"That's cute. You have no idea what I can convince myself of." I ran my finger over the walls, every inch covered in scratched initials. "Points for local color." I folded my hands primly on the table. "Tell me the history of this fine establishment."
He took a drink of the beer the waiter had brought. "No clue."
"Tour guide fail." I said, before trying my own drink, which was nicely chilled.
"Never enough with you," he grumbled. "Okay. Here's a fun Prague fact. There have been two defenestrations in the town's history."
"Based on the French root in that word, I'm gonna guess it has something to do with windows. Out of windows?"
He clinked his glass against mine. "Very good. The act of throwing someone or something out a window. Don't piss off a Czech unless you're on ground level."
"You're chock full of macabre facts, aren't you?"
"I excel at playing to my audience. Giving them what they want," he leered.
I moved my radler, allowing the server to place my food in front of me. I waited until he'd gone to speak. "You were unbearably arrogant as a rock star, weren't you?"
Rohan picked up his cutlery. "I'm shocked I rate past tense."
"Well, you're old now. You've mellowed into insufferably cocky."
"Thank you. I know how much you appreciate cock … y." He snickered.
"The emotional maturity of a twelve-year-old," I said, cutting into my lunch. A braised beef, it was served in a creamy vegetable sauce with dumplings on the side. I moaned, swallowing my first bite.
Incredibly, he didn't comment.
I decided that I liked a man who didn't need to fill valuable eating time with small talk. Plate cleared and practically licked clean, I sagged back against my chair, my hand on my belly. "If I had a button, I'd totally pop it open right now and nap."
Rohan paid the bill. "Nope. We're going to walk off the carbs."
I groaned but pushed my chair back and followed him outside. "Thank you for lunch."
He tapped his cheek.
I rolled my eyes, then leaned in and gave him a peck. "That was a thank you appropriate to any family member. To be clear."
"You'll be expressing your thanks in a highly inappropriate manner later. To be clear."
I stumbled at his words. But my nipples went rock hard so he wasn't wrong. Necessarily. See this? This was good. Fun easy banter followed up by promises of hot monkey sex. Reset achieved. Poppy could rot in Hell. I let out a breath, my rib cage easing out of its tight lock, and skipped after him to catch up.
Our final stop, Rohan informed me, was Prague Castle. A massive complex, we were herded from line-up to line-up, marveling at the magnificence of St. Vitus Cathedral, the fascination of the palace room covered in painted coats-of-arms, and the delight of the tiny colored houses on Gold Lane.
"Enough," I said at last. "I'm sight-seed out."
We exited the grounds into a large square near the top of the palace. People took photos of the city skyline over to one side, while one especially stunning neighboring building boasting a tiered roof and intricately painted vines and flowers along a high frieze advertised a Baroque art collection.
I tugged on Rohan's sleeve. "Selfie time." He grumbled good-naturedly but obliged, following me as I elbowed our way to the front of the crowd. I held up my phone, adjusting it to get both us and the maximum amount of the city in the shot. "Smile."
A split second before I took the photo Rohan murmured in my ear, "All of Prague laid out before us."
My breath caught. I lowered the phone, not wanting to see the expression on my face in the picture in case I'd embarrassed myself. I also had to step away before I did something bad, here, in this very public place.
I walked back into the center of the plaza, wishing for a distraction. Some higher power decided to take pity on my sexually frustrated state because the perfect one zoomed into view. Waving furiously at Rohan, I broke into a run.
The old-fashioned mini tourist train consisted of the engineer's car pulling two passenger cars with even rows of benches. Open on one side for easy entrance and exit, hard clear plastic formed windows on the outer side.
Rohan eyed the green locomotive. "No."
"Oh yes." I climbed into one of the hard-topped cars, sitting down on the wooden bench. "Come on. The sign on top says it goes back to the square in Old Town." I loved these mini trains, going back to the one in Stanley Park in Vancouver that I rode throughout my childhood. We visited that park year-round and my parents learned to anticipate my pleas to go again. They'd board me with a strip of tickets in my hand so I could ride to my heart's content while they took Ari to feed the goats at the petting zoo next door.