"That depends on what you're going to do with this."  She leaned close to him and sad with a shit-eating grin, "Dare."

Billy squinted his eyes at Aurora.

He had been a little flirty. She had given as much as he gave her. Now Billy was in a gaming mood. He was in a position where he had been a million times before. The only way Billy ever got out of a situation like this was to out bet the other person. Raise the stakes so high that they could not possibly match them. It was his last resort sort of option, but he wasn't quite there yet. That still meant he had room to raise the stakes before going for the win.

"Give em to me for safe keeping then."

He raised a hand to stop her from saying anything for just a second.

"If you get cold I promise to slip them back to you discretely. After all, we have been in a ladies room together before, twice in fact, without anything untoward happening."

He paused and thought about it.

"We should really consider not making a habit of that actually."

At first, Aurora didn't know what 'em' were... then it hit her like a ton of bricks.  Of course, she had no idea what on earth he was going to do with women's panties.  They were pretty well useless to him - though, for her, it was a powerful tool.  A tease.  As long as he had 'em' then he knew she didn't and his mind would be completely focused on THAT all night long. 

Aurora liked the thought of having that much control over Billy's mind all night long.  Enough to not even hesitate.

"Add it to the list tonight if you like, though honestly, both times did end well for me.  The first time you helped me out of hot water and the second, well, you told me you loved me... so, bathrooms have been good for us.  In fact, it's kinda our thing."

She said raising her bottom up off the seat and reached under her skirt and pulled down the simple white cotton panties from her bottom side, over the knife strapped to her thigh down past her knees and ankles and handed them to Billy as calmly as if she were handing over a cup of tea.

"It's just clothing."  She shrugged.  "Keep them if you like.  A memento from our date, if you like them all that much.  I've got others.  Cuter ones actually.  If I had known there was any chance you'd be seeing them tonight I would have worn prettier ones."

Billy smiled, and drew his handkerchief from his breast pocket, stuffing it into his inside jacket pocket instead.

He then gingerly folded the garment he was given into a neat little square and tucked it away where the handkerchief had been. Nobody else would be the wiser, but both he and Aurora would be unable to forget exactly who held what cards in any given moment.

"It's a dare from me as well I'm afraid, not ready to spill the beans on any truths just yet. You might have to get a drink in me first for that."

He glanced down at his jacket pocket again and winked to Aurora as she decided where to take this next.

Aurora arched an eyebrow and began shaking her head slowly as if amused - but her eyes, behind them the wheels were turning.  Had she just learned something about him?  If she had, well, then she knew exactly what she would dare next but she had to be sure she wasn't misunderstanding what he was doing with his new pocket square.

"So... that's a thing for you then?"  She slid closer to him, a mischievous grin growing on her face.  "Flaunting what you have that other's don't?"

Billy furrowed his brow.

"Huh? What do you mean? Is it this?"

He touched his new trophy.

"That's not flaunting. Nobody else knows what it is. It's just for you and me to remember. I feel good having something like that, that only you and I know. Like a dirty secret. But also, a very private one."

He smiled then.

"But that wasn't exactly a dare, so what is it?"

"Hmmm."  She said nodding, glad he said something to her or she might have dared him to do something highly uncomfortable.  She put a finger on her bottom lip, tapping it as she thought.  She wanted to push back, but this might not be the right place or time.

"We should pace ourselves.  Tell the guys to get in.  It's not much further to The Roma Cafe.  We'll grab a bite to eat and I'll come up with your dare somewhere along the way."

She put her hand down on his thigh and sat forward, crossing her legs.  She could feel his eyes on her while she did.  Billy tapped on the window with his knuckles and the guys climbed back in.  A moment later, the car was pulling back onto the road and driving down into the street.

The car rolled eastward closer and closer towards the river until at last a two-story red brick building appeared.  Set on the corner of a street it had windows and doors on both streets, covered by red and white striped awnings.  A massive sign jutted out from the corner of the building, visible on both streets that read in crimson letters on a field of white - 'Roma Cafe.' 

While the main floor clearly was a restaurant, open windows on the second floor exposed what was definitely living spaces, one even having some laundry hung across an open window, airing dry.  Aurora smiled at all the obviously Italian people milling about in front of and around the side of the business.  This wasn't just some place people came to eat - to many, it was home.  It wasn't going to be fine dining in the sense she was used to, but she knew that Billy's men had (if anything) undersold how special the environment was.

