“I’m sorry, Jiya. I can’t disclose that information yet. I hope you understand,” he said with a slight curl of his lips. “However,leave me your number and the folder. I’ll hand it over to him, and if he has any questions, I’ll call you.”
I slowly nodded.
Defeat washed over me, but I tried not to let it show. I had walked in carrying momentum and hope, and now both felt as though they had stumbled.
Still, this was not a no.
Not yet.
I scribbled my name and number on a sticky note and handed it to Jack.
I’m sure I can convince the owner, too, if I could just speak to him.Closing my eyes briefly, I whispered a quick prayer in my mind before stepping out of the restaurant.
I hope this works.
I climbed into my car and drove away.
6
COLE
Jack walked over to my corner table after Jiya left.
“So, what do you think?” Jack said, rubbing his chin after explaining Jiya’s deal and handing me the folder. “I think this could be a good thing,” he continued. “She seems to be optimistic and enthusiastic. I have a good feeling about her.”
Jack always had good feelings about people. I knew the man standing in front of me did not have a single bad bone in his body. If he did not like someone, he would simply remain civil and walk away. That was just who he was. Jack looked for decency in people, even when life gave him every reason not to. Maybe that was why Eva had trusted him so quickly. Maybe that was why he was still here when everyone else had chosen distance.
A knot formed in my belly as I looked at him.
I was not convinced by anything Jiya had said to Jack. I had watched her walk into the restaurant earlier, clutching her laptop and that folder like it was her lifeline. Then I watched her walk out with her chin lowered to her chest. There had been too much desperation in the way she held herself, too muchdetermination packed into too small a frame, as though sheer force of will were the only thing keeping her upright.
“I don’t think so,” I said. I turned and looked out the window. My eyes narrowed as I watched Jiya walking toward her car. “I reject her proposal. I don’t trust her.”
How could she just come in here and think she could take over my restaurant? Just because she did not have a job anymore, how could she think about pushing herself into my place?
The restaurant was heading toward bankruptcy. I knew that. It was hard for me to let it go. When Eva ran it, it had been a success, but now the empty tables spoke for themselves. What once made me eager to wake up every morning and work beside my wife now felt like a burden hanging around my neck. Every chair, every table, every dim corner of the place seemed to whisper her name. Keeping it open felt impossible. Letting it go felt worse.
Jiya’s brake lights glowed red as she pulled away.
I watched as a mother crossed the sidewalk with her daughter.
My mind drifted back to the first time Jiya walked into the restaurant with her son. I noticed her the moment she stepped through the door. Not because she was beautiful—although she was—but because of the way she paused just inside the entrance and scanned the room before choosing a table.
A cloud of sadness seemed to cling to her. I had watched her more times than I cared to admit. She would stare out at the grey sky over the bay. Sometimes she would close her eyes for a few seconds, like she was gathering the strength to keep going. The fourth time she came in was when she told Jack she had lost her job.
I wondered what had happened that got her fired.
I remembered how she had nodded curtly while paying the bill before leaving with her chest thrust forward. That look of determination on her face had caught my attention even though I had tried to ignore it. It had not been arrogance. It had been something fiercer than that. Survival, maybe. Or pride refusing to bow even after being humiliated.
Seeing her walk into the restaurant earlier with a proposal for Jack was something I had not expected. I felt threatened by her sudden interest in my restaurant. Anger surged through me, and I did not know why. Maybe because her interest made this place feel real again. Maybe because if she touched it, changed it, breathed life back into it, I would have to face everything I had let rot.
Life was unpredictable. Things fell apart in seconds.
For the last two years, my emotions had revolved around fury, guilt, and sadness. I knew nothing else. I had grown comfortable inside the loneliness of this dead restaurant because it resembled my life.
I slid the folder back to Jack. “Tell her I’m not interested.”
Jack nodded and returned to the bar.
