Lily leans back on her heels and looks down at her outfit. “I wasn’t sure what to wear since I’ve never been to this restaurant.”
“I’ve never been there, either, so I have no idea. But I have a feeling you’ll be fine.” I chose a new restaurant I’ve been wanting to try. It’s about a forty-five-minute drive, but I figured that would give us time to catch up on the way over.
“I have a present for you,” she says. “It’s in my car. Let me grab it.”
I follow her to her car and watch her retrieve something from the console. When she hands it to me, I can’t hold back a smile. “Is this your journal?” She read another quick passage to me last night, but she was so embarrassed reading it out loud, she refused to give me more.
“That’s one of them. We’ll see how tonight goes before I give you the other one.”
“No pressure or anything.” I walk her to my car and open the passenger door for her. She starts to yawn again as I’m closing her door.
I feel bad, like maybe she’s too exhausted for this date. I have no idea what it’s like to raise a child. I feel kind of selfish that I’m not offering to reschedule, so before I back out of the parking lot, I speak up. “If you’d rather go home and sleep, we can do this next weekend.”
“There’s nothing else I’d rather do than this, Atlas. I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” She clicks her seat belt. “You actually do smell like garlic.”
I think she’s kidding. Lily used to joke all the time when we were younger. It’s one of the things I loved most about her—that she always seemed to be in a good mood despite all the bad things surrounding her. It’s that same strength I admired in her in the days I was with her after she found out she was pregnant in the emergency room. I know that was one of the lowest points of her life, but she was able to smile through it all, and even spent an entire evening impressing my friends with her humor during a poker night.
Everyone handles stress differently, and none of those ways is necessarily wrong, but Lily handles it with grace. And grace just happens to be the quality I find the most attractive in people.
“How’d you manage to get away on a Saturday night?” Lily asks.
I hate that I’m driving because I want to look at her while I respond. I’ve never seen her look this… womanly? Is that a compliment? I don’t even know. I probably shouldn’t say it out loud in case it isn’t, but when Lily and I fell in love, neither of us were what we would now consider adults. But it’s different tonight. We’re grown-ups with careers, and she’s a mother and a boss and independent. It’s sexy as hell.
The only other time I’ve spent with her as adults was when she was technically still with Ryle, so it felt wrong thinking of her the way I am now. Like I want her.
I keep my focus on the road and try not to create a lull in our conversation, but I think I might be a little flustered. That surprises me.
“How did I manage getting away?” I say, pretending like I’m mulling over the question rather than obsessing about how much I want to stare at her. “I hire dependable people.”
Lily smiles at that. “Do you always work on weekends?”
I nod. “I usually only take off Sundays, when we’re closed. The occasional Monday.”
“What do you enjoy the most about your job?”
She’s full of questions tonight. I give her a sidelong glance and smile. “Reading the reviews.”
She makes a noise like she’s shocked. “I’m sorry,” she says. “Did you say reviews? You read your restaurant reviews?”
“Every single one.”
“What? Oh my God, you must not have a single insecurity. I make Serena run our social media so I can avoid reviews.”
“Your reviews are great.”
She practically turns her entire body toward me in the seat. “You read my reviews?”
“I read reviews for anyone I know who owns a business. Is that weird?”
“It’s not not weird.”
I flip on my blinker. “I like reading reviews. I feel like business reviews are a reflection of the owner, and I want to know what people think of my restaurants. The constructive criticism helps. I haven’t had the kitchen experience a lot of chefs have, and critics are some of the best teachers.”
“What do you get out of reading reviews about other people’s businesses?”
“Nothing, really. I just find it entertaining.”
“Do I have any bad ones?” Lily looks away from me, half turning so that she’s facing forward again. “Never mind, don’t answer that. I’m just going to pretend they’re all good and that everyone loves my flowers.”
“Everyone does love your flowers.”
She presses her lips together in an attempt to suppress her smile. “What’s your least-favorite part of your job?”
I love that she’s asking me such random questions. It reminds me of all the nights we would stay up late, and she would pepper me with questions about myself. “Up until last week, it was health inspections,” I admit. “They’re extremely stressful.”
“Why up until last week? What changed?”
“The vandalism.”
“Did it happen again?”
“Yeah, twice this week.”
“And you still have no idea who it is?”
I shake my head. “No clue.”
“Do you have any angry ex-girlfriends?”