A few street kids came running up, making a fuss in their broken English about the expensive car.  Billy's car wasn't the sort that spent time in places like this.  Looking up and down the street she could see a few vehicles, mostly practical ones meant for work - a few probably owned by families (maybe the owners of this place) but nothing as showy and new as Billy's.  She could understand why the kids were stunned and already in awe of the people within.  It didn't help when Oscar and Charlie got out and opened the door for them like they were royalty.  The kids were pushing each other to see who was coming out.  Charlie was making sure they didn't get close enough to mob her and Billy but Aurora ruined it utterly for him by squatting down to one child's level the instant Billy had helped her up and out of the seat.

"Ciao, ragazzo."  She said to one little boy in overalls and ratty shoes.

The sandy-hair boy beamed at Aurora, "Buon pomeriggio signorina!"

"Ti stai mettendo nei guai qui?"  She teased.

"No, signorina, sono un bravo ragazzo o mia madre mi boxerà le orecchie! Vedere!"  the boy showed Aurora his ear which had an old scar on it.  

Aurora chuckled.  "Sono felice che tu abbia imparato la lezione. Ora cosa dovrei avere per cena?" 

"Ravioli di formaggio di capra Dare loro del pane extra per la salsa! Tutti dicono che è meglio."

Aurora could feel Billy's eyes on her and was confident his men were watching all over the neighborhood for potential trouble.  She knew they were concerned.  Billy and she might have been in a friendly neighborhood, surrounded by people who should love them, but who knew what sort of people might be lucking among them - waiting for a moment just like this.

A buzz among the children was beginning.  Aurora chided herself internally for not having heard it sooner.  That buzz suggested there was no time to visit further with the boy.  It started with the oldest boys, who eventually knocked around some of the younger ones, and caps started to come off... then it was the adults standing around the entrance to the restaurant.  The buzz was simple: 'Don Mastrosimone.' 

Aurora ruffled the boy's hair the way she sometimes did to Will.  She reached into her purse to produced two nickels.  She wanted to give him a dollar but she'd done that once in a neighborhood like this and the boy to whom she gave the thoughtless gift, was beaten so badly for it that he was put into a hospital.  Aurora never forgave herself for that and swore in the future only to give reasonable charity to children.

The boy snagged the silver bits and was almost running instantly screaming out behind him as his friends gave chase, "Grazie, signorina. Grazie!"

Aurora stood up and took Billy's offered arm.  Oscar and Charlie were already urging them towards the door as it was clear they were known here and that only increased the risk for them.

Just inside, an elderly Italian woman was waiting.  She had to be at least 80 (pushing 800 if Aurora was being honest) and while her body was hunched over and frail, her eyes were hard and determined still.  Younger men had followed the old woman out of the kitchen, a fact noted by their aprons and the flour she could still see on the woman's dress.  

One of the young men stepped forward looking at Billy, "Don Mastrosimone, you humble us.  This is my grandmother, the owner of the Roma Cafe, Viola Marazza."

The old woman smiled at Billy. "I miei nipoti mi dicono che sei il Don qui."  With that she reached out and patted Billy's stomach.  Several people looked amused at this but the old woman nodded approving.

She continued, "Grande, ma non morbido. Ti servirò sul piatto di mio marito. Dio riposa la sua anima. È l'unico che farà per te. Possa la casa conoscere solo la pace e la prosperità, don Mastrosimone, e possa un giorno essere piena di figli per portare il tuo buon nome."

Aurora smirked at Billy as the old woman told her grandsons, "Il Don siede dove la sua bella ragazza desidera. Porta il vino. Il suo bicchiere è sempre pieno sotto il mio tetto."

"Sì, nonna." The boys, ranging in age from young teens to nearly thirty said in unison, like a military brigade.  

Aurora looked to Billy and whispered, "I'd dare you to do something here but I'm afraid she'll beat us with a wooden spoon if she catches us acting poorly in front of the Virgin Mother."  

Aurora nodded to small painting of Mary holding Jesus on the wall near them.

"Just pick a seat, I don't care where we sit so long as the guys feel comfortable."

Billy looked about the room and gestured to an empty table near the side wall.

"You know, I would have given those kids some money too right?"

He asked as he pulled her chair out for her.

"Except, I know what it would have been like if some big guy rolled up like me and started handing out cash. Cash would have caused chaos, and I don't carry change around with me any more. Not since I can just carry a roll. Also, it feels good to pay for something and just let people keep the change."

