Oh. That could go horribly, horribly wrong. There was a window of opportunity to tell her the truth, but he hesitated. Would she really want to know? If it had been his Abi sitting in front of him, he would've come clean, but this Abi? She'd intended a one night stand, and now they were having coffee. She might think it odd for him to mention it, and she certainly wouldn't understand why Isabel would have any kind of problem with her. Even Ernest had trouble getting his head around that one, and he knew a lot more of the details. "Sure, it's good to meet people," he said cautiously.
"Well, really I only have myself to blame for your level of inebriation, don't I? The Cuban's don't do weak cocktails, and neither do I," he chuckled. She'd handled herself admirably, he didn't recall her being too drunk, but then he'd not exactly been sober either. "I think it would somewhat lose it's appeal with lukewarm coffee in a food court, anyhow," he joked, swirling the contents of his cup and knocking it back like a shot.
"Like hell I don't," he muttered, certain that he looked absolutely ancient. He felt it, most days. "My secret is that someone once showed me what I'm meant to look like in my fifties, and I told myself that wasn't going to be me," he explained, even though it sounded completely insane. She was going to be getting used to things sounding completely insane before long anyway.
"Constructive criticism is really hard to digest sometimes, but you're right of course. It's the only way to improve. Empty flattery achieves very little." He'd hated and adored Gertrude Stein for that reason, although she was stoic and unmoved by his misdirected frustration and anger, the very definition of cruel to be kind. He'd go crawling back to apologise for his outburst once he'd actually tried the edit and of course, found her to be right.
He had been sure that he had caught the look reflected back at him, but the moment was over all too quickly. God, he was definitely going to have to go for at least another kiss from her before the afternoon was through. If he could just get the odd sign of affection, the occasional thrill where he could, it would be like his reward for his patience and perseverance. Stop that feeling of desperation from getting too much.
"You'd be crazy not to at least consider it," he agreed, sliding out of the booth to begin their walk. To where, he had no idea. "I'm happy to exchange stories and provide chocolate cake that other people baked and I took for free," he told her, holding out a hand for her.
"Well, sure. But you know I'm just going to stubbornly take your side regardless," he told her. He knew that none of her previous boyfriends had been anywhere close to worthy of being with her. He often doubted he was really worthy of her either, but he was at least trying to be. He knew that she wouldn't see herself that way, though. "Uh, no, I don't have much of a clue. I know the food court, a couple of the parks..." he wasn't going to mention the viewing platform, he didn't want to take her there. "We can wander, discover some place new together. Maybe leave a trail of breadcrumbs just in case."