Jessie looks at him in confusion, while Gavin looks at her expectantly.

“Oh. Ah. Wow. That’s amazing. I never heard anything like that. The baobab. Wow.” She flushes bright red.

I hold back a smile. She wasn’t listening, not at all. I’d bet my bank account on it. She was too focused on me.

“Tell the story about Cambodia,” I say.

Gavin nods. “That’s a good one.”

He moves to take another bite of spaghetti, then stops with his fork hanging in the air. “It was six months ago. I was hang gliding over the jungle, there were some ruins I wanted to see.”

Jessie watches his fork move up and down. He finally goes to twist his fork in the noodles. Jessie follows.

“…the snakebite burned. I had minutes…” Gavin is wrapped up in the memory of meeting Lacey. He doesn’t notice that once again his and Jessie’s forks are attached by a ridiculously long noodle.

But I notice.

So does Jessie.

I reach forward with my fork, ready to cut the noodle.

But Gavin moves his fork up off the plate. Jessie’s eyes widen. She sees my fork coming, so she shoves the spaghetti in her mouth. She starts to suck in the long noodle. I watch it pull taught. Gavin is oblivious. His fork is six inches from his mouth.

Jessie’s eyes are wide. Her lips purse as she pulls on the connecting noodle.

The freaking noodle trick is going to work.

I don’t stop to think. I drop my fork and grab Gavin’s and I shove it in my mouth.

“Hey! What the heck, Will?” Gavin says.

I suck on the noodles. They pull taught and one long sauce covered noodle dangles between Jessie and me.

Triumph fills me.

The noodle between our mouths gets shorter as I suck, pulling us closer. I suck harder. Tug.

Jessie moves forward, closer to me.

Then she panics. She jumps up from her seat. Swipes at the noodle and breaks it in half. Her movement flips the plate of spaghetti over and the noodles and sauce fly onto her dress.

Oh no.

The clattering of the dish on the floor sounds loud in the hushed restaurant. Everything stops as people turn to look at our table.

Jessie stands stunned as noodles slide down the front of her dress.

“And that is how my life was saved and I met my wife-to-be,” says Gavin into the silence.

Jessie turns to look at him, shocked.

He grins and shrugs.

I come around the table. I pull the pocket square from my suit pocket and dip it in the glass of water.

“Here. Let me help.”

The waitstaff rushes over, ready to help clean up.

Jessie looks down at her sauce-covered chest and then back up at me. I hold out the handkerchief like a truce flag.

“Here use this.”