Billy smiled a little as he sat opposite Aurora and then looked around the room. It was certainly homey in the best ways possible. It was like the house he always wanted when he was a kid. People were talking so loud he could barely hear anyone. It was perfect.

"How did you find out about this place? It's just down the street and I've never seen it before."

"Well, I told Marcus and Phil that I wanted to take you out to eat and I needed someplace that made real Italian food.  They were the ones who told me about the cafe, it's history, the Marazza family.  The matriarch they mentioned was clearly the woman we just met.  They say she and her husband had half-a-dozen kids together... most of whom still live in the area.  Many of the employees are grandchildren.  It's my understanding the owner's husband passed away just a few years ago."

Aurora spread her napkin across her lap and smiled at the young waiter who brought up two wines to show Aurora and Billy.  Without hesitation, Aurora picked the Pinot Noir and stated flatly, "We were advised the goat-cheese ravioli is best... please let the owner know we'd like extra bread with it too, if possible?"

The waiter nodded and smiled at Aurora's take-charge attitude.

"My date probably will need a menu though.  I fear he's probably a touch more ambitious than I am."

The waiter handed Billy a menu so he could order extra food if he wished and then left him alone with Aurora to look over the list of food.

"I keep change on me just for children."  She admitted.  "A few years back, when I first visited New York to look at Vassar - I gave a kid a dollar bill.  Poor boy, Thomas is his name.  He was beaten pretty badly for the money.  Ever since then I've realized the importance of tempering my desire to do charity with good sense.  Handing out a stack of bills to someone could fix their problems but it's just as likely to draw attention to them and danger."

She shook her head.

"It's a sad world we live in that you have to worry about the effects of giving charity to children."  She shook her head.  Below the table, she put her foot alongside Billy's.

"In my defense, though, I've spent a lot of time away from the way people REALLY live.  It's only since I've left home that I've started spending time where real people spend their days and caring about how they actually live their lives.  I mean, I always cared, but I had a lot of filters to see the world through.  My parents bled to make sure I didn't wear shoes like that boy outside had, his toes all exposed and not on purpose like mine tonight."

She paused.

"You're a Don, you have more money than you reasonably need to survive comfortably, everywhere you go people love, fear, or hate you... do you consider yourself a success?"  She tilted her head to the side.  "Or do you think of yourself as still striving towards a goal you haven't reached yet?"

Billy put down the menu at the question. He looked at Aurora and thought. It wasn't something he had ever thought of before. He knew business well, but the one thing he knew is that a successful businessman wasn't.

"In life there's still a lot I want. I want to be married. I want a family of my own. I want to come home to my little bambinos and pick them all at once and kiss their little faces, and look up to see my wife walking toward me throwing her apron to the side of the hallway and jumping into my arms. It's harder the longer I stay in this life, but it's also a lot easier every time I see you."

He smiled and then waved a hand at the restaurant.

"From the outside looking in, this place is really successful. So is almost everything I touch. I'm not bragging, it's just how I handle business. It lets me to buy places like this out, but keep them exactly as they are without any touch to change. If I were to buy this place, for example. Whatever food came in to be cooked would be caught or slaughtered that morning. Because I would buy a butcher, and a slaughter house, and a fishing wharf to go alongside it. I would supply this place with everything it needed to bring it up a notch. But the thing about that is, no matter how much money or power I've got it doesn't matter cause there's always something else to be done. You can be a success and still have the gumption to keep pushing. You know that right? You know that there's no way in life to get everything, there's always going to be something out there that you don't have that you want, and you're always going to want to figure out a way to get it. At least, if you're like either one of us you will."

He watched as the waiter came back with a basket of bread. He handed the menu back to the man.

"Whatever the chef feels like making tonight, that's what I'll order. Doesn't matter what it costs, or how long it takes."

That was the one thing Billy loved doing with his time and money. Cooks were real good when you let them do whatever they wanted. It was a very rare night when Billy did not like food if he did things this way.

"I think I'm still waiting for a dare though Roar. I've answered what? Four, maybe five questions? How long you gonna hold out here?"

Aurora forced her smile to stay on the longer Billy talked about the future, a future she didn't necessarily match the image of the one she imagined when she thought of the two of them together.  It was that thought that scared her more than talking about what touches and kisses were or were not allowed between them. 

