She grinned him a thank-you as he pulled out her chair for her. Daintily, she sat down, crossed her legs and rolled the silverware out of the napkin. Placing the cutlery by her plate, she spread the napkin in her lap and smoothed it out once before leaning back in the chair and looking across the table at her companion.

He was looking at her with a faint smile on his lips, one arm propped on one side of the chair as he leaned towards it, lending to him the appearance of a careless, rakish man. His hair, usually tousled, was styled into a semblance of neatness that fit in with the deep blue dress shirt and black slacks that he wore. It was his smile, wider and lopsided now that she caught him staring, that put the entire gentleman get up at odds.

She slid her eyes to her plate and made a shy face, rubbing slightly at her nose. “What is it?”

The grin dimpled his cheeks as he shook his head. “Nothing at all.” He opened the menu and peered down at it.

She looked at him suspiciously a moment longer before she followed his lead and opened the menu.

Before long all the words on the French cuisine menu blurred into blahblahblahsacrebleu! to her and she bit her lip, too apprehensive to ask him for help since even the descriptions were vague. ‘He’ll think I’m ignorant or dumb. He’ll laugh at me and call me something like charming.’ She barely repressed a shudder at the thought and bit her lip, flipping to the next page of the menu.

Quietly, she fingered the edge of the dress she wore, the skirt fabric soft against the pad of her finger. Was the dress a little too showy? Did the white make her skin tone glow or did it wash her out? Do the curls in her hair make her look disheveled? She lifted her hand to touch her bare shoulder, rubbing it in an effort to comfort herself. Maybe such a fancy dinner wasn’t right for a third date.

He figured it was better that she couldn’t see him stealing glances at her as she looked at the menu.

She became much too guarded and self-conscious with his eyes on her.

He allowed his eyes to sweep over the planes of her face, exaggerated by the shadows that the candlelight threw. Her eyes (merely ‘light colored’ for now, the gray lost in the dimness of the evening) darted over the words and pictures, tasting words like soufflé au fromage and gratinée de Coquille St. Jacques without really knowing what they were; he could tell she was confused by the little wrinkle between her brows, the small pout at her lips. She probably blazed through the description impatiently, too hungry to really care. She would end up picking a meal choice from the pictures.

“You look beautiful, stop worrying.” The words were abrupt enough to catch her by surprise and he felt accomplished to see her eyes fly up to his face and widen. A blush colored her cheeks and he chuckled, flipping his menu closed. “You’re nervous.”

She shifted and mumbled something under her breath.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Come again?”

“This place is so…fancy. You don’t think it’s a bit much, I mean…” She trailed off.

He looked towards a waiter coming their way and discreetly shook his head. The waiter paused, blinked, before he nodded and walked the other way. He looked back towards his date. “You mean, you think you don’t fit in?”

Her silence answered him.

He frowned at her deeply and leaned across the small table, a hand coming to tuck under her chin and tilt her face up. His eyes scanned her face, took in the fan of her eyelashes and the pink of her cheekbones, the cupid bow of her upper lip and the fullness of her lower one. “You’re right,” he said, holding firm under her chin, “You don’t fit in. But don’t you see that you aren’t meant to?”

She gave him a look that clearly conveyed how unimpressed she was. Drily, she said, “That hardly justifies anything.”

“Look around and see how many men are staring at you this exact moment. Tell me then that what I said ‘doesn’t justify anything.’”

He pulled his hand away to let her subtly turn this way and that, scoping out their surroundings. She pressed a couple fingers to her lips, a quiet ‘oh’ of surprise slipping out.

He chuckled and had to hide a pleased smile behind his palm.