AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Whales.” I didn’t touch the happy question. I wasn’t sure anyone was happy, not really. But I wasn’t in the mood to deal with the subject of happiness at the moment. It was too much.
“Did you eat?”
I looked at the time on my phone. It was eight thirty. “No. Shouldn’t you be working?”
“It’s Monday. We’re closed on Mondays. I’m here because I’m working on your menu, but I could stop. I could meet you at Aqualina right now and go over some of this stuff.”
The truth was that menu was set. We had set it in the contract. So he didn’t want to meet me for that reason, unless hewanted to renegotiate, and I doubted he’d be doing that with me. Muffy had her lawyers for that sort of thing. He probably wanted to meet to talk more about why I’d done what I’d done.
And I wasn’t in the mood.
“It’s been a long day. I don’t think I can take being yelled at tonight, even if I deserve to be yelled at every night, so I’m going to say no, but thank you.”
He was quiet for a second. “I didn’t ask you to have dinner to yell at you. I’m just…hungry. I thought maybe you’d be interested in joining me after hearing that you were too. Sometimes I get tired of cooking for myself. I want to eat other people’s food. We don’t have to talk about anything except that. I’m having…a day.”
I could certainly understand that feeling. “I’ll meet you there.”
“Great.”
Things had taken a sudden left-hand turn I hadn’t seen coming.
Aqualina was beautiful inside,serene. On a Saturday, we’d never have been able to walk in without a reservation. Monday, however, at nine in the evening, I stepped through the door and easily found a table.
The waiter smiled at me. I was there enough to be recognized, even if I wasn’t a favored customer. I didn’t come in nearly enough, but timing was key. I ordered a water and waited. Just as I’d started to wonder if he would stand me up, and that was really why he’d set this whole evening into motion, Max arrived.
He was gorgeous, dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a white collared shirt that clung to all of his muscles. He wore black shoes.
“Hi.” He sat down without much preamble. “Sorry, that took a hot second. There was a subway delay. Anyway, looks like we aren’t the only ones eating late.”
I smiled at him. There was something sort of surreal about sitting across a table from him like this. “I like when the restaurants are a little quiet, even if it’s better for them to be busy, from the business standpoint.”
He nodded, shooting me a look I couldn’t quite decipher before looking at his menu. “The scallops are your favorite thing here?”
“Yes.” I didn’t even need to look at the menu to know. It was always the scallops. If they ever took them off the menu, I was going to be full-on sad.
“I’ll get that.” He crossed his hands together and stared at me. “You look really pretty in that dress.”
I’d almost forgotten I was dressed up. My cheeks heated up, and in that redheaded way, I was going to be very red any second. “Thanks. It was for an event.” He already knew that. “So, um…”
“I wanted to say thank you. The operation Eric needs is just not covered by insurance. It might be a last shot in the dark. He’s had these terrible tremors and seizures for the last few years. We took fire on our last mission together. We both walked away a little dinged up, but some neurological damage occurred that doctors missed right after it happened. It’s very serious, and we’ve been having a lot of trouble getting him help. This might save him. Thanks.”
Well, that was incredibly unexpected. I swallowed. “Um…you don’t have to thank me. Youneverhave to thank me. If I canhelp your friend by doing the very little that I did, then even better.”
I picked up my water as the waitress greeted us.
Her interruption gave me a second to make my pulse stop racing. Max was intimidating, and it was hard to make me feel that way. It was like he sucked all the air from the room and only left enough for just the two of us to be there. If I weren’t careful, I could get pulled into his vortex and never return.Wow. I am being dramatic.
And it was actually possible to have my nipples harden just by staring at him. I’d never had that happen before. Was it obvious? Could he tell? I looked down as discreetly as I could while he ordered himself a glass of red wine and couldn’t see the telltale nubs, which was a good thing.Phew.
“And you? Can I get you something? Oh, and I’m sorry, I never do this, but you’re a Redhead aren’t you? One ofthem?”
I forced myself back into the present and my mind off my breasts. “I’m good with water, and sometimes I’m called that. I think you probably followed Layla more.” I turned to Max. “Should we order?”
He lifted his eyebrows slowly. “We’ll wait a minute.”
“Great.” The waitress stepped away.
Amusement flooded his expression. “People do that. They call you the Redhead? Like it’s some kind of title.”