Not once had she ever considered that he might have some misconception about what sort of life he could expect to have with her in the future.  And yet... Marie had children.  Bella had children.  It was probably unfair of her to think he'd consider she'd do anything but the same thing.  Still, her in an apron?  The very thought of her in a kitchen like a good little Italian wife with 'bambinos' attached to her ankles rankled.  

He looked so happy talking about his dream, and the way he looked at her... oh dear!  It was at this exact moment that Aurora realized they weren't just thinking about the speed of their physical relationship tonight - but things overall were cruising at a blinding speed.  Was she ready for that?  To be more than a serious girlfriend to Billy but potentially his wife?  The old woman had been right - they were young, she much younger than Billy even.  The idea of marriage and kids... it was a lot to think about.

"I didn't realize our game meant that I couldn't talk to you outside of you asking for Truths..."  She smiled but it was half-hearted as her mind lingered on the heavy topics in front of her and now she had to come up with a dare too!

She drew a breath and exhaled before stating, "It is my intention to not kiss you again until we leave this place."  

A genuine smirk began to grow.  

"I dare you to convince me otherwise. Through whatever means you dream up.  You are allowed to say or do anything you wish ... touching is totally allowed ... but if you steal a kiss that doesn't count.  I have to kiss you.  There is a difference.  Do accept or am I $100 richer?"

Billy tilted his head. He had no idea how he was going to pull that off, but he nodded all the same.

"I'll figure something out I'm sure, and if I don't well, then you win anyway so you certainly won't be disappointed."

He leveled an index finger at her then.

"I never said we couldn't talk by the way. I just wanted to remind you is all. And if you want to talk, then we can talk. What about you? You're still going to school, even though you picked this. So what are you going for? What's the point? What are you learning there that's gonna help you out here? Why haven't you just told your mom and dad that you picked, and this is how you want your life to be, and that school isn't gonna help you do this? Or am I completely off here and you're learning something real important that is gonna put you at a leg up over all the other children of two godfather's who was raised by a twice appointed Don and now dating another Don? Seems like you got quite the leg up Roar. Why college?"

He reached out and grabbed a piece of bread and looked around for some olive oil to dip it in.

"Well, learning isn't just to get a leg up in life.  We all learn.  Everyday.  We don't stop learning.  Most folks go through life getting lessons taught to them by the world and other folks.  They don't get a say in the things they want to know and the skills they wish to develop.  Take those kids outside.  They are being taught by the streets, the people on them, the hardships they face... most of the time those kids aren't picking the lessons they learn, the world is."

Aurora shrugged, "My parents, all of them, worked really hard not so that I would have advantages in this thing of ours - but in life.  They gave me the authority to choose what I learn.  That's such a powerful thing.  To not be a passenger on the ride that is our lives, but the driver.  Especially as a woman.  Most women never get a chance to have a say in what they want for their lives.  They're born knowing they have to be someone's wife, and someone's mother... but me, I could do something else if I choose.  I don't have to navigate the course plotted by someone else."

"I'm not saying it's a bad life to be a wife and mother, but can you imagine what your life would be like if you didn't have a say in what you became?  If you didn't have any agency even over your own body?  That another person or God himself, had already decided for you what you would become and one day even your body would not be yours and yours alone?  That you'd have to give it first into the care of another man and then in service to small people you haven't even met yet and get no say in whether you have to carry inside of you for nine months?"

She shook her head, "I've hung out with gangsters my whole life and to hear them talk it's an inconvenience to have to remember to take out the trash or put on their wedding rings in the morning - can you imagine the fuss they'd make if someone told them they had to marry and carry children and that was their only option for their future?  That they must do this or be outcast from their society and looked down on for falling short of everyone's expectations of them?"

She sighed.

"Even at Vassar, this purportedly forward-thinking institute of higher education for women they teach classes on household management and child rearing.  Some call it a finishing school... a place where women of 'good breeding' go to be polished up for husbands in want of a proper mate to bear their offspring... a trophy for their cases ... or mistresses for their beds."  Her tone was dripping with disdain.

"My husband will be proud of me.  He will know I'm strong and smart and capable of making my own choices... and he'll respect them.  And he'll respect me for having the courage to express my hopes and dreams and pursue them.  And he'll support me in doing that.  Just as I'll support him and work my ass off to make his dreams reality too, but it's a team effort.  No one does it alone.  The minute one of us makes all the decision for the other it's no longer a marriage.  And like you said, I come from a proud line of women who did much to ensure I would have choices they didn't have.  I chose to go to college out of respect for that - not to just put tools under my belt."

