“So, Dev, tell me,” Emma said. “Do you have any fears? Anything that scares you?”
Dev popped the cork of the champagne and stared deep into Emma’s eyes, “Nothing that I can think of.”
“C’mon,” Emma said, holding out her glass for a top up. “There must be something.”
A waiter brought over a basket of bread and put it in the centre of the table. Dev picked up a piece and gave it a little squeeze before tearing off a corner and dropping it into his mouth.
He chewed it thoughtfully, “Nope. I’m drawing a blank.”
“Ok,” Emma said. “How about snakes?”
“Nope,” he said. “Love ‘em. Got one at home, actually. Steven. You’d love him.”
Emma felt her toes clench together and her palms clam up. Pretty sure I wouldn’t, she thought, but nodded along to stay on topic. “Spiders?”
“Cute.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yeah. Especially the big ones with the furry legs.”
Emma shivered.
“How about heights?”
“They don’t bother me,” Dev said while reaching over for another piece of bread. “I’ve done four bungee jumps. The last one I did in Australia was immense.”
“Four?!” Emma gasped. “Wasn’t one enough?”
“Probably should have been. But two of those were for charity and at the time I thought ‘why not?’”
Emma took a piece of bread out of the basket and popped it in her mouth and thought on that for a second.
“Anything else?” she finally asked.
“Well, I’ve wrangled a croc before. I spent a summer working in a zoo in Melbourne and the instructors taught me how to do it.” Dev said. “That was fun.”
“Croc wrangling?” Emma said with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, I know. Sounds crazy, right?” Dev said.
“Kinda, yeah. And you never got scared by any of that?”
“Nope, and… oh, and here’s another… I spent a year working as a prison guard. That’d scare a lot of people.”
“But not you?”
“Nah.” Dev said, lifting his glass to take a sip of the champagne to wash down the bread. “And funnily enough, when you get to know the inmates, you find out some of them are actually pretty nice guys.”
Emma didn’t know how to respond to that, but there was certainly plenty to unpack. In their short spell of dating so far, this brand new information was fascinating and she wanted to know more. The night was still young, the bread was delicious and the champagne was top notch. She had time.
“So,” she said. “Quite the macho man then…”
“Hey, you said it! Not me!” he chuckled.
She smiled and looked over the mains on the menu and decided the salmon sounded delicious. She reached over and placed her hand on Dev’s.
“Dev,” she said. “We’ve been dating for nearly two months now…”
“Nearly two fabulous months.” Dev corrected.
Emma smiled, “Yes, two fabulous months. And I was thinking… maybe it’s time you met my parents.”
Her hand still resting on Dev’s, she thought she felt his hand stiffen a little.
“Your parents?” He said, as he slid his hand out from under hers.
“Yeah,” she said. “I thought it was probably time you met them.”
Dev shifted in his seat a little.
“Oh,” he said. “Ok… sounds… good. Don’t you think it’s a little… soon though?”
“Nah, it’s perfect timing. They’re in town for a week and going to stay with me. I’ve told them all about you and they’re keen to meet the man who’s got me loved up!”
“Loved u…”
Emma giggled then took another sip from her glass. Dev took a glug from his. He didn’t giggle.
Noticing the small bead of sweat balling up on Dev’s forehead, Emma once again reached over and took his hand. It was as moist as hers was a moment earlier. She looked into his eyes and smiled.
“C’mon, macho man. I’ve got you. You’ll be fine.”
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