The Spinach Incident

Elena smoothed her hair, checking her reflection in the restaurant's darkened window. Third date. This was the threshold where things either deepened or dissolved. The silverware gleamed under candlelight as she reached across the white tablecloth.

'You have...' Julian gestured toward his own smile, then hers.

Her stomach dropped. She excused herself to the restroom, where a tiny piece of spinach clung stubbornly to her canine tooth. She'd chosen the salad to seem delicate, feminine, the kind of woman who ordered leaves instead of heartier fare. Now the leaves had betrayed her.

When she returned, Julian was wearing his hat again—that tweed cap he'd removed at the start of the meal. The signal. He was preparing to leave.

'I'm sorry,' she said, sliding into her seat. 'That's humiliating.'

He studied her, really looked at her, for the first time all evening. 'My ex-wife used to do that. Order salads, I mean. She was allergic to raw spinach but ate it anyway because she thought that's what women were supposed to do on dates.'

'She was allergic?'

'Throat would swell up. I had to learn to use an EpiPen.' His smile was genuine now, crinkling the corners of his eyes. 'I spent ten years watching women pretend to be someone they thought I wanted, while I was pretending to be the man they wanted. We're all just performing, aren't we?'

'Is that why you put the hat back on?' she asked, surprising herself with her boldness. 'Ready to make your exit?'

He removed it slowly, setting it on the table. 'I put it on because I was nervous. I actually came here planning to tell you I'm not ready for this. For any of this.' He gestured between them. 'But then you got spinach in your teeth, and instead of being embarrassed, you just owned it. That's the realest thing that's happened to me in three years.'

Elena signaled the waiter. 'I'm going to order the steak,' she said. 'Medium rare. And another glass of wine.'

'Good,' Julian said, and this time when he smiled, something in his face settled. 'I'll have the same.'