She looked at me. “What was that for?” she asked, and it sounded a little peevish. I let her go immediately.

“Um, I was thinking you were brilliant and all the various other positive things I was…thinking.” I felt kind of uncomfortable, and the knot of waiters staring at me wasn’t helping.

She sat back down in her seat. “Well, keep it positive,” she said, and even she sounded a little vague.

“Isn’t that an electron joke?”

“Watt if it is?”

I grinned. “It gave me a bit of a jolt, that’s all.”

She considered it and shrugged, smiling back. Waitstaff did their orbit and added sugary liquid gold as needed to iced glasses.

I didn’t think I was being entirely presumptuous. If there’d been a “no kissing” rule instituted I would have been disappointed but last night there’d been …um … kissing as well as other things. In fact, she had specifically started the kissing. On the other hand, in search of walking the line between Nice Guy and Not A Creep I was trying to follow her prompts. Really, and I know it sounds like I’m coming close to crossing the line, but women do have the prerogative however contradictory it sounds. They will change their minds and moods, and I’ll just try and keep up.

A little part of my brain added, “Because that worked so well with Maggie.” I shut it up.

We practiced our small talk against each other, and then the food started to come out and we were reduced to making primal sounds of culinary pleasure. She started to amplify the game and I followed carefully, but something had definitely turned.

“Was it the riddle?” I asked out of the blue.

“You’re just weird,” she said. “I mean, I like the weird, but it’s kind of hard to follow. Not in needing a road map, although that would help, too, but… I’m not weird.”

“Says the woman who rescues people for a living,” I pointed out.

“You even make that sound heroic rather than a daily grind,” she smiled. But I had flattered her, which was a point back on my side. If I was keeping a score board of some sort, which I totally wasn’t because it would have been crude and that totally lost me points.

“It’s fascinating,” I tried to capitalize on my advantage. “I… do boring office stuff.”

“And fight Dragons,” she added.

“No, really, that’s…” I pushed a bite of essential deliciousness across the plate. “That’s not me. That was,” I gestured with my fork into the distance, “something I hadn’t planned on doing or getting involved in, and I’m absolutely unsure how I survived, but somehow I think my fairy saved me.”

“Like a guardian angel?” she asked.

I didn’t squirm in my seat, but I was definitely trying to find words. “Not… quite.”

“Were you having a relationship with this…fairy?” she asked. “I mean, it’s okay if you are, but I didn’t think you were gay.”

“What?” I dropped my fork. It clattered off the plate and over the table and onto the floor where I had to fish for it. One of the orbiting waitstaff whisked it away and deposited a new one.

She was giggling. “Oh, dear, I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s OK. I’m, um, I like the ladies.”

“The look of bewilderment on your face was definitely worth the price of the meal,” she said. “Anyway, it was something I was going to ask your mother if we had been able to connect with her.”

“You tried to get ahold of my mom?” I swore.

“Um, normally mothers like to know when their sons are found badly injured in burning buildings,” she pointed out.

“Pinch me. Tell me this is all a nightmare, please.”

“Well!” she was smiling, but there was a hint of truth in it.

“No, no, I mean, it’s not you. Really. If I say it’s me, will you hit me?”

“Do you want me to?”

“I don’t know.” I took a deep breath and smiled for the passing waitress.

Rohana slapped my hand smartly with a spoon.

“Ow!” I pulled my hand back. “First things first, I don’t want to be hit.”

“Good to know,” Rohana smiled. “Second?”

“Second, I guess it means I really do need to call home.”

“Is it that bad?” she asked me, seriously.

“I can’t talk to her. It’s like we’re using the same words to speak a foreign language. I can’t tell her anything real, and I’m afraid to lie. My sister… it’s a little easier. I could tell my sister I’m gay and I like kittens in inappropriate ways and she just wouldn’t listen. I’m still her annoying big brother who is a bit weird. My mom tries to listen and give me advice, but she wants something from me. Children.” I grinned and rolled my eyes. “I’m sure it’s more than that. She wants me to be successful, I’m sure, but unless it fits in the box she has set aside for me, it won’t register.”

“I get it. No, we got in touch with a fellow named… Ed instead.”

“Oh yeah, he’s my second emergency contact. Wait.” I looked at her, confused. “Ed said he didn’t know anything.”

“He came in while you were, well, out.” She frowned. “Maybe he wanted to hear the story from you. We didn’t have anything to tell him, and you were recovering on your own.”

“Yeah, that could be it.” I hated feeling suspicious.

“I didn’t really get to meet him, just do some paperwork. I didn’t spend a lot of time at the hospital. Really, I don’t like them very much. I know it sounds weird, but I find them more draining than healing.”

“I understand. They wake you up to take tests and then expect you to rest and recuperate again.” I stopped playing with my empty plate and my fork and let the waiter take them.

“So, is there a third?”

“I need to tell someone the story, I think. It’s going to take time, and you need to go.”

“Well, I want to say I am all ears, but you know I’m a few more parts,” she grinned. “Hey, let me get our dessert to-go and then get you back home. I am practically bursting with questions.”

I grinned and was about to make a leading comment when I noticed the waiter’s eyes, glowing with a fire like Peredur’s.