Finding Home || bxb

19

"Yeah, well no one ever taught me how to use chopsticks," I moaned when Roman made fun of me one too many times at my feeble attempt at holding the two sticks between my fingers properly.

"Sorry, it's cute," he said trying not to laugh at me this time. "Here, let me help." He reached over the table and placed the chopsticks correctly between my fingers and showed me how to manoeuvre them. I got a little better at it but by the time the waiter put down our food I still wasn't good enough to try and actually eat with them, so I just decided to use my fingers. But I would try keep trying with the chopsticks, especially if it meant Roman touching my hands to guide me.

"Maybe I should have asked this before I brought you here, but you do like sushi right?" he asked.

"Yeah," I lied. "Yeah, it's good." I just didn't really like fish all that much. The vegetarian sushi was a lot nicer than the ones topped with fish. So, I guess I did like sushi really just only certain ones.

We made steady conversation as we ate and at one point Roman put his free hand over mine on the table. I'd been on dates before, but they were more preliminaries to sex. Like whoever I was with that evening felt like they needed to take me out to justify sleeping with me later. They did something for me so then I'll do something for them right? Maybe it made it easier for them to not think of me as underage as well if I was out on fancy grown-up dates.

But I think Roman didn't care about any of that and he really just wanted to take me out. I knew he wasn't comfortable with going all the way with a guy yet so I didn't know what he expected after, but I couldn't imagine it being anything more than a kiss, and maybe a little light touching of other places, as we still hadn't done that yet. That's okay though. I wouldn't mind kissing him. I especially wouldn't mind any touching.

Roman looked so hot in the dim lighting. The light shone in his eyes, and I would have felt bad and offered to switch, if I didn't like looking at how it turned his eyes from a deep earthy brown to a rich golden hue so much. It looked like he had some specks of black at the edge of his irises that you couldn't see without a bring light shining in his eyes or by getting real close to his face. I think he would find it creepy if I pushed my nose right up against his and stared deeply into his eyes just to look at those streaks of black.

"So anyway, I kinda got you something," Roman said just as I finished chewing on another bit of sushi which had cucumber in it.

"What?" I questioned.

"Like a Christmas present. It's nothing that big, I don't know, I just saw it in this shop when I went into town where my brother lives. You told me how you really liked that necklace you got for your foster sister, and I saw this and thought you might like it. It definitely not Vivienne Westwood or anything but yeah," he said handing me a small box.

I vaguely remembered talking to Roman into the early hours of Boxing day where I briefly mentioned quite liking the necklace. I could have bought one for myself if I really wanted but I didn't often like wearing jewellery around my neck because I thought it brought too much attention to my scar. When I opened the box though, I knew I would still wear it regardless of my scar. It didn't have a charm on it or anything like the one I got Emily did, it was only pearls that would hug my neck like a fairly loose choker. Maybe I liked it because Roman got it for me when he never even needed to.

"Do you like like it?" he asked seeming eager to know what I thought.

I nodded. "Yeah, you should put it on me when we go back outside. I wanna wear it tonight. I don't have anything for you though, I'm sorry."

"That's okay. I just wanted you to have something from me."

There was a giddy feeling inside me for the rest of dinner. I smiled at everything Roman said and laughed at all his jokes. Maybe they weren't all funny, but I didn't care. I wanted to make him feel just as good as he had just made me feel.