Page 16 of Searching for Love

She’d assumed that he would be the one inhabiting the space. After all, he was the owner. It did make sense as his business manager that she’d have a desk. She’d just never assumed she’d have an entire office. In all the jobs she’d had before, she’d never had an office to herself.

When the room was spotless, she took a few moments to move the desk around, giving the room a bigger feeling than before. Now, if she wanted, she could have a small sofa or two chairs facing the desk.

Lucas poked his head in again. “Nice. The room looks twice the size now.”

“Just wait until I paint the walls. This dirty dark brown makes it feel as if the walls are closing in on you.” She dusted off her hands. “Are you sure you won’t need this space? You are the owner of the restaurant.”

He shook his head. “I have an office upstairs if I need one. There’s also a small room off the kitchen I plan to use.”

“Oh, right, I’d forgotten that there’s an upstairs.” She glanced up to the ceiling. “You have an apartment up there too?”

He nodded. “I’d invite you up, but there’s a lot of work I still need to do before I have company.”

“Once we’re done down here, I could always help up there,” she suggested.

“Maybe when I paint the walls. For now, down here is what matters the most.”

She’d never seen the apartment upstairs. When she worked at the sandwich shop in high school, the owner had lived up there. She wanted to see what it was like but knew better than to push.

“I can bring my laptop to use for now,” she told me.

“No, don’t bother. My cousin has set me up with Josh. He’ll be here next week to set up the point-of-sale system and a computer in here and one upstairs for my use.” He leaned against the door frame. “You need a sofa or chairs right there.” He motioned to the spot she’d left empty for that purpose.

“Yes, I was going to check with Lilly to see if she has a couple of chairs or head over to Ruby’s Antiques. I think a standard-sized sofa would be too big.”

He nodded. “We can maybe head over to Classy and Sassy tomorrow sometime. They were holding some mirrors for the bathroom for me.”

She liked that he was shopping locally for the place. It was important and would no doubt reflect well on him as a business owner to everyone in town.

She planned to do most of the purchasing for the restaurant locally as well. Most everyone she’d worked for thus far used local first.

“I suppose we need to talk about a few details. Stocking, supplies, hiring, that sort of thing,” she said.

He nodded. “We have time.” He glanced at his watch. “But we can head over and grab a pizza and knock out a few items if you want?”

“Sure.” She stood up and dusted herself off, then grabbed her bag. “You live upstairs?” she asked as they walked through the light rain to Baked.

“Yup. Are you in town?” he asked, glancing at her.

“Normally, I live in a cottage on the beach not far from the public beach area. However, this week, my parents are in Hawaii, and I’m house- and dog-sitting for them. They live up there.” She motioned to the hillside that overlooked the town. On a clear day, you could see her parents’ roof from there. Today, the clouds clung to the hillside, blocking their view.

“My mother is a cat person,” he told her.

She laughed. “Yes, your sister had a million photos of them. She tells me they’re social media famous.”

He rolled his eyes and chuckled. “My sister dresses them up and makes them act out famous movies or scenes.”

“I know, I started following them. The Romeo and Juliet death scene was hilarious.”

He laughed as he held the door open for her. “Okay, she has a talent for putting a scene together. Wait until you watch the Titanic scene.” He leaned a little closer and whispered. “Here’s a hint. Jack doesn’t make it onto the door.”

She laughed as she spotted her brother and Hannah across the room. Waving at them, she followed Lucas to the counter.

“Since your brother and Hannah are here,” Lucas said as they waited, “want to sit with them?”

“Sure,” she said, wishing more than anything for more time alone with him. But she figured they’d have plenty of time alone since they still had a lot of work to do on the place before opening day.