Love Is Overdue (5 page)

Ben reached out and refilled
my glass for me. “So what about your dad?”

I shook my head. “I never
knew my dad. He left before I turned two. He’s probably still
somewhere hustlin’ the streets of Sao Paulo. He was a loan shark –
or so I been told.”

Ben raised his eyebrows.
“Damn...”

“
Yeah, we were
lucky to get out,” I said then. “My uncle sponsored the three of us
and brought us to Canada – me, my brother, my mom – and just in
time too. Before she was diagnosed.”

“
So where your
brother at? He live with you too?”

I shook my head. “No. My
brother went to music school in Montreal and got married to a
French-Canadian. He’s a pianist. She’s a dancer. They have two kids
now. He’s been home to visit a few times but my brother can’t
really deal with my mom and her illness – never could.” I stopped
talking. “How did we get on this topic again? Change it,” I
ordered, jokingly.

Ben smiled. “You’re too
interesting.”

“
You?” I eyed
him. “Parents? Siblings? What’s your story?”

He sucked his teeth. “Damn
girl... All right, lemme see...my mother lives in Jamaica...I come
up here when I was fifteen with my brother and sister. My dad been
here long before us – he married a Canadian and started up an
autoshop...brought all us kids here as soon as he could so we could
finish school and alla dat... He was a very hard worker and I think
he always regret leaving us behind so he did everything he could to
provide for alla us once he could... But it wasn’t easy for
us...y’know, leaving our mother…”

“
Do you visit
her?” I wanted to know.

He
nodded. “My mother? Of course...often as I can. And she been here
too but she won’t move.
Cyan
leave da rock
...” He sighed. “So
I name my restaurant in honour of my mother’s strong-willed nature.
Stubborness. Whateva you wanna call it...”

I smiled. “I like that...” I
thought. “So you three must be pretty tight, huh? Your brother and
sister?”

He didn’t say anything right
away. “Well...we used to...” Something in his voice had changed. “I
mean, me and my sister still cool and ting but...that’s a story for
a whole other time, Gabriela... You right. Family can be a bit of a
tricky subject.”

I nodded slowly. The wine
was starting to make me feel warm all over. Or maybe it was the
company. I couldn’t tell. “So how old are you, Ben?” I had tried to
piece together his age from his bio on the website but I wasn’t
sure.

He smiled. “How old you
think I am?”

I stared him down for a
moment or two. “Twenty-eight.”

He shook his head slowly and
gave me a little thumbs up to indicate the number was
higher.

“
Thirty-one,” I
tried again.

He shook his head again.
“One more...”

“
Hmmm...” I
sighed. “You are older than me...”

He nodded. “I
know.”

“
How old you
think I am?”

“
Don’t have to
guess,” he said. “You’re twenty-seven.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Wow.
Impressive.”

“
I know. Your
facebook page is very informative.”

I laughed. “Oh right. My
bad.”

“
So you in the
habit of stalking men online or am I the first?”

I shrugged innocently. “This
is the age of technology. Who doesn’t google a guy before a date
nowadays?”

“
Ahh...so what
you find out about me?”

I took another sip of my
wine. “I found out that the camera is very good to you.”

He smiled that
heart-stopping smile again. “What else?”

“
Hmmm...” I
thought for a moment. “Well, I found out that you have a very
strong female fan-base. Most of the women that comment on your
youtube page go on and on about how this sexy brother can come cook
for me at home any day...bla bla...etcetera.”

He raised his eyebrows.
“Really?” He acted like he had no idea what I was talking
about.

“
Oh and this one
girl started an online poll to see how many signatures it would
take for you to do an episode butt-naked...” The wine was really
taking its effect.

His eyes went wide.
“Fuck...you serious?”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh come
on, don’t act like you don’t know this...”

He leaned back in his seat
again. “I don’t run the page.”

I still wasn’t buying it.
“Whatever...”

“
I’m serious,” he
insisted. “My producer runs the page. And my camera-guy. But now
that you telling me all this, maybe I should go check it
out.”

“
Mmmhmm...if you
say so,” I teased him. “So how many would it take?”

“
How many
what?”

“
Signatures.”

He thought for a moment.
“Just one.”

I raised my
eyebrows.

“
But it wouldn’t
be on youtube. It would have to be a private show,” he explained,
that intense look taking over again.

I was getting so warm now. I
fanned my face lightly with my hand. “This wine is really
tasty...”

He smiled. “I can tell. So
what you feel I should cook if I did?”

“
Hmm...good
question.” I met his eyes. “Something sweet.”

“
I see...” He was
thinking. “So what’s your favourite...something sweet?”

I smiled. “That’s
easy...”

“
Chocolate.” He
knew. Of course he knew.

“
Yup...anything
chocolate.”

“
Hmm...I guess
I’ll have to give you something chocolate then...I’ll work on
that.”

I needed to change the
subject before I got too carried away. “So how did the whole
youtube thing start anyway?”

“
Well...” He
sighed. “Long story.”

I laughed. “That’s okay,
it’s not midnight yet.”

He smiled. “I was actually
just hangin’ out with Lena – you know, from the restaurant – and
she was watching one of those cooking shows on Food Network. I
don’t remember which one but she kept goin’ on about how I could do
that because I did a demo at the restaurant just before that for
some students from my culinary school and they had filmed it –
everyone kept sayin’ how am good on camera – so anyway we did some
research on youtube and she convince her boyfriend, Patrick – he’s
an independent film-maker - to shoot a demo to run on the
website...and it just take off from there...”

“
How often do you
shoot episodes?”

“
Depends. It’s a
lot of prep work for me so...twice a month, sometimes three... We
shooting one next weekend, if you want you can come check it out,”
he offered casually.

