“I think I do. What are your roots?”
“Italian. My family name is actually Primus. I changed it because I thought Prime was snappier. Easier to remember.” He folded the first omelet as he placed it on the plate. It was picture-perfect. Then he did the second one. He sprinkled them both with a little fresh parsley and brought them over. “Your breakfast.”
She smiled. “That looks and smells like something that’s going to ruin me for every other omelet I’m ever going to eat.”
He laughed as he took the seat next to her. “High praise considering you haven’t tasted it yet.”
She dug in and tried a bite. It was creamy, salty, meaty, and utterly delicious. She groaned as she chewed. “How did you do that? It’s amazing. Holy cow. Or, in this case, pig.”
He grinned, clearly pleased with her response. “I’m glad you like it.”
“Like it? I want to be in a long-term relationship with it.”
He laughed again and picked up his fork. “You’re pretty good for my ego.”
“You’re going to be terrible for my waistline.” She glanced at him. “Assuming that you cook for me again.” That was awkward. She’d just made things weird and didn’t know how to undo that.
“I don’t think you need to worry about that. I’ll cook for you whenever you want.”
“Yeah?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
Was he being serious, or did he just really want a logo done? She wasn’t sure.
He ate a bite of his food. “I cook so much and I never have anyone to share it with.”
She had to ask the question burning inside her. “How do you not have a wife or girlfriend? How?”
“I had a girlfriend. She even became a fiancée.” He drank his coffee. “I thought things were great between us. Then the pandemic hit, and life became strange and isolated and everything changed. Come to find out, she’d been chatting with other guys online, things got serious with one of them, and she left me for him. Didn’t say anything to me, just ghosted me. Stopped taking my calls, stopped answering my texts, blocked me on social media, the whole nine yards.”
“What?” Frankie was appalled. “Who does that?”
“Marina did.” He shook his head and stared off at nothing. “To say that left me with a bitter taste in my mouth would be an understatement.”
“I’d think so. I’m sorry that happened to you. I feel like I should apologize on behalf of the women of the world for such a display of bad behavior.”
“You don’t need to do that. I know every woman isn’t like that.”
“And yet you don’t have anyone new in your life.”
He looked into her eyes. “Maybe because the right woman hasn’t crossed my path yet.”
She nodded. “I get that.”
He went back to his food. “Why don’t you have a man in your life? Have you always been single?”
“No, I had a husband, but no more. I have the scars from the big, messy divorce to prove it, too.” She sighed and ate some more of the omelet. She wasn’t going to let Tom ruin that for her.
“What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I don’t mind.” He’d shared. It was only fair she did the same. “He wanted a newer, younger model and our marriage got in the way of that. He took out his frustrations on me and enough was enough.”
“Idiot.” Lucas shook his head. “Not you, obviously. Him. Any man who thinks a younger woman is the answer is an idiot. I know, because I was that idiot.”
She reared back slightly. “What?”
“Marina was twenty-nine years younger than me, and I thought she was this magical creature that I needed in my life. That was so dumb. Iwasdumb. Women her age—most of them, anyway—don’t have a clue who they are or what they want out of life. I learned my lesson the hard way. Pretty on the outside doesn’t always correlate with pretty on the inside.”
