“He was…a prick…and a cheater.”
Jake nodded silently and looked around the room then his eyes met mine. “Well, I don’t even know the guy, but if he cheated on you…he’s a fucking idiot.”
I didn’t even know how to respond to that, but every nerve in my body immediately did. Thankfully, our Poo Poo platter came and I didn’t have to say anything at all. We started digging into the chicken wings, eggrolls, spareribs and teriyaki beef sticks. It was one of those comfortable silences where neither of us felt like we had to talk. We just pigged out on the appetizers, taking turns sipping out of the bowl, enjoying each other’s company.
When we finished eating, all that remained were the flames in the center of the platter. He moved it to the side, throwing a packet of hand wipes at me and caught me off guard when he continued where our previous conversation left off.
“So…Spencer…was he your last boyfriend?”
“Yeah. We broke up a little over a year ago. In retrospect, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Besides the fact that I found out he cheated on me, he did nothing but criticize me.”
He scrunched his eyebrows into an angry look. “What do you mean criticize? What kinds of things did he say to you?”
Was this conversation really going there?
I shrugged. “Let’s see…what didn’t he say? For one, he had no tolerance at all for my anxiety issues. He would just make fun of me instead of trying to understand the condition. And he criticized my body any chance he got.”
“He criticized your body,” Jake said, more like a statement than a question.
“Yeah…all the time.”
“Really…”
“Yes. He told me I wasn’t athletic-looking enough, that I could stand to lose ten pounds and that my ass was too big.”
Why did I just tell him all of this? I must be drunk.
“Nina…I hope you don’t mind me being blunt.”
“I don’t mind.”
“This…Spencer…needs his eyes checked and his ass kicked. There is nothing wrong with your body…not one thing. I hope you didn’t listen to him.”
Gulp.
“That’s the sad part. For a while, I did believe it. I realize in retrospect that he just got off on bringing me down. At the time, though, I really did think I was fat and I was even thinner than I am now.”
“Nina—” He started to say something then stopped. “Never mind. Just know…that he was wrong, okay?”
“Say what you were gonna say,” I said, downing more of the drink.
He slid his tongue ring between his teeth and looked away from me toward the stage when he said, “I am not sure that I should.”
“Since when have you become tactful?”
He took a sip and replied while playing with his straw. “Since this conversation moved to tits and ass.”
I laughed a little louder than normal and suspected the alcohol was starting to take its toll…on both of us. “Seriously, whatever you were going to say, I won’t be offended.”
He took another long sip from the bowl, licked his lips and said, “Okay…in that case, Nina, not just as your friend, but as a man, I am telling you straight up that you have an amazing body. It’s perfect. And your nimrod ex-boyfriend was right about one thing: you do kind of have a big ass.”
I spit out my drink. “Excuse me?”
He reached across and tapped my arm. “Let me finish. You kind of have a big ass…but it’s the most spectacular ass I’ve ever seen. You have an hourglass shape and any man with a pulse knows that’s the hottest kind there is. You’re beautiful, and what makes you even more attractive, is that you have absolutely no fucking idea just how beautiful you really are.”
I gripped the seat of the booth, floored by those unexpected words that came out of his mouth.
He thinks I’m beautiful.
He thinks I have a big ass!
He thinks my ass is spectacular?
I wanted to tell him right then and there how I felt about him, that I thought he was the most beautiful human being on the planet. But the thoughts wouldn’t form into a coherent sentence and just came out as, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes watching a bald guy and a woman who looked like his mother sing On the Road Again before I realized that my bladder was ready to burst.
“Where is the bathroom?”
“I think it’s down that hallway behind the stage.”
The room spun a little when I stood up. As I walked away, I wondered if he was staring at my butt. I still couldn’t believe what he had just said to me. Oddly, it was the nicest compliment I had ever received.