“Do what? Give you my number?”
“No. I meant make a joke.”
“I’m just trying to lighten the mood. And you have to admit, if you could shoot daggers from your eyes into my chest, you would have done it by now.”
She frowned at him and then hefted her bag over her shoulder. “Well, we got this reunion over with. I’ll text you when I’m ready to set up another interview. But now I–I have to go.”
He stood, but once he was on his feet, he had no idea what to do. “Linds, it doesn’t have to be like this.”
“It doesn’t?”
“I didn’t cheat on you.”
Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “I don’t know about you, but where I come from, kissing another woman is cheating. Not sure how you square that circle.”
“If I could just explain—”
“That’s not necessary. I don’t plan to date you again.”
“Sure, okay. Then let’s keep this professional.”
She raised a hand and then dropped it again. “I just… I wasn’t ready. This was…a kink to work out. I’ll text you.”
Then she was gone.
Brad sat back down. He knew why she didn’t want to talk to him. Her old trust issues mixing with walking in on him kissing another woman were a recipe for disaster. But somehow he hadn’t anticipated that she’d still be this bitter.
Hamilton, the orange cat that had taken a shine to Brad, jumped up on the table and then rubbed his head against Brad’s chin. Brad reached out to pet him, and Hamilton immediately started to purr.
“Are you trying to make me feel better?”
As Hamilton paced back and forth on the table, his tail went straight up in the air and tickled Brad’s chin.
Brad pulled a cat cookie out of his pocket and offered it to Hamilton, who ate it greedily. Then the cat looked up at him expectantly.
“You’re like an addict who got a hit but wants more. But you don’t get to have more.”
Hamilton butted Brad’s chin with his head again. Brad sighed and pulled another cookie out of his pocket. “Okay, but this is all I have.”
Hamilton stole the cookie from Brad’s hand and dropped it on the table. Then he gobbled it up.
“Don’t think this means anything,” Brad told the cat. “You’re very nice, but you’re not moving in with me.”
Hamilton made abrrupsound that sure sounded like, “We’ll see.”
Chapter 5
Lindsay set up a second interview at the cat café two days later but wasn’t feeling any less tense about it.
But she reasoned she could go in prepared. She’d written a list of questions she would have asked any chef she interviewed, and she told herself she’d stick to the script, get it done, and then get out.
Brad looked perfectly nice. Well, no, he looked better than nice. His brown hair was cropped short these days, and he looked like he was in good shape. He had on a Milk Bar T-shirt that stretched over his chest, and he was clean-shaven to reveal the dimple in his cheek, and he looked great. Stupid, handsome Brad.
Of course, it wasn’t just that he was handsome. It was that Lindsay had once known this man intimately, in all senses of the word. They’d once shared their hopes and dreams with each other, and they’d shared beds, and she knew so much about Brad already. She’d once known his family, his friends, his hobbies, his favorite ice cream flavor. It had been five years and he was basically a stranger now, except he wasn’t, because he looked so veryBradas he sat at that table with a paper coffee cup cradled in his hands.
It wasn’t that she’d been angry when they’d made that first attempt at an interview. Well, shewas, but mostly at herself for being so very much not over him. She’d seen him andfeltthings, felt it all come back to her immediately. It was like getting hit in the chest with a baseball bat, and she hated that he made her feel all that so intensely. He hadn’t even done anything. He’d just been sitting there being perfectly nice. That had infuriated her as much as anything. She wanted him to be an asshole. She wanted him to remind her why she’d left him. Instead, he’d just sat there and was polite. That jerk.
She swallowed and walked forward.