Aurora took her first drink of wine then, realizing she'd gone off on quite a passionate tirade and hadn't really answered Billy's question at all.  She softened.  Swallowing she met his eyes.  

"I'm sorry.  I just... feel the cause of feminism very strongly.  I greatly admire the suffragettes who fought for my right to have a voice and I take pride in who I am because of people who went before me." 

She reached over and took his hand.  "Please don't mistake my passion for condemnation of wives and mothers.  I can tell that both are important to you and the future as you see it... but I've never seen myself as a particularly gifted nurturer.  I mean... look what I do for a living."  

She chortled.

"My father struggled with the same thing, but he's got a huge heart and he's a genuinely kind soul.  Me... I sometimes fear I'm a darker thing, all wrapped up in the stuff my parents put into me.  I fear I'm more my biological father than anyone cares to admit.  And trust me when I say, it's certainly influenced a lot of my choices in what I'm doing with my life up until now."

She put down her wine.

"As for what I'm in school for ... I'm studying history and literature... as well as business.  One is more practical for our line of work when I have to slow down and can't be in the streets anymore.  Watching my own father trying to cope with the realities of aging... well, I don't want to be in that position without a backup plan one day.  Besides, I love money.  That probably runs in my blood strongly too, from what I hear."

She smirked.

"As for the history and literature part, that's mostly for me.  I enjoy learning about the past and reading so... I figured why not.  It's a heavy workload, but as I have no social life at all, I do have the time... when Mom doesn't have me running from city to city doing jobs for her."

Billy nodded as he listened. Everything Aurora was saying was true. It was one of the reasons he picked up so many women to keep in his crew. He didn't know anywhere else they could go to do whatever they wanted. He wanted them to be rich and happy, and everything else would fall where it may. Most of the women in his employment, didn't even have a lover, let alone kids and a family.

Not for the first time Billy realized that this life was not the best one for child rearing. But Bella had done it, and she did it with Aurora of all people. Billy couldn't think of any woman in the world who he would look up to more than Bella. And he couldn't think of any woman in the world he wanted to be closer to than Aurora. So why the hell not be allowed to have kids? Besides, it wasn't a notch in his belt. It wasn't about the good Italian family. He really did want kids. He wanted to surround himself with the loving family he never had growing up. La Cosa Nostra was one kind of family, but he wanted the blood kind.

He nodded and listened. And for once, Billy said nothing in return. He took a page from Gavin's book, and advice from Aurora. He stayed quiet and let his size do all the talking.

After all, Aurora hadn't asked his opinion.

Aurora expected Billy to say something but he'd said nothing.  She cleared her throat uncomfortably wondering if maybe she'd stepped in again.  "Well ... I guess while we wait for dinner to come and um, for you to finish that dare, I can pick truth?"  

The waiter approached them and put down a small plate of bruschetta.

"An appetizer," he explained to Billy who had instructed them to bring him whatever the chef wanted to send.

Aurora picked up a small bit of the bread covered with moist mozzarella, diced tomatoes, and olive oil.  A variety of herbs and spices could be seen as well but Aurora had no idea which were which, at least not by looking at them.  She popped it into her mouth and smiled.  It was HEAVENLY!

She pushed the plate towards Billy, silently encouraging him to try it while she chewed.

Billy picked up a piece of the bruschetta while he was thinking.

"Alright, truth."

He popped the appetizer into his mouth and chewed giving himself time to think of a question. The woman in front of him was a puzzle inside of a puzzle, and he had no idea what the first question should be. He already knew a lot about what time they spent together, and about her family. He knew about her parents, and now why she kept going to college after she'd been brought in. So what the hell was he supposed to ask? What could he possibly begin with? He wanted to know something, a secret, something real. And then it hit him all at once like a ton of bricks. He wasn't going to ask that now. Tonight was supposed to be a good night, so he shook his head.

New questions.

"Alright." He said swallowing. "Hmm, that's really good by the way." He dabbed his face with his napkin and then continued. "If you could read me one book, because to be honest with you I am not a big reader. I can't sit still for that long. But if you could pick one to read out loud to me of all people, what would it be and why?"

