipped a beat.

Hollis’s Mercedes was parked outside my house again. When we pulled closer, I saw that he wasn’t waiting inside it. His imposing frame sat on the steps of my front porch. He stood when we slowed, and my date noticed him for the first time.