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“You glossed over the restaurant?”
“Just needed to take a breath and get a drink,” he said, picking up his soda. She did the same with her tea. “I grew up going to that place as a kid. My father knew a lot of people.”
“He knew those owners too?” she asked.
“Not like he did Tom. But we were regulars there. I had the liquor store and since there is a restaurant on one side of the place, they served wine. The pizza and takeout were on the other side. I spent more time going in and out of there. They were buying the wine from me at that point though.”
“Those connections again,” she said. “Bet they weren’t buying from the liquor store when Tom owned it.”
“No,” he said. “When they started to fall on hard times, I knew I could help. No way I wanted to lose the place I ate at once a week for most of my life.”
“Most of your life?” she asked.
“We ordered there every Friday since I was a kid.”
A memory he had that he wanted to hold onto. She didn’t want to say that and embarrass him though. She was smart enough to read between the lines.
“I might have done the same thing if it was one of my favorite places.”
Their food was brought out fast and they started to eat.
“There was that,” he said. “So I bought it and let them continue to run it without the stress of being an owner. I didn’t have to do too much. They are still running it and doing better than before.”
“Why were they struggling before if you didn’t do much?” she asked.
“They had financial issues. Personal ones and couldn’t seem to separate the money from the business and their lives. Having to get a salary and not having unlimited access to the money brought in at night forced them to figure out other issues and the business got back on track. The money from the sale helped get their affairs in order.”
“Thankfully it was that simple.”
“Not as simple as it sounds,” he said.
Which told her he probably helped out on a personal level more than he would ever say. “So now you want to know something about me?”
“That’s the game we are playing,” he said.
“I’m not usually good at games,” she said. “I spend all my time working. You could say that is part of the reason it was so easy to pick up and leave.”
“Do you not want to put the effort into a relationship?” he asked.
“I do,” she said. “I have. But it doesn’t work out. Work always interferes. So far I’ve got more time at this job than I ever thought I would. I’m not sure what to do with myself half the time.”
“Go on dates,” he said, smirking.
“There is that,” she said. “Back to you. Or I can guess. The ice cream shop was most likely a place you went to as a kid too?”
“Actually, no,” he said.
She frowned. “A friend of your mother or father?”
Cal laughed. “Got me there. It was a place my mother went to a lot as a kid. One of her childhood friends ran it for years. But they were leaving the area and put it up for sale. I thought, why not? I knew it was always crazy busy. It just meant I couldn’t keep them on to run it if they were moving.”
“I don’t see you there filling cones or whatever else they serve,” she said.
“You’d be shocked where or how much I work when one of my businesses needs it. Which, by the way, is part of the reason we are on this date. Or why I’m single too.”
“I figured as much.” So he bought the ice cream place as a memory for his mother. She had to know. “The bakery was next.”
“It’s your turn,” he said.
