“But I think it’s unfair of you to say the ass-kicking cred is the only good thing to come from the incident. If not for the throwdown, you wouldn’t have fainted at the sight of meorlet me take you to dinner,” he said, raising his eyebrow.
“I think ‘fainted at the sight of’ you is a bit misleading,” I said, reaching for my water.
“Well, I’m no Bill Cowher.”
“You definitely are not,” I quipped.
He coughed out a laugh. “Ouch.”
“Simply stating a fact, Cunningham,” I said, wondering howit could feel so natural, so comfortable, to talk to him when he was, in fact, a celebrity athlete.
“Simply being a dick, Distefano.”
“Am not,” I said with a laugh.
“You know, I think it might be a red flag that in your eyes, me not being Bill Cowher is aflaw,” he teased. “The man is old enough to be your father.”
“Are you judging me?”
“I would never.”
“Also for the record, I no longer romantically love him. It’s simmered into a respectful appreciation of his legendary career.”
“I see.”
“Your eyes tell me that you don’t.”
“That’s because according to Tony—”
“Don’t bring my dad into this,” I admonished.
“—it was only a year ago that you brained yourself over him in the TSA line.”
“Are we really going to waste precious minutes of this date talking about my former loves?”
“Is that bad form?”
“The baddest.”
“Okay, moving on, then. I need to know your favorite film, favorite food, favorite TV show, and also your favorite color.”
“Wow, okay,” I said, noticing that he was good at eye contact. Not in a creepy way, but in the way that let you know he was genuinely interested in hearing what you had to say.
It was nice.
And surprising when he was someone whose entire life was far more interesting than mine.
“My favorite film is probablyCrazy, Stupid, Love., favorite food is spaghetti, favorite TV show isMonk, and I don’t believe in favorite colors.”
“I’m sorry—you don’tbelievein favorite colors?”
He said it like I’d stated I didn’t believe we’d landed on the Moon.
“That’s right. Because I have a preferred car color—black—and most of the clothes I purchase are black because they’re more versatile, but how can someone have a ‘favorite’ color? Like, you look at that color and feel happy—is that it? LikeI love orangeand the color orange just fills my happy cups?”
“Your happy cups.” He cleared his throat before giving his head a shake. “Please kill me if I ever use that expression.”
“Gladly. But you see what I mean, right?”