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“Wouldn’t Tyler be mad at the two of us secretly going to lunch together?” I asked abruptly.
Jay’s eyebrows shot upward. “Secretly?”
“Yeah, well… I mean—”
Before I could do anything else, Jay pulled his phone out. He dialed Tyler’s number, punched the speaker button, and held the device out between us.
“Tyler, it’s me. I’m out with Jenna right now. Say hi.”
“Hi, Jenna.”
Tyler’s voice sounded cheerful, but rushed. In the background I could hear the banging of metal trays, a cacophony of voices, the high-pitched beeps of the cash register, as someone’s order got rung up. In short, all the usual sounds of the busy pizzeria.
“I’m taking her to lunch,” Jay said. “That cool?”
“Sure.” Tyler sounded a little confused. “Why wouldn’t it be cool?”
“She wanted to make sure it was okay with you.”
I thought I heard my ex-boyfriend chuckle, even over the noise. “Yeah, that’s fine. No pizza though. Can’t be patronizing the competition.”
“Never,” Jay promised.
“Good. Gotta run. Talk soon.”
Tyler hung up, and Jay slipped the phone back into his pocket. All of a sudden I felt silly.
“Nowcan we eat?’
He pulled me another half block, into a little Mediterranean restaurant with cute round tables. We were seated beside a full-length hand-painted wall mural that looked like it might’ve been painted by the owner’s grandchildren. Hopefully the food was better than the artwork.
“Sorry about that,” I apologized. “It’s just that we’re going to talk about Tyler, and I didn’t want him to think—”
“Tyler doesn’t need to know about this conversation,” Jay interjected. “At least not right away.”
I felt a flip-flopping warmth in my belly. At the same time, I had to speak up.
“Look, Jay…” I began slowly. “If you’re here to talk about the other night, I don’t know what to say. I mean sure, it was totally fantastic. Hell, I loved every minute of it! But… well, it was spur of the moment. A one-shot deal, and only because Tyler—”
“Tyler’s losing the pizzeria,” Jay said abruptly.
Sixteen
JENNA
I stared back at my friend, not really seeing him as my mind processed what he’d just said. At the same time, the gathering warmth in my belly disappeared all at once.
“W—What?”
An olive-skinned man with a white mustache arrived with a pair of menus. Jay waved them aside and ordered us salads, along with a side of warm pita wedges and sun-dried tomato hummus.
“How could Tyler be losing the pizzeria?” I finally demanded. “It’s busy as hell!”
“Busier than ever,” Jay agreed, “but that’s not the problem. The problem is he’s losing his lease. The whole mall is finally closing its doors.”
My shoulders dropped as I slumped back in my seat. I envisioned Tyler, working his fingers to the bone then climbing those stairs each day to crash out in his little apartment. I’d just got done spending the night in that apartment. True to his word Tyler had kept me warm and safe all night, wrapped in his two powerful arms.
“Surely the mall shutting down is no big surprise to you,” said Jay. “Is it?”
