"So that's why I've never heard of this place," Mia mumbled softly as they took their seats.
Twyla's was a pop up restaurant that moved locations every week. Currently it sat along the Hudson, bordering a mile long wave of emptied seacans.
Fairy lights hung low, the soft yellow glow bleeding along the wooden slats of the floor.
It was beautiful.
"How did you even find out about this place?" Mia asked. Her eyes darted from the bouquets of pale blue lillies that peppered every table.
Harlan smiled. "I know the owner," he explained.
Mia frowned. As breathtaking as it was, it was utterly empty. Not another living soul occupied the space save for the waiter that had greeted them up at the front.
"It's pretty empty," she noted out loud.
Harlan chuckled. "Probably because I booked the whole restaurant," he admitted casually.
Mia blinked once. Had she heard that right?
"You..." Mia shook her head. "You booked the whole restaurant?" she echoed in shock, stunned. "Like the whole thing?"
Harlan's eyes sparked as he nodded. His lips pulled upwards in a grin that Mia could have stared at forever. Something about him always had her falling; consumed in even the smallest of details about him.
"You're totally insane," she teased with a giggle.
Harlan laughed. A raspy chorus of sound that clanged throughout the empty restuarant and down Mia's arms.
"Get used to it, Fray," he said with a wink as the waiter came up to their table.
"Good evening," the man greeted with a smile. He wasn't dressed like any waiter she'd ever seen before. There was no tacky uniform with a name tag taking up half of his chest. No monochrome outfit with a nondescript theme.
Instead, the guy was dressed in black from head to toe. His right arm was layered in tattoos, the ink so old it bled into one swath of black and grey.
"My name is Lyle and I will be your server for tonight," Lyle continued. He was older, with a head of graying hair that matched his full beard. "Have we decided on drinks?" he asked.
Mia flicked her eyes down at the small paper menu. "I'll just have a water, please," she said. Getting drunk probably wasn't the best idea. When Mia drank, she had a tendency to not stop until she blacked out.
Like that one time at her Dad's wedding. It ended with her waking up in a puddle of vomit and Gigi telling her she'd fallen face first into the cake.
Or when she first met Harlan, spilling every half-formed thought that popped into her brain.
So...yeah. It was probably for the best that she stuck with the water for tonight.
"I'll have a water as well, please," Harlan said before Lyle took off, disappearing behind the wooden partition that separated the tables.
"Did you grow up here?" Harlan asked.
Mia nodded. "Yeah. Well, uh, technically," she corrected. "I lived in Colorado for the first few years of my life. We moved to the city when I was seven."
"And who is we?" he asked before she could change the subject. She really didn't feel like going into her life. She wanted to be here, right now, with Harlan.
Just the two of them. No Gigi and Lake. No crazy supermodel exes.
Just Harlan and Mia.
Mia ran her fingers along the edge of the menu. "My Dad and siblings."
"How many siblings do you have?"
"Three. There's my half sister Ruth, she's ten years older. Then there's my half brother Sammy, he just turned twelve..." Mia shifted in her seat. "Uh, yeah, and then there's my twin," she added awkwardly.
Harlan leaned back with a nod. "Ah. The twin. I remember," he said softly as Lyle pulled up to their table, two waters in hand.
"Thanks," Mia mumbled gently before the waiter took off again.
Right.
For a second she almost forgot that he knew about Gigi. And Lake. And the whole Gigi and Lake in bed disaster.
Mia shook her head. "Enough about me, though. I'm boring," she said.
"I have to disagree with that, Fray," he said before she could continue.
Mia's eyes fell down to her lap as a blush crept up her neck.
Okay. She liked him way too much.
"I want to know about you," Mia admitted, glossing over his words.
Harlan's brows popped, a small smile crossing his face. Under the dim, warm glow of Twyla's, his skin looked like silk.
For a moment she let herself imagine what it felt like...What it would be like to glide her hands down his back, her thighs wrapped around his chiselled torso...
Mia shook her head.
Focus, Mia told herself. And maybe a little less R rated thoughts? she added silently.
"What do you want to know?" he asked.
Mia smiled. "Everything."
Harlan chuckled. He opened his arms wide like the pages of an unfinished book. "Then by all means, ask away."
She sat back in her seat while fighting off her smile. "Okay, um..." In her mind, she turned over question after question. Combing her way through the masses of thoughts.
She didn't want to ask him just any question. He was one of New York's most notoriously rowdy bachelors, according to Google.
But Mia wanted to know the real Harlan. The one you couldn't type into a search engine and come up with 900 results.
"What were you doing in that bar?" she asked finally. "The Shadows, I think. The first night we met?"
He knew why she was there. Unfortunately. But why was he? It was dirty and small and so un-Harlan. She'd been wondering this whole time what a guy like him was doing in a bar like The Shadows.
Harlan smiled slowly. "Most places I go, Fray, people stumble over themselves either for a piece of me or my money."
Mia tried not to laugh. "Must be hard," she said.
Harlan's smile grew tenfold. "It makes it hard to know who I can trust." His eyes never left hers.
Mia's smile fell as his face turned hard like stone. "So I go to places like that," he continued. "Places where I know I can be me."
Mia nodded. "Are..." she cleared her throat. "Are you...yourself...around me?" Mia asked quietly.
Harlan smiled. He leaned in closer, the dying sun in the harbor throwing endless shadows along his jaw. "Do you want to know the truly scary thing, Fray?" he asked.
She nodded softly.
"I've never felt more myself until I met you," he admitted.
Mia's lips parted. In that very moment, the world could have caught fire and collapsed into a black hole of abyss and she wouldn't have even noticed.
As long as she kept drowning in Harlan's eyes, nothing else mattered.
Mia cleared her throat. "I feel the same, Harlan," she agreed sheepishly.
He smiled. Perhaps the biggest smile she'd ever seen. It reached his eyes in an inferno of beauty.
"Have we decided on what we'll be having for dinner?" Lyle asked. Mia jolted in her seat. She hadn't even noticed him come up to the table.
She looked down at her menu. "I'll have the chicken penne, please," she said.
Lyle nodded while scribbling onto his palm-sized notepad. "And you, Mr. Veers?" he asked.
"Just the duck risotto for me please, Lyle," Harlan said while handing over the menus.
"Duck risotto and chicken penne," Lyle recited back for confirmation. He nodded before disappearing into the kitchen.
"Thank you," she blurted out.
Harlan tilted his head. "What for?" he asked.
She smiled. For the first time in a long time she was happy. Along the harbor, just the two of them in the emptied restaurant with the setting sun bleeding through the open windows...Mia felt like she'd stumbled into paradise.
"For asking me out," she said, slightly embarrassed. Mia shrugged. "I never would have had the courage to do it and I'm just really glad you did," she admitted.
Harlan leaned back in his seat with a smile. "Me too, Fray," he echoed in agreement.
She sat back, words pushing on her tongue. She wanted to ask about Lucy. She wanted to ask why he'd ever gone out with her and why she was at his house the other night.
Mia wanted to know if he still had feelings for her...
But if she went down the conversational road of exes, that would open a door to a whole lot of Lake related questions. Questions she definitely felt were not first date material.
So Mia decided to stay away from the subject in general.
"One chicken penne for the lady," Lyle announced as he came up to their table. "And one duck risotto for the gentleman."
Oh God.
So that's what heaven smelt like.