I resisted the urge to bring my fingers to my lips. “I’m making friends.” It wasn’t exactlyalie.
“I know I’ve messed up. But it’s really good to see you with a smile on your face, even if I’m not the one responsibleforit.”
I stopped in my tracks. This wasn’t the first time my dad had said something along those same lines. Most of the time, I was too upset to listen. Even now, I wasn’t quite ready to forgive, but I realized I wasn’t angry either. Not in thismoment.
“Thanks,dad.”
“Believe it or not, Katie,” he said, using my actual name and not my nickname. “I do want what’s good for you. I’m hoping you’ll give me a chance to be your dad again. Until then, I’m herewaiting.”
Whoa. This was weird. Last night I had the best kiss of my life. This morning, my dad and I were having something resembling a heart-to-heart.
Maybe I’d get a lottery ticket with the winning numbers as a tip today. Right now, nothing seemedimpossible.
“I gotta go to work,” I said, grabbing a banana instead of sitting down for a full breakfast with my dad. “But maybe we can talk morelater.”
“I’d love that. I mean it, Katie. I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk,” he said as I walked out the door to gotowork.
I was giddy the entire drive, barely able to contain the excitementIfelt.
Knowing I wasn’t alone in this attraction, I couldn’t wait to see him. Would he finally shed the act and show his playful side at work? Or would he be stoic still, and save that part of himselfforme?
I walked into work with a grin on my face. I didn’t know what to expect from Julian, but I knew I was ready to explore this budding relationship with him. I wasallin.
Julian had opened the diner that morning, which meant he was already there when I came in. I saw him working behind the window and took a moment to admire those stupid arms of his. This time I didn’t care if I got caught. Spying on him from a distance wasn’t cutting it though, so I went back to the kitchen to see him beforeclockingin.
“Hey, you,” I said, walking upbehindhim.
“Hey.” He smiled back me. Seeing his face lit up like that, I determined I liked happy Julian much than the bad boy he pretended to be. “I was wondering when you’dgethere.”
“My shift starts ateleven.”
“Oh, good,” he said looking up at the clock. “You’re early, which means I can show you something in the walk-in reallyquick.”
“Huh?” I didn’t have any part of the food prep or ordering and couldn’t figure out what he’d need to show me. I didn’t move, standing awkwardly in the middle of the kitchen, looking backathim.
“Just come here, Katie,” he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me alongwithhim.
The walk-in was a giant refrigerator that held all of the meat and dairy products, along with anything else that couldn’t sit out at room temperature. I rarely went in it, except to get new salad dressing or sometimes whipped cream forshakes.
It was cold and poorly lit. My mind had the pesky habit of imagining the worst case scenarios. I thought of all the possibilities. What if the door closed and I got locked in? I always got nervous whenever I had to grab something out of it. The fact the door didn’t have locks or even a doorknob didn’t ease my irrationalanxiety.
But hand in hand with Julian, I was more curious than nervous. Plus, if I got locked in, I wouldn’t bealone.
“Okay, here I am,” I said, once inside “What did youwantto–”
I didn’t get to finish my question before his lips found mine. It was over just as quickly as it started. Nothing raunchy, just a sweet way to start myshift.
“Oh.” Any coherent thoughts that were in my head left the instant his lipstouchedmine.
“I just had to do that now so I could focus on orders during lunch,” he said, cupping my cheek. “I’m looking forward totonight.”
“Metoo.”
“But right now I’m going to get back out there before Mike realizes I’m missing and decides tocomehelp.”
“I should get out there too. Looks like it’s pretty busyalready.”
Thankfully, no one saw us walk out together. I could just hear the rumors that would start from that. I could imagine everyone’s differentreactions.