“
Really?” I tried
to contain my excitement. “I wouldn’t want to get in the way or
anything – do you usually have an audience?”

“
Well...sometimes
yes. Depends how many hungry people I got hangin’ around... But
usually it’s just Lena, my camera-guy, my producer...sometimes I
get someone from my kitchen staff to help with prep and clean up
between takes and that kinda thing...” He paused, giving me another
one of his looks. “I could put you to work if you want, though – am
good at that.”

I smiled. “I believe you –
just as long as you leave me behind the camera, I’ll be
fine.”

He was studying me closely
again. “I don’t know about that.”

“
What?”

“
I think you’d do
pretty good in front of a camera.”

I shook my head vehemently.
“No way, I have terrible stage-fright.”

Ben kind of laughed. “Can
you cook?”

I smiled. “Yes. That I can
do.”

“
Good. I love a
woman who can cook.”

I eyed him suspiciously.
“Somehow I would think that wouldn’t matter so much.”

“
Why?” He eyed me
back. “I love food – you know this – so nothing could impress me
more...”

“
Hmmm...” I was
playing with the stem of my wine glass. He was watching me. “Well,
maybe I will impress you one day.”

He just kept watching me,
giving me that intense gaze of his.

“
So what else
impresses you?” I asked slowly. “In a woman?” I lifted my eyes to
meet his.

He leaned forward, propping
his elbows onto the table and then reached out ever so gently and
touched my fingers as I continued to twirl my wine glass. I stopped
suddenly and let let him pull my hand closer as he glanced down and
caressed it tenderly between his.

“
Pretty hands,”
he said then, his fingers stroking each one of mine like he was
polishing some fine china. “Soft skin,” he added, before finally
looking up at me.

The electricity between us
was finally so thick I felt like I was about to catch on fire. I
caught my breath. “That’s not a very long list...” I wanted to hear
more. Desperately. This man was doing something to me I never even
knew existed.

He licked his lips – just
slightly. I barely even caught it but I felt myself get wet. Just
like that. He smiled again, squeezing my hand gently. “This all I
got so far...” He gestured with his eyes down to our interlocking
fingers. Then his eyes strayed back to my chest. “But that there
has been impressin’ me all night long...”

I picked up my glass with my
free hand, guiding it gently to my lips as he watched. “So you’re a
breast man,” I teased. I had to try to cut some of this heat
between us before I lost it completely.

He hesitated only for a
moment. “Right now I am. ‘Cause you sittin’ down.”

I laughed. “Hmmm...good
answer. So it’s not too big for you then?” I couldn’t help but
ask.

He raised his eyebrows,
looking a little taken aback by the question. “Too big?” He shook
his head slowly. “I don’t even know what that means,” he added
seriously. “Not in my vocabulary.”

Shit. I loved how this man
talked. “Damn...” I let my breath out. “You know just what to say,
don’t you?”

He didn’t say anything right
away. “Well...” He was still playing with my fingers, sending
electrical shock waves through my entire body. “It’s only the right
thing when you got the right person to say it to.”

Our waitress returned
suddenly and distracted us for a moment, wanting to know if we were
ready for another round. Ben ordered us some more drinks, all the
while stroking and caressing my fingers without skipping a
beat.

“
Hey, so can I
ask you something?” He turned back to me as soon as our waitress
was gone.

I smiled. “Sure. What’s
up?”

“
Who’s that dude
in so many of your pics online?”

I kind of laughed, flattered
at his curiosity. I knew who he was talking about but I decided to
ask anyway. “Which dude is that?”

He smiled at me again. “That
black dude you keep huggin’ up in all your pictures...”

“
Oh that’s just
my boy, Tony,” I teased him. “We go way back.”

He raised his eyebrows at
me. “Oh yeah?”

I nodded. “Yeah, since high
school... We been best friends for forever but we’re always hot and
cold too...whenever he’s chasin’ some new piece of ass he drops me
like a dirty shirt for at least a couple months...” I shrugged.
“Just the way it is, I guess. I still love him though.”

Ben was giving me the
strangest look.

I eyed him, confused.
“What?”

“
You lost me,” he
admitted.

I sighed. “Well, you know
how it is...most girls are in the habit of ditchin’ their friends
for a while whenever a new man pops into their lives – Tony’s no
different.”

He was still giving me that
same horribly confused expression until something slowly started to
dawn on him. “Whoa...hold up a minute -” He sat up a little further
in his seat.

I laughed. “What?” I was
confused too until something started dawning on me as well and my
eyes went wide. “Don’t tell me you couldn’t tell he’s gay!” I
laughed again, covering my mouth with my hand. “Sorry, I just
assumed...I mean, Tony’s just such a flamer, it didn’t dawn on me
that anyone could think he was straight...”

“
Damn, girl...” Ben sucked his teeth and leaned back in his
seat again, running his hand back over his head for a minute. But
then he sighed. “You had me pretty scared there for a
minute...
Fuck.
” He seemed to be
debating the thought again. Then he eyed me closely. “So you sayin’
your best friend’s a dude – a black guy too – and he’s gay.” He
repeated it.

I sighed. “You don’t have a
problem with that, do you?” I couldn’t hide my disappointment.
Black guys – especially Caribbean guys – generally tended to run in
the opposite direction, or at the very least, voice their grave
“concerns” over the whole idea of my friendship with
Tony.

But Ben just sucked his
teeth at me again, shrugging it off. “No girl, relax...” He smiled
at me. “I don’t got no problem with that,” he assured me. “Just
because I’m a dread from da islands don’t necessarily mean am some
ignorant, homophobic prick or anything…but I understand your
concern,” he threw in, teasing me.