Dances with Monsters(91)

"Oh, yeah," Drew said with a nod. "That makes sense. He won the last big one, so if you can do well against him, you can kick anyone's ass!"

Heath laughed. "Yeah, something like that," he replied.

Just then, Sophie showed up with their dinner orders. Heath looked over his plate. The portion sizes looked good, not too big but enough to fill him up, and his steak looked like it was cooked to perfection. He glanced at Drew's plate; hers looked good as well.

She caught his eye and smiled, then lifted her wine glass. Curiously, Heath raised his as well and touched it to hers.

"To all life's successes," she said, then took a sip.

"I'll drink to that," Heath said with a nod.

As they dug into their meals, Heath suppressed a groan of appreciation. After weeks of nothing but chicken, fish, complex carbs, whole grains and a mountain of vegetables, a real steak, especially one as good as this, was like heaven. Drew was making headway with her salmon, and neither spoke for a little while as they enjoyed their meals. That was something about Drew he appreciated—she had a very healthy appetite and wasn't afraid to eat in front of him. He'd taken girls out in the past who ordered a side salad for an entrée and a glass of water, and it had annoyed him to no end.

"Speaking of life's successes," Drew said, and he glanced up at her. He noticed she'd set her fork and knife down so he did the same. "I, uh—I wanted to tell you that I decided to testify."

He let a small, proud smile cross his face. "Good for you," he said. "I'm proud of you."

She seemed to glow under his praise, and picked up her fork again. Instead of eating, she started dragging it through her risotto. "My family is going to be there," she said, focusing intently on a grain of risotto. "And Bunz. Well, not in the courtroom with me, just at the courthouse. It would be awkward to recant what happened in front of them, and, well, I wouldn't want to put my family through that again. Uh, anyway. It—it would mean a lot to me if you came, too."

He blinked in surprise. "You want me to be there?" he asked quietly.

"It's the Monday right after the Smackdown tournament, in the city," she said quickly. "So I know you'll be really tired and it's like a seven hour drive from Buffalo which is really kinda far for a favor. So if you can't make it or you don't want to, I totally –"

"Drew," he said, lifting a hand in the air. "Stop. You want me there, I'm there. That's it."

She caught her breath from her verbal torrent and bit her lip. "Thanks," she said. "I hope it's not weird that I asked you. It's just—well, outside my family you're the first person I've told what happened to me, and you're the only other person besides B who knows. And, well—" She blushed and dropped her gaze again. "You're a—a good friend to me and I just thought –"

She was doing it again, so Heath reached over and slipped two of his fingers into the little fist she didn't know she was making to get her attention. Her eyes shifted to their hands and then to his face. He stared intently into her eyes.

"'Nough said," he said quietly. "You had me at 'it would mean a lot to me if you came'." He smiled gently, and she returned it.

"Okay," she said quietly.

They returned to the rest of their meal until Sophie came to check on them and offer the dessert menu. Heath saw Drew's eyes light up at the mention of dessert so he discreetly checked his watch. They had about forty-five minutes until the ballet started so he nodded for Sophie to bring the dessert menu. He wasn't huge on sweets but he agreed to split one with Drew and told her she could choose whatever she liked. She selected a decadent Italian cream lemon layer cake and they each ordered an espresso.

As Drew picked at the cake, Heath watched her and sipped at his espresso as a thought came to him. "Since we were on the subject of being supportive for life successes," he began, "what do you think about coming with me to the tournament?"

Drew looked up at him in surprise, the fork slipping from her finger and clattering onto the table. "Shit. Um, really? You would want me to come? You know I don't know anything about that."

"I'd like you to be there," he said, swirling his curved ribbon of fresh lemon zest in his espresso with a small silver spoon. "My dad and brother and Lana are going. It'd be cool to have you there, too. I don't care if you don't know much about MMA."

"Anything," Drew corrected with a smile. "I don't know anything." She paused and delicately licked whipped buttercream off the tines of the fork. She glanced up at him. "Could I—do you mind if I think about it?" She bit her lip. "I know that makes me sound like an asshole, since I asked you to come to my thing, and you said yes right away, and now you're asking me to go to your thing and here I am asking to think –"