She nodded. “Do you have any questions for the one ambassador sitting in front of you?”

She knows how to take the piss as well. “I don’t know if I’m dating one right now,” he said carefully.

“I’m definitely black,” Antonia said.

Aiden rolled his eyes in reply.

“As far as your dear mother is concerned, we’re on a date,” she said. “So technically, you are in fact dating a black woman.”

She had him there. Was it this easy to talk to her? Aiden couldn’t remember a time where he had a rolling banter with a woman that kept his busy mind captivated. Antonia was, in a word, captivating. “Mmh, well if we’re technically dating... How do you get your hair to do that?”

Antonia promptly laughed at him. Loudly. “That’s seriously your first question?”

“Sure?”

“What exactly is my hair doing?” she asked, patting the curls near her face.

“It’s not doing anything, it’s very pretty,” Aiden tried to sound intelligent about it. “It’s just, well I wondered, what do you do to it? What kind of products do you use?”

She shook her head, returning to his phone. “Oh this is telling,” she said with a breathy laugh.

“No, no,” he said, sitting up. “Not telling. I’m just curious, is all. It’s one of my favorite things about you, really.”

“I use shampoo and conditioner like everyone else.”

“Well it’s gorgeous,” Aiden said, taking another drink. He now felt mildly embarrassed by his novice question. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth, please.”

“Have you ever dated a, erm, white man?”

Antonia handed his phone back to him before taking a gulp of her whiskey. “Of course,” she said. “And I don’t need to know more about you guys.”

While trying to rattle her for the fun of it, she managed to turn his game back on him. In the low lights of the restaurant, her clear brown skin was flawless. The way her white teeth glinted when she smiled at him made Aiden crave her laughter even more. She was beautiful and outwitted him when he least expected. Aiden wondered if he was in love with her. “Nothing more?” he asked.

She gave a low and earthy chuckle as she held her glass to her cheek. “I’m a black woman who learned to play the higher education game before she had to play the business world game. I know white people.”

“Fair,” Aiden returned. “I think that’s fair.”

“Sorry,” she said. Her smile dipped slightly. “I’m not trying to generalize. It’s just that there’s a lot of explaining to do when you date a white person. I dated a lecturer from grad school before I took up with Derek. And I had to do a lot of correcting.”

“Why would you date a lecturer?” Aiden asked.

“He was cute and he liked my writing.”

“That feels like it crosses some kind of boundary,” Aiden said. “You were a still a student.”

She cocked her head and stared him down. “Oh really? Says the man who was secretly dating his colleague for two years?”