Chapter 55: Rhea Called It Dinner

Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Rhea Called It Dinner

Dante arrived at the Copper Turtle on Friday wearing the cleanest black shirt he owned and the expression he normally saved for entering hostile territory. Rhea opened the door before he could decide whether waiting beneath the sign would improve his entrance.

"You’re early," she said, looking him over. "I was going to make you carry something, but you’ve dressed like the thing we’re carrying out."

"A little respect for the evening’s honored guest," he replied, and she handed him a basket of napkins.

She wore a dark green dress beneath an open cardigan, with her tail curved away from the doorway. Dante noticed the dress before the napkins, then noticed that she had noticed. His plans for a controlled arrival suffered another setback.

"You can look while you walk," she told him. "The trick is remembering both."

He followed her between tables while a tiny brass turtle crawled along the bar, ringing a bell whenever someone left an empty glass. The room smelled of fried onions and warm bread. A wall screen showed tomorrow’s Depth-Charge lineup, and three customers argued about the Breakers’ defensive current.

Rhea asked him to put napkins on the outside tables while she finished a short task. He agreed because a man preparing to command others should understand supplies, and because she had touched his elbow when she asked.

By the time he returned, two local workers had drawn a football formation on a receipt. Dante recognized the route from Jett’s cards and pointed out where the receiver would have to pass before the fish discharged.

The nearer worker moved a salt shaker and asked him to explain. Dante did, using the pepper as the second receiver and nearly suggesting a name for the maneuver before remembering that other people had invented sports before his arrival.

Rhea came back carrying two plates. "Please tell me you haven’t declared ownership of the table."

"I have secured its tactical cooperation," he said, and one worker offered to buy him a drink if the Breakers used his route tomorrow.

She steered him toward their reserved table with a hand between his shoulders. He was allowed to admire that development until she told him the napkins had gone outside upside down, where the printed charms wouldn’t hold them against the breeze.

He went back and fixed them while she laughed. The correction took less than a minute and left no casualties, which made it one of his better campaigns.

Their table stood in a quiet corner beside a window. Rhea set a strawberry soda in front of him and explained that neither of them needed alcohol while their health checks were unsettled. Dante raised the glass anyway, deciding a toast depended more on delivery than content.

"To an evening without medical equipment," he said.

"And to your ability to discuss anything else," she added, touching her glass to his.

He asked about the pub rather than the preparation from her lab. She told him how the turtle bell had once followed a customer halfway home because he had borrowed a glass. Her family had refused to turn it off until he returned both.

When she talked about wanting her own treatment practice, her voice changed. She wanted to help people who waited too long because they were frightened of the bill. She also wanted enough money to stop pretending that wanting money made her shallow.

"A defensible ambition," Dante told her. "You could charge the rich extra for dramatic reassurance."

"I thought that was your specialty."

"Then I shall make myself available on unreasonable terms."

She laughed and stole one of his fries, leaving her fingertips against his wrist for a moment. He forgot which part of his proposal had been a joke. Offering himself on unreasonable terms had sounded more dignified before a woman considered it over dinner.

Rhea asked what he had wanted before Blackwell. He could have invented something impressive, but his answer had been waiting years for a suitable audience.

"A room that went quiet when I entered," he said. "Preferably because of respect, although a decent lighting system would have helped."

She didn’t laugh immediately, and he explained the speeches, the practiced entrances and the certainty that ordinary life had misplaced him. Magic had not given him those thoughts. It had finally given them somewhere to stand.

"I don’t think you could be quiet about wanting things," she said. "Even your email sounded like you were summoning a witness."

"Professor Bell replied, so the summons worked."

"He asked you to use a subject line next time."

They finished the meal arguing over whether that counted as surrender. When a customer called Rhea away to check a spilled tray, Dante stayed at the table instead of deciding the interruption meant she regretted inviting him. Through the window, he watched two suited fish in a decorative pool push a leaf between them like a contract.

She returned and found him smiling. He told her the fish appeared to be negotiating, and she said the larger one had been trying to buy the fountain for years.

Afterward, she walked him to the sheltered side entrance. Music from the bar reached them through the wall, quieter than the night insects gathered around the lamps. Her cardigan had slipped slightly at one shoulder, and he made the mistake of trying to ignore it too obviously.

"You survived the video call," she reminded him. "I thought you’d improved."

"The distance was doing substantial work."

Rhea caught the front of his shirt between two fingers and drew him close enough that he stopped thinking about the cold. She asked whether he wanted to kiss her, and he answered before deciding which version of himself deserved the line.

"I’ve been considering it with unreasonable commitment," he said, making her smile against his mouth.

The kiss was brief and certain, with her hand careful of his ribs. He wanted another before she had finished the first, and she gave him one without making him turn the request into a speech.

When they separated, she kept hold of his shirt. "Tomorrow, you can sit beside me for part of the game. Posey already knows I asked."

He had expected his first proper kiss with her to require a grand occasion. Apparently a side door and the smell of fried onions would do, which suggested his future headquarters needed a kitchen before it needed a throne.

His phone sounded before he could reply. Professor Bell had confirmed the morning playback appointment, adding that the recovered receiver had answered a test prompt while its original player remained disconnected.

Dante read the message twice, then showed Rhea. The last line said the response had asked whether he was ready to discuss the missing piece.