I laughed. “No,” I replied. “No one looks for me in digs like this. They’re always searching the posh steakhouses and pubs.”
Kate nodded and stared at the menu. “Sometimes dives have the best food. But I don’t know what to get,” she said. “Maybe just order whatever’s good, and I’ll share?”
“Sure.”
With Kate in tow, I ordered us a lavish spread. After paying, we took our food over to a side street and sat down at a table belonging to a shuttered café. It wasn’t cold out, but Kate shivered as a breeze blew past us.
I raised an eyebrow. “Cold?”
Kate laughed. “No,” she said softly. She gazed at me with her green eyes and I felt a shiver of lust run down my spine. “Just enjoying myself. This isn’t exactly what I’m used to.”
I leaned back and looked at her. I’d always thought she was a fox, but in person, Kate was even lovelier than she was on the TV. When she was doing her show, she radiated a kind of perfect warmth, but in person, she seemed all too wonderfully real. She was still poised and charming, but she wasn’t too uptight. I liked that.
“I like you like this,” I mused. “You seem so much more real than you do on the telly.”
Kate blushed. She reached forward and took a prawn cracker from one of the baskets in front of us, popping it in her mouth and grinning at me.
“I like to have fun like anyone else,” she said softly. “I just don’t really do things like this in New York all that often. I mean, I would. I just…well, I don’t really have time.”
“Being a busy famous woman and all that?” I winked at her, and to my intense pleasure, the pink blush on her cheeks deepened.
“Not really,” she said. “I mean, yeah. I don’t really see my friends very often. They’re busy, too. Everyone in New York…” She held her hands up in the air and waved her fingers around, and I laughed.
“I’m a sucker for beautiful women doing silly things with their hands,” I said.
She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Well, it’s true. I mean, everyone goes crazy. It’s like a contest—who can be the busiest and the most tired from working too hard. Do you have friends like that?”
I nodded. “My best mate, Connor,” I said. “We grew up together, and he works construction. He’s busy, but he makes time to chat with me from time to time. He usually calls me before a game to wish me luck.”
I didn’t tell her about how worrisome he’d sounded the last time we talked. Besides, I was probably just imagining things. The stress of worrying about a game combined with seeing my ex-girlfriend bitching about me on the TV probably hadn’t done wonders for my self-assurance.
Kate smiled. “That’s sweet,” she said. “The only person I’m really that close to is Lizzy. And here I am. She invited me over so I could have a break from real life.”
“Lizzy’s your sister, right?”
“Yep.”
I dug around in one of the baskets and pulled out an interlocking clump of fried prawns. “These are the tops,” I told Kate. “They’re my favorite snack here. You want one?”
I held out some of the steaming food to her.
“Sure.” She smiled and reached for a tiny fried prawn that was left in the basket. “I don’t eat a lot of fried stuff,” she said as she popped it into her mouth. “The showrunners are really strict with my diet.”
She chewed and closed her eyes, throwing her head back and moaning softly. “But oh my god, that’s so good! No wonder you love coming here!”
I grinned. “One of my favorite spots,” I told her. “And besides, don’t you love the atmosphere?”
I was being sarcastic, but as Kate looked around, I could tell that she really loved the dark little alley with the tiny lights strung in the tree branches above us. The night was a little chilly and very dark—the occasional breeze smelled fresh, not like rubbish.
“I do,” Kate admitted in a tone more solemn than appropriate. “I mean, it’s just nice to be outside. Sometimes I have similar problems to what I imagine you do, you know. Being recognized.”
“Yeah, I’m not surprised. Your show really is great.”
“Thanks. I really hate complaining about it because almost no one else understands and they just think I’m bragging. But you get it, don’t you?” She looked up at me and I felt another urgent pulse of lust throb in my body. “I mean, you understand.”
I nodded. “Definitely,” I told her with a grin. “I can’t even go out with the blokes anymore without being mobbed. You girls are mad, always wanting me to sign your tits!”