Emilio turned to Bailey. “And what about you? You see anything you like tonight?”
Bailey lowered the menu. “Yeah, just bring me the shepherd’s pie.”
“You have good taste,” Emilio purred.
Bailey looked at me with a smile. “I do, don’t I?”
Emilio glanced between us, and a little sizzle went out of his tone. “Will that be all for now?”
“Yes, thank you,” I said. “We’ve got everything we need.”
Emilio melted away, but not before casting one more longing glance over his shoulder. I nudged Bailey’s ankle. “Looks like I’ve got some competition.”
He blinked. “What do you mean?”
I chuckled. “Did you not notice the way Emilio looked at you?”
Bailey glanced across the pub, where Emilio was pushing through the swinging kitchen door. “He was just being friendly, right?”
“Wow,” I said. “Now I understand why no one else has snapped you up. You’re oblivious to the effect you have on guys, aren’t you?”
Bailey shook his head. “I’ve noticed guys hitting on me before. I just turned them down.”
“Why?” I asked out of curiosity.
“Because they weren’t you.”
My heart stuttered. “B-but we were just friends for a long time. We worked together all summer.”
Bailey shrugged. “And I liked you that whole time.”
Damn. So much time I’d wasted by being too afraid to make a move. We could have been doing this all summer when we weren’t living two hours apart.
Bailey cleared his throat. “Sorry if, uh, that makes me seem too desperate or something.”
“Bailey!” I laughed a little and grasped his hand on the table. “If you were desperate, so was I. I’ve liked you for a long time too. I was just…a coward.”
“I guess we both were.” Bailey rolled his eyes. “There were so many nights when we were working on Monarch that I wanted to just jump you and break the tension.”
“You named your car Monarch?”
“Seemed fitting. She transformed like a butterfly.”
“I like it.”
We reminisced about our hours working in close proximity and how damn tempted we both were during those sweet summer nights, and before we knew it, Emilio had returned with our entrees.
He set our plates down and warned us they were hot.
“Let me know if I can get you anything else,” he said with a polite smile. “I’ll check in before I clock out.” He looked directly at Bailey. “My shift ends at nine thirty.”
Bailey broke his crust with a fork. “Thanks. Looks great.”
Emilio sighed and sashayed away. I laughed quietly as I cut into my porkchop.
“Don’t say it,” Bailey said. “I noticed. I just don’t care.”
“No?”
