“I can’t picture this café without you,” I said, wiping down the counters one last time before I took my lunch break. “You’re the only one who could convince the coffee supplier to give us that Ecuador roast that half this building seems to love.”
“Right. Robert at the Bean Hill always needs some special handling.” Carolyn smiled a bit sadly. “But Will is family, and I know him and his capabilities better than any odd nurse who might come in to take care of him.”
I washed my hands and dried them.How will The Java Hobby run without Carolyn?
I got a text on my phone, and I checked it surreptitiously.
It was from Rishi.
Rishi:I’m here and waiting.
Ava:Be there in five.
I grinned as I waved to Carolyn and walked out of the building.
I looked in both directions before I crossed the street at the traffic light, walking the short distance to a French bistro at the corner of the street.
Rishi and I had been texting often since the night of the party, but this was the first time we’d be meeting again. Our lunch began with inappropriate references to that night.
“You were the talk of the party, Ava,” he said as we stood in line. “Everyone wanted to know who the woman next to Desmond was.”
“Hush,” I said, feeling my neck go warm as I took a quick look around.
We weren’t in Luxe Hotels’ offices, but it still felt weird, discussing any of this in a public place. Rishi’s long brown eyelashes fluttered, and his lips showed no signs of slowing down.
“I told them you were a distant but inbred cousin of a very violent royal family from a miniscule European nation. That shut them up.”
Even I had to laugh at that. “I have to give it to you—you have the most creative ideas I’ve ever heard of.”
“Well, that’s a pity because I’m an actor, not a screenwriter. Now, let’s look at the menu before the handsome cashier gets impatient with us.”
He thrust a menu at me, and I ran my eyes over the list. I shook my head when I got to the second item on the menu.
“I’m so not ordering snails,” I muttered just as Rishi exclaimed, “Escargot all the way!”
We met each other’s gaze over the menu and laughed.
“We really ought to hang out more often.” He grinned as we reached the head of the line.
He turned and gave a bright smile to the cashier, who looked back at us with a slowly widening smile. Rishi puffed his chest out just a little bit more.
“I’ll get the salmon risotto,” I said, getting my wallet out. “And escargot for him,” I said as I paid for the two of us.
I never usually ate out at places like this, but I was desperate to meet Rishi and talk, and this was a compromise. As I looked around the place, I was reminded that it had been a while since I had eaten out at a dine-in restaurant. Once a week, I had a takeout meal in the comfort of my home, and the rest of the time, when I hadn’t been working at Mom’s restaurant, I cooked. It was much cheaper.
Rishi bent his head and said in a low voice from thecorner of his mouth, “I spy two chairs that are empty by the window. Quick, grab them while I charmingly but politely oblige this cashier, who is most definitely going to ask me for a selfie.”
I found the seats. Rishi was partly right about having to take a picture for the cashier. Rishi just wasn’t in it.
But it didn’t seem to dampen his mood.
“Happens all the time,” he said, walking back after taking a picture of the cashier and the bartender high-fiving each other. “Usually, they mistake me for Kal Penn, and sometimes, I have pretended to be him just to have someone take a picture of me.”
He shrugged while I must have looked shocked. “I’m vain and not embarrassed about it,” he said with a flippant wave of his hand.
“It’s been two weeks, but I still can’t believe we were at a party that Desmond was at. His looks beat everyone else’s by a mile,” Rishi said once we sat down on the chairs by the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked out at the small garden that bordered the bistro. He turned his attention to me. “So, give me all the deets. Are you and Desmond lovers? Ex-lovers? Future lovers?” Rishi asked. “What’s with all those intense looks the two of you shared? And how is his date from that party dealing with being replaced?”
“Desmond is helping me press charges against a man called Kyle Whitby, who embezzled from my mom’s restaurant. And for the record, that woman wasn’t Desmond’s date at the party,” I insisted.
