And what’s the other reason? It’s almost tempting to ask him, but if he gave another dry, clinical answer, it would dash my hopes.
“I’ll look both ways,” I say. I check carefully, and only when no cars are coming, do we both cross the street.
Kaden holds the door of the restaurant open for me, and we step inside. It’s bustling and full of people, and the delicious smell of burgers frying on the grill hits my nose. I feel my mouth watering.
I see a long line, and I realize it’s the kind of place you have to order first. No waiters.
“I’m not trying to cheap out on you,” he says, pointing at the line, “but this place simply has the best burgers. I don’t discriminate based on price or service. The best food is the best food.”
I smile. “I agree.”
We join the line-up, and I realize that the big menus are actually giant LCD screens. I’ve never seen that before. I study the menu, trying to decide what to get.
“For my money,” Kaden says, “it’s the blue cheese burger.”
Blue cheese? The stuff that smells like feet? I feel like that would ruin a burger. I realize that my favorite burger has only ketchup and mustard, and no vegetables. A little kid’s burger.
“Sounds good,” I say, forcing a nervous smile.
“You don’t like blue cheese, do you?” he asks.
“Uhh—”
“It’s an acquired taste,” he says. “You can acquire tastes later, order what you want to eat. You can’t go wrong here.”
He puts a hand on the small of my back again, and nudges me in front of him. I hold my breath as his strong hand touches me. I wish he’d never let go.
He points into the kitchen, which is in plain view from the line, as there’s no wall separating it. “See that?”
I nod, not knowing what he’s focusing on.
“Fresh potatoes,” he says. “No frozen stuff. They have the best fries this side of Belgium.”
Kaden orders his blue cheese burger, and I order the basic burger, asking them to hold the lettuce, tomato, and onion.
We grab our cups to fill our drinks while we wait for them to call out our order number. We approach a giant touchscreen with our cups.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“Oh,” he says. “Yeah, these are kind of new. Check it out. Ever wanted some weird-ass flavor of drink that they never have anywhere? Like blackberry-flavored Barq’s root beer?”
He presses the Barq’s button, then fifteen other variants of Barq’s pop up. He selects blackberry and fills up his cup. “I always get some crazy new thing every time I see one of these.”
“Cool…” I whisper. It almost reminds me of when I was younger at a fountain drink machine with a bunch of kids, and we’d mix like six different drinks together. Though this is definitely less gross, since Hi-C, Kool-Aid, Dr. Pepper, and orange soda was never really a tasty combo.
“I’ll get…” I say, pressing the button for Diet Coke. “Orange-flavored Diet Coke...with vanilla twist.”
“Cool,” he says. “Never tried that one.”
I fill my cup and hand it to him. “Want to try a taste?”
I immediately regret it, feeling nervous and gross. I’m his patient, and I doubt he wants to share a drink with me—
“Sure,” he says, grabbing the cup and taking a swig. “Hmmm, not bad. Try mine.”
He hands his cup to me. I guess he’s not nervous about getting my germs. It’s almost like...almost like he actually did kiss me. Like I didn’t dream it.
We find a table, and when they call our number, Kaden pulls a chair out for me to sit down. “Be right back.”
He grabs our food and brings it to the table. I eat a fry immediately, and it tastes so good. It’s got the perfect crunch on the outside, and inside it’s a perfectly cooked potato.
I notice that Kaden’s fries are covered in ketchup, mayo, and diced onion.
“That looks gross,” I say, pointing.
“It’s amazing,” he says, stabbing into it with a fork. “You gotta eat it with a fork, though, too messy otherwise.”
He holds the fork out to me. “Want to try a bite?”
I nod reluctantly. I don’t really want to, but I don’t want him to think that I have no sense of adventure.
I bite into the forkful of fries, and the same delicious crispy crunch is there, but then the onion crunch and the strong flavor of the ketchup and mayo hits me. As gross as it looked, I can’t deny that it tastes great.
I swallow and smile.
“Yeah?” Kaden says. “Pretty awesome, right?”
I nod, and he scoops some of the sauce and onions onto his fork and plops it down beside my fries. “Help yourself to mine if you want more.”
I bite into my burger, and it’s really good, too. I take a few bites of burger and fries, then I wash it down with my orange-vanilla Diet Coke. It feels like I’m in heaven after eating the horrible hospital food for the last several days.
Kaden cuts off a piece of his burger with his knife and fork, and puts it down on my plate. “If you want to try it, but no pressure, though.”
I pick it up between my fingers and look at it. It’s got some kind of balsamic vinegar sauce on it, and the blue cheese is melted and splashed with the vinegar. I put the piece into my mouth and chew. The blue cheese hits me, but it’s binded in with the juicy fat from the burger, and then the acid of balsamic vinegar hits me, tempering the bite of the cheese just before it would get overpowering.
“Woah,” I say, once I’ve swallowed it down. “This makes my burger taste...uh...basic.”
Kaden laughs, and cuts his burger in half.
“Trade with me,” he says. “Half of yours for half of mine.”
We swap burger halves.
“It’s like,” I say, “…it’s like my tastes actually changed while I was sleeping. I know I’m actually twenty-five now, but I keep thinking I’m still eighteen. It’s like my subconscious and my body both realize they missed out on seven years, and they are racing to catch up.”
Kaden nods. “Yeah, it’s a natural reaction. You’ll want to make up for lost time, all the things you normally would have done from eighteen to twenty-five, you’ll feel a serious urge to experience them.”
I find myself looking down at his strong hands as he speaks. I imagine those manly, protective hands cupping my breasts, and his fingers stroking lightly against my chin, pulling me in for a kiss.
I feel my face burning red. The experience I most want to have and make up for is definitely sex. How can I tell him that?
“Yeah,” I say, laughing nervously. “I’ll have to try to eat all kinds of new stuff.”
We finish eating and go back to Kaden’s car. He unplugs the charger, and we get inside.
“I should take you back now,” he says.
I frown. “It feels like I just left. I still haven’t seen how fast the car can go…”
He laughs. “All right, I’ll show you.”
He drives through a lot of city roads until we hit the highway exit. He takes us onto the highway.
“Oh,” he says. “I forgot to tell you, the car can autopilot.”