Chapter 344

Eric crossed around to the other side of the Uber to open the door for Lucy, which seemed to make her happy. Then things got awkward.

“This is where we’re eating?” she asked, putting on a face like she’d smelled something rotten.

“Yeah,” Eric said. “It’s a nice place. What, is there something wrong with it?”

“No, it’s fine,” Lucy said, but she was clearly put off.

Eric wasn’t interested in playing whatever game she was, so he didn’t beg for her to tell him the truth. Instead, he just took her hand and led her inside. They were almost fifteen minutes late for their reservation so the host had to move some things around and they had to wait to be seated.

That led to Eric counting Lucy sighing loudly almost a dozen times as they sat and waited. Once his name was called Lucy seemed to perk up a little and they were escorted to their seats. Being the gentleman he was, Eric pulled out her chair for her and Lucy preened a little at the pampering.

“I’ll order for us,” he said, taking the menu from her.

Lucy raised her eyebrows at that but seemed to like that he was taking charge. It was a trick he’d picked up from one of the podcast hosts. First, when the waiter came over, Eric ordered a bottle of wine for them to share. It wasn’t the most expensive on the list, but it was a decent $50 bottle.

And then, when the waiter left, he just sat and looked across the table at Lucy without saying anything. He kept himself relatively neutral, maybe with a little smile. It was another trick to show he was comfortable and had the power in the relationship. Lucy was obviously confused for a moment, and then flustered, which was exactly how he wanted her since she had some apologising to do.

“That is so fucked up, Eric,” Sabrina interrupted him.

“What? No, it isn’t,” Eric said. “It’s just Evo Psych. Every relationship has someone who is in charge, and if it isn’t the man then the relationship is doomed to fail.”

“I don’t even know where to start,” you groaned, rolling your eyes.

“Oh come on,” Eric said and gestured between you, Gemma and Sabrina. “You guys can’t tell me that between you two there isn’t one of you who is obviously in charge most of the time?”

“No, there isn’t,” Gemma said. “We talk and we compromise if we don’t agree on something. Communication builds a strong relationship, Eric. Not ... power games.”

“Whatever,” Eric sighed. “I’d bet that one of you wears the pants, you just haven’t realised it yet.”

“I literally cannot imagine how this story could get any worse,” you said.

“Oh, it does,” Eric assured you.

Lucy finally asked how Eric’s week had been.

“Busy,” he said. “I work a lot.”

“Gemma said you have pretty regular hours at the office,” Lucy said.

“Well, any real man has a couple of side hustles going at my age,” Eric said. “The hardest million is the first one, after all.”

“And how’s that going?” Lucy asked. She’d previously shared that she’d dated some guys with trust funds in the millions, and Eric knew that she was making a point of that.