There Was No Seat for Me at the Luxury Restaurant. By Dessert, They Regretted It

actually seeing rather than simply registering.

“Do you trust me?” he asked.

The question was unexpected enough to almost make me laugh. Trust was not a thing I distributed freely, not after years of watching it used as leverage. But the way he asked — straightforward, no charm in it, no flattery — made the instinct to deflect feel unworthy of the question.continue reading …