“I love brunch,” Josh said as the hostess walked into the restaurant to make sure their table was ready.
“You seem to like food generally.”
“That is true, and bless New York City for having lots of healthy takeout options so I’m not stuck eating hamburgers on the go all the time. But I also like sitting and really enjoying a meal in good company. And breakfast food. I’d eat eggs and bacon at every meal if I could.”
“Not to be rude, but how is it you stay in such good shape?”
Josh grinned. “A lot of running on a treadmill in the gym in my building at odd hours of the night when I need to destress from the workday.”
The hostess reappeared and brought them to a table in the back of the restaurant near a tall window that let in a lot of light. They had a view of the restaurant’s backyard garden, which seemed to currently be hosting a baby shower.
“I’m buying, by the way,” Josh said, opening the menu. “I’m starving and intend to order enough food for three men, so it’s only fair.”
“Thanks for the warning.” Paige opened the menu and looked over the offerings. Fancy breakfast fare, mostly, a lot of creative plays on more traditional brunch dishes. Although the stuffed french toast sounded divine. “If I’d known eggs and bacon would get the job done, I would have taken you to Tom’s.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s this famous diner over by the Brooklyn Museum. It’s famous for its breakfast. The space is tiny, and they really squeeze everyone in there, and there’s usually a pretty long line to get in, but it’s cheap and they make, like, six kinds of pancakes. They also make solid milkshakes and egg creams.”
“That does sound good,” said Josh. “We’ll have to go there next time. But I mean, this is good, too. I like an avocado toast.”
Paige laughed.
Josh smiled back at her. “For real, there are eight things on this menu I’d walk over my mother to try. It’s going to be very difficult to pick.”
Josh ordered only one entree but four side dishes and an appetizer, so he really would be getting enough food for three men.
“You eat like a teenage boy,” Paige said.
“My mother says the same thing whenever I’m home.”
They talked amiably about work, about cats, about things they’d read or seen on TV. After their food arrived, Josh told a funny story about a night in law school during which he and a friend had gone all over Washington looking for an all-night diner because Josh had been craving waffles. Paige told him about an event she’d run when she’d lived in London at which an attendee both kept kosher and had several food allergies, so she’d had to get creative with the menu, and then she’d gotten complaints that the special meal looked better than what everyone else was served.
As they wound down, Josh asked for the dessert menu. By then, Paige was feeling warm and floaty from the mimosa the waitress kept refilling, so she blurted out, “How do you have room for dessert?”
Josh grinned. “When I was a kid, my aunt Rita used to make thebestpies at Thanksgiving. She made an apple pie with a cheddar cheese crust that was tart and perfect, but for my money, the best one was a chocolate cream pie. You may want to ask what chocolate pie has to do with Thanksgiving. I don’t know and I don’t care because it was my favorite part of the holiday. It never mattered how much turkey I’d gorged myself on, I was gonna get a slice of that pie. There was one year when, no joke, we ended up with six pies at the house because Lauren decided she wanted to try making one and some distant cousin came to dinner with one, too. So I only ate a modest amount of dinner food that year so I could eat as much pie as possible, and my mother was actually concerned I was coming down with something because I was eating so little.”
Paige laughed, although the mention of Lauren made her nervous. “Was Lauren’s pie any good?”
“I think it was passable. Lauren is not exactly known for her culinary skills.”
“Yeah, I get the impression that Caleb does most of the cooking.”
“If that’s the case, they’ll be just fine. I’ve had Caleb’s cooking and…” Josh mimed a chef’s kiss.
Josh opted out of dessert, citing Paige’s stated intention to do a lot of walking to burn off the calories of that rich, delicious breakfast. But after he paid and they walked outside, she rethought her plan. She didn’t want to tire Josh out too much; she had plans for when they got back to her place later. On the other hand, he did work out regularly.
“You up for walking a couple of miles?” she asked.
“Sure. I skipped the treadmill today.”
“Cool. This way.”
She headed west on Livingston Street and Josh explained again that he’d hardly seen any of Brooklyn. Paige said, “When I first moved to Brooklyn, I used to like to walk around here. I read a novel when I was overseas that took place in this part of Brooklyn in the 1870s, so I wanted to see it for myself. Obviously, most of this area looks completely different than it did a hundred and forty years ago, but pockets of it haven’t changed much.”
“Yeah, I would guess that big glass skyscraper in the distance wasn’t here then.”
Paige laughed. “Yeah, that’s pretty new.”
