He made a sound like he was agreeing with me. “I think I have a sense of the kind of man you are, Ernesto. That’s why I’m calling you today.”
He sounded so serious, but before he went on I spoke up, “I just want to let you know I’ve got you on speaker, my boyfriend and I are driving back to town from spending the night out in Aurora.”
I looked over at Jude, whose jaw was somewhere down by his feet.
I shook my head and winked at him, mouthing, “It’s fine.”
I don’t fuck with closets, so if this was going to be an issue, I might as well know now.
Mr. Sheridan didn’t miss a beat though. “No problem at all. Were you taking some time off?”
“Yeah, we just did one night at the inn there.”
“Good for you, recharging is important.”
“It definitely is.” I looked over at Jude, a grin on my face, but he just covered his face with his hands and shook his head. He was so fucking cute.
“How can I help you, sir?”
“Well, I wanted to let you know my oldest granddaughter, Riley, just bought me lunch at the food truck of the man who rescued her when she blew out both tires on the way to work a few weeks ago.”
Both Jude and I jumped when he said that. “Riley’s your granddaughter?” I asked, completely floored.
He laughed at my obvious surprise, it was a deep and friendly sound, making a little flame of hope ignite in my chest.
“She is and since I got back from vacation a few days ago she’s been raving about your food. I finally let her take me there today and your staff made me the best burrito I’ve ever eaten.”
I felt a surge of pride thinking of Yin and Ari, those two never let me down.
“I’m really happy to hear you liked our food.”
“Oh, I more than liked it.” I turned and saw that Jude looked as stunned as I felt. My head pounded, as I tried to make sense of what Mr. Sheridan was telling me. “I’ve been wanting to open a place for a while now. Something that appeals to the college students but is also nice enough to attract young professionals and families in the area. Sit down, but casual, good food, good drinks. A small but reliable menu, with a very strong concept and flavors you can’t get anywhere else around here. I think OuNYe hits a lot of those marks.”
I glanced over at Jude again just to make sure he was hearing the same thing I was. He was grinning from ear to ear, which meant this must actually be happening.
“I’d like to talk with you, Nesto. If you’re still interested, that is.”
I had to pull over to the side of the road then, because all the blood was rushing to my head. When I stopped, I exhaled before I responded.
“I’m definitely interested.” I sounded winded. Probably from all the times I’d stopped breathing during the conversation.
He laughed again. “I can meet tonight at six-thirty if you’d like to talk further.”
“I can do that. Where?”
“My office. It’s in the Cayuga building downtown, suite A on the fifth floor.”
“I’ll see you there.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
With that he ended the call, and I sat there for a couple of seconds digesting the last few minutes.
Jude’s yelp startled me out of my stupor. “Nesto, this is huge!”
I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much, but after last night, this felt like fate.
“It sounds promising.” Jude was grinning, his face a reflection of my own excitement. I leaned over and gave him a kiss as I started the car, thinking about all the ways things had changed for me in the last twenty-four hours.
