Lindsay waited a moment before she said, “All right, I’m thinking a little about getting back into restaurant work. But I really don’t know.”
“Interesting.” And also great. Brad knew Lindsay was a great chef and would have liked to see her living up to her potential there, although it was of course her decision. If they were a couple, he’d support whatever decision she made as long as it made her happy.
“I’m struggling to decide, though. I mean, a full-time chef job would be a lot of work. Right now, I have a good paycheck and flexible hours and I still get to write about food all the time. But I miss cooking. I just don’t know.”
“There’s no rush to decide, is there?” Brad asked.
Lindsay gave him a sidelong look. “I guess not.”
“But you’re serious. You’re thinking about restaurant work.”
“Yeah. Would you consider switching jobs? I mean, say, hypothetically, I talked Joey Maguire into hiring me, would you want to work with me?”
“Sure,” said Brad. And he would. The idea of running a restaurant with Lindsay had been growing on him. And it wasn’t unusual for executive chefs to have their fingers in multiple projects, so he could still oversee things at the cat café if he got another restaurant job.
But this was all hypothetical. A thought exercise it was fun to talk about with Lindsay. But he wondered how serious she was now.
Then she shrugged. “Well. How was your day?”
“Uneventful. I made zucchini bread.”
Lindsay laughed. “That seems good. I love zucchini bread.”
“My mom’s recipe, actually. I think it turned out pretty well. I got a good deal on zucchini from the farmers market yesterday.”
Small talk was all well and good, but Brad didn’t know what to say. He felt like he was still on shaky ground with Lindsay. Were they friends? Were they dating? He didn’t want to question her being nice to him and cause her to fight with him, so he figured he’d savor this.
They chatted about recipes on the rest of the walk until they got to the spot near where they’d have to part ways to go to their respective homes. Brad lived closer to the café than Lindsay did, so he contemplated asking her to come with him, but he thought better of it. Lindsay was right; sex had never been their problem, and if they got back together, they’d have a lifetime to get even better at it. Trust was their problem. Did they have it? Brad wasn’t sure, which was probably a no.
“I, uh, gotta work,” Lindsay said, hooking her thumb in the direction of her apartment.
“Of course. I’m pretty tired from making muffins and sandwiches and zucchini bread.”
Lindsay stepped closer and kissed Brad’s cheek. “Have a good evening. I’ll catch you later, okay?”
So…okay. Maybe this was a thing. “Yeah, sure,” said Brad. “See you soon.”
Chapter 21
Paige walked into Pop with a big grin on her face. As she sat across from Lindsay, she said, “We got two new kittens today, and they are thecutest.”
“I didn’t know you kept kittens at the cat café,” said Lindsay.
Paige got out her phone and started tapping on the screen. “We don’t normally, but someone dumped these at the vet clinic, who offered them to us once they had all their shots. Look at this!”
Paige showed Lindsay a photo of two gray-and-black-striped kittens with big eyes and noses, sitting beside each other and tilting their heads at the camera.
“Okay, these guys are darling.”
“I am certain they will be adopted in sixty seconds because everyone loves kittens, but until then, they are my babies.”
“You have names for them?”
“Not yet. I’ve been thinking about famous siblings. Hansel and Gretel?”
“Castor and Pollux? What gender are they?”
“One’s a girl and one’s a boy. Jake and Maggie, like the Gyllenhaals.”
