Innocence (Tales of Olympus #1)(13)

She gasped and sat down, grabbing the seat of the chair and scooting herself in. “Thank you.” She ran a hand nervously through her hair as she smiled up at him.

Her plate was covered with a fancy silver plate topper. She lifted it off and steam wafted up. “Oh!” she said, surprised again. Marcus chuckled as he sat down across from her.

“I hope you don’t mind but I took the liberty of ordering for us. Roasted lamb shank, corn and leek grits, ruby chard, roasted rutabaga, topped with goat cheese.”

“Oh,” Cora said, yet again, nodding and looking down at her plate, eyes wide. She didn’t think she’d ever seen such a large piece of meat. At least not on a plate set in front of her.

“You aren’t a vegetarian, are you?”

“No,” she said quickly. She and Mom did mostly eat vegetarian, but it hadn’t been due to any choice on Cora’s part. That was the point of leaving, wasn’t it? So that she could finally have choices in her life?

Cora smiled and reached for her fork…only to find there were several forks. She grabbed the one nearest the plate and smiled wider. “Cheers,” she said, lifting the fork like it was a wine glass she was toasting with.

Marcus chuckled again and she averted her eyes to her plate, digging into the lamb shank. It was so well-cooked and tender, it melted off the big bone. Tentatively, she lifted it to her mouth.

And almost embarrassed herself even more by moaning out loud. She stopped herself at the last second but holy crap.

Her eyes flew to Marcus and as soon as she finished chewing and swallowing the bite, she couldn’t help saying, “Oh my gods, that’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my entire life.”

He sat back in his chair, brow wrinkled like he’d never seen anything like her before. He hadn’t touched his food yet.

“Aren’t you going to have yours? It’s delicious. Trust me.”

“Oh I don’t doubt it,” he said. “I’ll give your compliments to the chef.”

She nodded as she eagerly forked another big bite. “Please do,” she said before shoving the forkful into her mouth. Dear gods, this was what she’d been missing out on the last nineteen years of her life? Now she had even more to begrudge her mother. It was a crime to have never encountered food this good before.

Her mom was a fan of boiled vegetables. And rice. Plain white rice. Food was fuel, that’s what her mom always said. Just fuel.

“Wait till we get to dessert,” Marcus said, finally taking a bite of his food, his eyes never leaving her.

“What’s dessert?”

“Chocolate mousse.”

Cora fought against licking her lips. She adored chocolate.

“So tell me. What made you change your mind and come back?”

“Oh.” Obviously her favorite word for the evening. “Well I went by my former employers to pick up my, um, paycheck and my belongings but there was, um…”

Cora looked towards the window. “…a little bit of an issue.” She glanced back Marcus’s way and then down at her plate. “Anyway, I wasn’t able to get my paycheck or any of my things. They’d already thrown them out. And I lost my phone last night when that man… So I didn’t have anyone’s phone number because they were all in the phone and I didn’t know where to go without any money…”

She shoved another bite of lamb shank into her mouth if only to cut herself off from saying anything else. She hazarded another glance at Marcus. He had his glass of wine in his hand but he set it abruptly down on the table, frowning. “They didn’t give you the money they owed you?”

Cora swallowed the meat and reached for her cup of water. All the sudden she felt hot. She fanned herself with her other hand. Did he feel like it was hot in here?

Marcus was still staring at her, obviously expecting an answer, so she shook her head, three quick shakes back and forth.

It was embarrassing enough experiencing it the first time around, but now having to tell Marcus seemed like adding insult to injury. She didn’t know what was worse, him knowing all the details of her pathetic situation or thinking she was a mooch, eager to eat his fancy food and sleep in his fancy penthouse hotel suite.

“That’s not acceptable.”

The dark look that crossed his face on her behalf both pleased and scared her a little.

She quickly waved a hand. “It’s one of those things that happens, I guess. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

“But surely you have some money in the bank?”

Gods, could she die of embarrassment?

“I don’t have a bank account. I kept it all in cash.”

She could feel his eyes on her even without looking up. “And, well, I don’t exactly have an ID either. Or a social security number. My mom’s kind of…intense, I guess is one way to put it. I grew up way out in the middle of nowhere on a farm and my mom homeschooled me and everything. Mom wanted to be off the grid.”

Cora fiddled with her fork in her grits. “Like, really off the grid. Apparently she even gave birth to me at home and never, you know, got a birth certificate or social security card or anything for me.”

Cora braced herself and finally looked up at Marcus. But she couldn’t read a single thing from his features. It wasn’t that his face was blank—his eyes were lit with interest, but he didn’t look as shocked or appalled as she’d expected. It gave her the courage to go on.