Her Billionaire Toy Boy

Sam looked at her, surprised. “Were you able to sleep under conditions like that? I know I wouldn’t be able to.”

“No, no, of course not,” said Mira, laughing again, remembering those sleepless nights. “But I didn’t mind—you know? It was an inconvenience, but it was a romantic one.”

“Ah. Impractically gorgeous?”

“Quite so. I’d have to air out the mattress the next few days—but it was always worth it,” Mira said, recalling. “I was at least smart enough not to keep anything on my bedside tables.”

“Did you live alone at the time?”

Mira shrugged. “Perhaps.”

“An indirect answer.”

“An overly direct question. First dates—especially the first ten minutes of first dates—should be discreet and playful.”

“Ah. So, like, what we’re doing now,” Sam said, side-eyeing her as he put the car into drive and swerved out into the street. The windshield wipers scrubbed to and fro across their fields of vision. The rain drummed on the top of the car.

“Precisely,” said Mira. “We’re doing everything properly. We should celebrate.”

“I vote—celebration via cooking class,” Sam said blandly.

“Works for me,” said Mira. “So, what are we cooking?”

“Well,” said Sam, “The theme of the cooking class we’ve selected today is ‘Date Night: French Bistro.’ So, French food, I assume.”

“Aha. So, simple ingredients, tricky techniques.”

“Yeah. Seems like a good choice for a class, right?”

“Sure,” said Mira. She looked over at Sam. “Are you much of a cook?”

“I prepare my own meals, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Mira considered. “I suppose it was.”

“Yeah. I mean, I know many people in my situation have cooks and such, but I’ve always liked working with food, you know? So satisfying. And I feel like it makes me more aware of the impact I’m having on the planet—as well as making me a better restauranteur and sommelier myself.”

“Well, I suppose that’s quite a logical way to look at it,” said Mira.

“It’s more than logic. I genuinely like the feel of flour on my hands—the satisfaction that comes with a perfectly puffed soufflé when it’s pulled out of the oven—being able to know innately the type of sharp cheese that would go perfectly with the wines I produce. I feel like it makes me a more well-rounded person. And it’s why—well—I love the idea of sharing that with you,” Sam said. The second he said it, he simultaneously realized how true it was, and how awkwardly forward of a thing that was to say within the first ten minutes of a first date.

Mira was struck with similar thoughts; yet, she smiled. She enjoyed how disarmingly transparent Sam seemed to be. It made him feel—trustworthy—safe—in a way that she had not expected she would feel about a man she had just met. She shivered and then laughed.

“Well, I hope that whatever we make tonight is good, then,” she said. “It would seem not fortuitous – a sign of a bad luck – if we made something gross. Or inedible. Or something like that.”

“I don’t think there’s much danger of that. Do you cook?”

Mira shook her head. “Not as much. I find that I don’t usually have much time for things like that; and, when I do have free time, I tend to try to do other things that get me outside of the house. So I end up eating out a lot—or buying things from the grocery store that can mostly be eaten as is. I eat a lot of baguettes and hummus.”

“Brown food.”

“Technically, I suppose,” said Mira, laughing.

“So what are the sorts of things you do outside the house, then?” Sam pulled into the parking lot of the cooking school and set the car into park. “Strolling? Museums? Aerobics?”

“Interesting choices,” Mira murmured. “Well, I do enjoy going through museums. But—well, I suppose this goes with that—I am somewhat more of an indoorsy person.”

“That’s fine.”

“Just fine?”

“No—I meant to say—I’m the same,” said Sam. “It’s not something that you hear often, though.”

“I suppose not.”

Sam smiled and got out of the car. They had arrived. “It’s just that people are usually gushing about their outdoorsy preferences on the dating apps, you know,” he said.

“Makes sense,” said Mira. She smiled at him as he offered his hand to help her out of the car.