‘I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean it like that.’
‘I know you didn’t. I’m only half serious. But you don’t know who Akira Kurosawa is?’
I shrugged. ‘Am I supposed to?’
‘Rashomon?Seven Samurai?Drunken Angel?’
‘Ohhhhh!’ I said. ‘So you’repretentious.’ Though that was rich coming from me and my food knowledge. But he didn’t know that about me yet.
He smiled and threw a spoon at me and continued to explain Kurosawa to me as we reset our tables.
‘Any other directors I might know?’ I asked.
‘Hitchcock?’
‘Heard of him.’
Gabe groaned. ‘Tarantino, Scorsese, De Palma?’
‘Yes, yes, no.’
‘Didn’t you say you and Ava went to a movie last Saturday? What did you even see?’ He seemed shocked that I knew what movies were – which, okay, fair. I wasn’t really a movie person. In fact, I only tagged along on Saturday because Ava wanted to see the movie and had a crush on the concession guy at the movie theater.
I stopped mid-fork placement and pretended to think. ‘There was … a woman in it. She had hair?’
Gabe flung the silverware on the table with a loud clang, then pulled out a chair and sat down. I laughed as he leaned back in the chair, putting his hands on his head. Sitting down while working was definitely a Natalie No Pas. I was about to scold him, but then I caught myself staring at his arms, flexing around the cuffed sleeves of his tux shirt.
‘As your trainee, I feel a responsibility to give you a crash course in film theory.’
I smiled brightly. ‘Wow. You would do that for me?’
‘All right, enough.’
‘No, when you put it that way it doesn’t sound pretentious at all.’
‘Give me your phone.’
I imitated the proper, well-enunciated voice that Natalie used for scolding. ‘No phones on the floor.’
Still he held out his hand in agimmegesture.
‘What for?’ But I had a feeling I knew what for, and I was already reaching into my pocket. He took my phone and held it up to me. I tried to make a weird face to block the facial recognition, but it failed and unlocked anyway. I looked over his shoulder as he opened the contacts app and added himself to it.
My stomach twitched and the remaining embers of fondness that must have been latent there since we first met – that had been slowly growing since seeing him again – seemed to ignite and spread warmth throughout my body.
‘There.’ He handed my phone back. ‘Now call me.’
‘Meh.’ I locked the phone and put it in my pocket.
Gabe playfully swatted my shoulder, and I pretended to be in pain. ‘Seriously, now, so I have your number.’ Ava – resetting her own section a couple tables over – gave meWhat is going on?eyes.
I called him.
‘Got it.’ He sent me to voice mail and started typing, glancing over his shoulder for Natalie or a host, making sure he wasn’t caught. I was a little nervous, too, truth be told. Maybe a little bit of it was the thought of getting caught and having Natalie refuse to write a good recommendation letter – would she write an anti-recommendation letter? Would she be vindictive enough toblockme from getting into La Mère?
Yes. Absolutely she would.
But the exchange of phone numbers was making me more nervous, in an exciting way. In a stomach-at-a-low-simmer kind of way. If he disappeared again I could still find him. It wasn’t just social media, which maybe he might not check, or he could delete. This was his phone number. If he quit Sunset Estates tomorrow, I could still text him.
