Yeah, it was like that.

When our meals finally did arrive, I tried to suppress my desire to hump the table and binge my face off at the seafood special I’d ordered. Holy fuck, I hadn’t had oysters in over a year, or scallops in even longer than that! This was a meal I had to savour every smell and taste of because at this rate, going out to dinner with Joel was going to be a one-time thing.

“Your grandmother was telling me you were studying business at one point,” he then said, working his way into a conversation.

I nodded. “I settled for my bookkeeping diploma in the end. Took me two years because of the expenses. Having an education is beyond expensive nowadays. And there aren’t many jobs around here anymore, so I’m currently stuck at my waitressing job, which is actually great.”

“New Raven has certainly picked up. I think it’ll be a while before the jobs start catching up to the people. You know, I could see you working someplace like this. Think of the tips.”

I almost laughed. “Oh yeah? I think I live too far at the moment. But it would be pretty cool.”

More silence.

His eyes were pinned to my face, and it was a little disconcerting to be stared at so blatantly. Yet, despite this, I felt like there was another pair of eyes on me. I glanced around the restaurant, convinced I was being overly paranoid to think those eyes belonged to a man I was admittedly spending my time online reading about.

Too much time.

Like, too much.

“So how was my grandmother anyhow?” I asked, focusing back to Joel. “I hope she didn’t force this on you.”

He laughed lightly and shook his head. “No, she didn’t force it on me. She showed me a photo of you and I couldn’t say no. I’ll admit she’s a very intense woman, isn’t she?”

“Intense would be one of the defining qualities of my grandmother,” I agreed, chuckling.

We spoke for a while longer. He told me he’d applied for two jobs, one as a prison doctor and the other at the clinic Granny went to. Of course, he got the latter job, which he wasn’t entirely satisfied with.

“The New Raven Prison is pretty infamous for its violent prisoners, so I wouldn’t be too upset about missing out on that,” I consoled him.

He shrugged. “Yeah, but the experience would have been great. You know, you can drive right up to it if you wanted to. Middle of nowhere, that place. Did you hear about the man that escaped there once four years ago?”

“No. I didn’t realize there was a successful escape.”

“Well, it wasn’t successful,” he heartily explained. “They found him ten kilometres out. He died of dehydration, and the only reason they found him was because of all the crows circling overhead. They’d eaten almost all of him up and could only identify him with a few body parts, like fingers and such.”

I shuddered in disgust. “That… sucks for him.”

“I should take you there one day.”

Wryly, I raised a brow. “A tour around a prison?”

“It’s very fortified and impressive if you’re into the architectural side of things. I’ve been there five times and it never gets old. I especially like to drive around the area the man was found. There’s something very eerie and alluring about being around a place you know someone’s died in. Like being one with nature.”

Um.

Well… this was a weird thing to talk about, and it was a little creepy how excited he was about it. My non-attraction levels took an even bigger nose dive, especially when I spotted the twinkle in his eye about visiting it. Things had been going kind of bearably well too. Now I was dining with a doctor that had a weird prison fetish and sounded like he’d inhaled ten helium balloons. Could those eyes shine any brighter?

A waitress appeared once more, asking how we were doing. Joel requested another refill of his wine and she left. I stared down at my food, hoping he’d find something else to talk about.

“There are others who’ve died at the prison, too,” he carried on, squandering my hopes. “Some in the cells, but they don’t allow visitors inside there, unfortunately.”

What the fuck? “Shame.”

“Yeah.”

Silence.

I ran a hand through my hair and glanced around the restaurant again, feeling glummer by the minute. There would be no salvaging this. I was going to die a spinster with cobwebs feasting on my vagina, I just knew it.

Then the waitress returned and leaned over the table to fill his glass. I didn’t catch it properly from the corner of my eye, but I heard a gasp escape out of her, and by the time I looked, the wine glass had already tipped from near the edge of the table and spilled over Joel’s clothes. He hissed, as though he’d been burned by boiling water, and immediately backed his chair up.

“Are you fucking serious?” he growled out, abruptly jumping to his feet, dabbing at the wine on his dress shirt with his hands.

“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry,” the waitress apologized, looking horrified as she immediately set the bottle down and grabbed at his napkin. “I’m so sorry!”

“Sorry? That’s what you have to say? How fucking hard is it to pour a glass of wine, woman? Do you have two left feet? This is ridiculous!”

When she neared him to help him dry it off, he snarled at her and snatched the napkin from her hand. Once again, he overlooked her apologies and went on with his tirade.

“Do you know how expensive this shirt is? Or these pants? Have you the faintest fucking clue? I’m not made of money!”

The waitress shrunk back, her slender frame shuddering at his sudden rage. I was bewildered for a moment, glancing between them with a deer in the headlights look before I eventually shook it off.

“It’s fine,” I immediately told her with a soft look before glaring back at Joel. “It was a mistake, Joel –”

“I understand it was a mistake,” he interrupted sharply, practically spitting out the words as he dried himself off with that angry look on his face. “But it was an expensive mistake. I want to speak to the owner, right now. Or a manager. Or somebody that’s in charge of you.”

The waitress hesitated. “He won’t… he won’t like it if I bother him.”

Joel gave her an icy look. “I don’t care if he won’t like it. I’m the customer. I’m the one paying for this meal. It’s not my problem if you’re bothering him. Just get him.”