Aurora blushed, "Thérèse the Philosopher by Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens comes to mind but I wouldn't make it through the first chapter reading that aloud to you.  I would most certainly die of embarrassment or you'd become convinced I was wholly inappropriate for that image of the future you described just a bit ago."

She laughed.

"One of my favorite books is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas.  I'm not sure I'd read it to you though as I'm not entirely certain you'd appreciate it as much as I do.  My enjoyment of the story comes as much from how I found the book as it does the story's content."

She shrugged.

"I suppose I'd ask you the sort of story you'd like me to read.  If you were interested in romance I'd read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.  It's one of my favorites in that genre. It's about a pair of lovers who have a similar problem to us... though not precisely the same.  Just an inability to communicate easily and a deep unabashedly passionate desire for one another from the first moment they saw each other."

She smiled.

"If you wanted adventure... well, I might read the Time Machine by HG Wells or Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne.  Both are very well written and widely regarded as being prime examples of their genre."

She leaned in towards him, "Though... I have a special place in my heart for The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood... and Arthurian stories.  You know, stories of good King Arthur and his knights."  

Her eyes lit up as she spoke of these stories.  "Noble deeds, honorable heroes, dastardly villains.  You always know what you're getting into with those... much easier than real life but still, a fun story to lose yourself in.  I used to imagine what it would be like to be in one of those stories... back when I was a little girl.  Castles and Kings, sword fights... even the pretty dresses and parties."

She chuckled. 

"Did you know my parents had their wedding reception at a King's summer home outside Paris, France?"

Billy shook his head and chuckled.

"How would you expect me to know a thing like that?"

He was hooked on one thing though, and he wasn't going to let it go.

"How does that one end? Pride and... something... you said it. It was about people like us. How does it end?"

Billy felt himself leaning forward in his seat a little bit. He stiffened a bit at that and then relaxed his way back in the seat again. It was one thing to be interested, it was another thing to let your body language give you away. He had given up the ghost. He was bad a poker for a good reason.

"Well, Pride and Prejudice is a story about two young people.  Lizzie Bennet is one and she's ... well, the pride half of the story.  She comes from a poor family  She's one of five daughters, the second oldest, and her mother is trying very hard to match her girls up with suitable husbands.  Her reason for doing so is, simply put, so they won't end up destitute spinsters in a time when there was less than nothing to do with an unmarriageable girl."

"The prejudice half of the story is Mr. Darcy."  She smiled warmly saying his name.  Clearly, Aurora likes the Darcy character.  "Darcy is rich.  Ridiculously so and as the story opens he's come with his friend Bingley to open up Bingley's summer home and throw a party.  Mrs. Bennet decides that she's going to take her girls to this party and find them, suitable husbands if it's the last thing she does."

The food was brought to the table just then and Aurora stopped summarizing the story to take in the sight and smells of the delightful creations of Viola and her family.  Truly it was remarkable!  She knew she'd have to do something nice for Phil and Marcus after such a great suggestion.  Once the waiters left, Aurora continued her summary.

"Well, Bingley falls in love with Lizzie's older sister and she with him ... but Darcy is prejudiced against poorer people and those who aren't socially elegant and basically convinced Bingley to dump Lizzie's sister.  And despite a ridiculous amount of lust between the two characters of Darcy and Lizzie... well, she can't forgive him for doing such a boneheaded thing even though he tries to propose marriage to 'save her' from her lower station in life."

Aurora shakes her head.

"Of course, prideful Lizzie is horribly insulted by Darcy and she rejects him utterly.  And the story takes us the readers through the whole crazy events that eventually lead to Lizzie and Darcy marrying and living happily together."

She smiles.

"It has a very good ending... but to be perfectly honest, both of them did a lot of stupid and hurtful things to each other through a lack of empathy and good communication."

Billy nodded before he bowed his head and said his grace. He picked up his utensils and began eating. Once again, Aurora hadn't asked him anything, so he wasn't going to offer up information she hadn't asked for. More importantly than that though, Billy still had a dare to figure out.

In this moment though, he wasn't sure he wanted to. He could go the rest of dinner without kissing her. That would mean he would have failed though. And she hated that. Maybe that was the real dare though. Would she still want to be around him if he willingly gave up?

One way to find out.

He put his fork and knife down, and took out one of the rolls of money he had stashed away on his person. He slowly peeled off ten hundred dollar bills and slid them across the table to her.

"You win."

He picked up his utensils again and then began to eat again.