“Is that all?” she said with finality.
Yikes, thought Sean,she must think I’m a creeper or something.
“Yes, Ma’am.” He nodded.
“Have a nice day,” she said and pressed the automatic door. It swung open and Sean exited as quickly as possible.
He got back in his Jeep and headed home. He spent the next several hours going over inventory reports and placing orders with his meat and dairy suppliers. Instead of his usual laser focus on his work and making sure all the numbers were balanced, he could not get Nicole out of his head. Did she eat the lunch he made? What did she think of the note? Would she call him? Text him? What if she didn’t respond at all? This was not like him. First of all, why was he worried? Of course, she’d call or text him. She was a nice person. She wasn’t the type of person who wouldn’t bother to say thank you, even if she wasn’t interested. Too bad Mable was in class; otherwise, he’d text her to give her the update and maybe she’d be able to talk him off the ledge he’d been perched on.
He heard his phone vibrate and ran over to the counter where it was charging.
Our records show that you are due for a six month teeth cleaning, please call Dr. Dave today at 800-GOT-EETH or clickhere!
“Ugh!” He groaned and then clicked to schedule his cleaning. He made a note on his master calendar and then it was time to give Hermie his special betta fish food.
“Hey buddy, what do you think? Think she’ll go out with me? I agree. I am quite the catch. Oh yes, I see what you did there. Nice pun, buddy. I’m losing my mind here, Hermie. I’m going to go work in the garden.”
Sean drove the short distance from his apartment over to the restaurant. Right behind the back of the restaurant was his pride and joy—a small group of three raised garden beds and a compost bin. The season was winding down, but his herbs were still producing well. He was hoping to keep the sage, thyme, and lavender going outdoors until December, but he was going to need to start transplanting some of the herbs into pots to move indoors for the winter.
He talked to his plants as he watered and weeded, thanking the heirloom tomato plants for being especially productive this year. It looked like he’d be able to harvest some deep purple beets this week just in time for the special menu he was working on for Jasper’s Oktoberfest kick off dinner. “Y’all look fantastic and are going to be delicious as a side with some vinegar and caraway seeds.” His stomach rumbled; he’d forgotten to eat lunch.
If anyone overheard him, they’d probably think he was crazy for talking to his plants; then again, these days they might assume that he had headphones in and was on his phone. Speaking of his phone, he’d left it in his Jeep so he could focus on his garden, and now he was itching to see if Nicole had contacted him. He quickly put away his gardening tools.
His stomach growled again, and he considered going inside to make himself a sandwich, but he tried not to go into the restaurant when it was closed. It was too easy for him to pop in for a quick sec, and then find himself leaving hours later. He’d experienced restaurant burnout before and that had led to a bout of mono and the loss of his first executive chef job. He wasn’t going down that path again. “Work to live, not live to work,” he said and walked past the front door of Jesse’s Pub and over to where he had parked.
As soon as he got in the driver’s seat, he picked up his phone and there it was, a text from a local number that wasn’t assigned to a contact. It was her! Butterflies filled his stomach as he unlocked his phone; he hadn’t been this nervous about a girl since he was in high school.
Hi Sean! Thank you for a delish lunch! Tomorrow at four works for me!
Sorry this is Nicole, in case you didn’t know who it was.
His chest felt like it was going to burst; he was so excited. She said yes to date!
SEAN: Great! Can’t wait to see you at Common Grounds tomorrow at four. (Smiley face emoji)
He tossed the phone back in the passenger’s seat and drove home singing along with the radio. He had a good feeling about this, about her.
Chapter Six
NICOLE
Nicole walked back into the office and plopped down in front of her desk. A takeout box sat on top of her keyboard. A card with her name on it was attached to the top of the box.
“What’s this?” she asked her co-worker Nancy.
“Delivery from Jesse’s Pub. He said it was a gift,” Nancy said quickly as the office phone rang.
Nicole’s heart thumped. Could it be from Sean? It had to be! No one else would be sending her something from Jesse’s Pub. If this was some sort of motivational ploy from Devin to get her to call Sean, she was going to kill her.
She opened the envelope and pulled out the card. Opening it she didn’t even read the words; she just scanned down to the signature at the bottom,Sean H. Her breath quickened with excitement. “Oh my gosh,” she said quietly. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.”
She took a deep breath and then read the note from Sean:
Dear Nicole,
I’m afraid I might have come across a little too strong the other day. I prepared this charcuterie to apologize and I’m looking for another opportunity to ask you out for tea.
Are you free for tea tomorrow afternoon? Say four p.m.? If that doesn’t work for you, we can pick another time.
