“Do you like Vietnamese food?” Stefanie asked Campbell over the phone. Not that it was the extent of what she liked to cook, but it seemed like a nice way to go for starters, if he was interested. But she was also open to other types of meals she was good at making.
“I like every type of food,” he said diplomatically.
Good answer, she thought, and asked him, “Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?”
Without pause, Campbell said surely, “I’d love to.”
“Terrific. Does seven o’clock work for you?”
“Yes, seven is good.”
“Okay.” Stefanie thought about Curlie. “By the way, you aren’t allergic to cats, are you?”
“Not at all,” he said, then added, “Love cats.”
She chuckled. “Good.”
Stefanie texted him her address while inside her car in the parking lot of a grocery store, where she would need to pick up a few items for dinner now that it had been confirmed.
Two hours later, she had prepared lemongrass chicken thighs, red rice and Vietnamese egg rolls called Cha Gio, to go with white wine and taro rice pudding for dessert.
Hope he likes it, Stefanie told herself after fresheningup. She changed into a floral peach-colored midi shirtdress and slipped on wedge espadrilles.
Campbell arrived right on time, grinning as he came in. “You look great,” he told her at the door.
“Thanks.” Stefanie gave him a once-over, noting that he was wearing a yellow oxford dress shirt, dark gray wool slacks and black loafers. “You clean up pretty nicely yourself.”
He laughed. “It’s nice to have a reason to every now and then.”
“That goes both ways,” she admitted, inviting him inside.
Her cat wasted no time cozying up to Campbell’s pant leg, as if reuniting with an old friend.
Stephanie said, “This is Curlie.”
“Hi, Curlie.” Campbell allowed the cat to run around him playfully before scooting off. He looked around. “Nice place you have here.”
“Thanks.” She smiled softly.
He took a whiff of the food and stated, “Smells wonderful.”
“It’ll taste even better.” Stefanie felt confident enough to be presumptuous in this instance. Till proven otherwise.
“I have no doubt,” he told her coolly. “Can I help with anything?”
“You can pour the wine, if you like,” she replied, pointing out the brown Shaker-style cabinets where the wineglasses were kept.
“Will do.”
As Campbell did that, Stefanie put out the food on themid-century round wooden dining room table. They sat across from each other on brown faux leather side chairs.
“Delicious,” Campbell declared, the moment he bit into a lemongrass chicken thigh.
Stefanie giggled. “Good to know.”Guess I haven’t lost my touch after all, she told herself pleasingly. After he commended her on more of the food, she said to him, “I went to the Braison Family compound this afternoon…”
“Really?” A thick disapproving brow shot up.
She felt the need to explain. “I needed to have a look at where Mia spent her time before what happened to her. And since Bella felt it wasn’t a threatening environment for me to be overly concerned about, I went, hoping to get more insight into the life Mia led.”
