Page 40 of The Plus-One Deal

As though sensing my annoyance, Claire soon cut in. She tilted her frying pan to show off her sauce.

“Here, have a whiff of this. I think it’s about done.”

I leaned in and sniffed it, and it smelled delicious. I took a spoon and tried it, and it tasted great too.

“Perfect,” I said.

Her cheeks pinked up. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Want to help me slice up some veggies?”

She did, and we arranged them in our baking pan, a repeating rainbow of colorful slices. I kept screwing up the order, not by mistake, but so she’d laugh at me and reach in to fix it, and then our hands would brush and we’d bump shoulders. We mixed the seasoning together and spooned it over our tray, and sighed together at its savory scent.

“You know, this might actually be almost worth eating.”

“No, don’t, don’t say that. You’ll jinx our swordfish.”

I laughed at the idea of a jinx in the kitchen, but when I picked up our fillet, my spatula slipped. Claire grabbed for our fish and managed to catch it, but it slid like a melon seed through the net of her fingers. It wentsplaton the floor and shot under the oven.

“Well, that’s gone,” I said.

Claire bit back her laughter. “Oh, no! Was that expensive?”

“Don’t worry. There’s plenty. We always lose one or two.” The chef brought us another one, but didn’t let us touch it. He deposited it directly in our frying pan. “Now, when you go to flip it, just lift up one side. Push it up gently and let gravity do the rest.”

Across the island, Verity was adding capers to hers. I stole some, resentful, and plopped them on ours.

Somehow, for all that, lunch came out okay, rich ratatouille, gently seared swordfish. Verity stole Claire again when we finished eating, but I got the sense that this time, she wanted to talk business. I turned to Ken just as he turned to me.

“You remind me of us,” he said.

I smiled. “You and Verity?”

He nodded, his expression gone soft and wistful. “Back when we first me, when we both stunk at cooking. We joked around just like you two, learning the kitchen. I saw how you helped each other, how you laughed the whole time. If I was to make a prediction, I’d say you’ll be great. Not great chefs, maybe, but a great couple. A great team through the tough times, and that’s what counts, right?”

I agreed that it was, my eyes fixed on Claire. She was bent close to Verity to check out her laptop, pointing at somethingdisplayed on the screen. Their conversation seemed animated, a whole lot of gestures. A lot of smiles, a few frowns, nods of agreement. From what I could see, it was going well.

“Life gets busy,” said Ken. “These times are important. The times you take for each other, to tend to what’s yours.”

I thought about that and how it might work. Could Claire and I make it work like Verity and Ken? Verity was busy, and I guessed Ken was too, but they seemed happy. They found time somewhere. Maybe we’d do the same, late nights, weekends. We’d live our lives like we always did, but with gaps that were ours. Times we’d put our phones up and focus on us. Every second weekend — but, no. Claire traveled. She was always off somewhere, and I golfed with clients. Well, the gym, maybe. We could claim that for ours. Except that my workouts didn’t stick to a schedule. I did mornings some weeks, afternoons others, and on a busy week, I’d go late at night. Everything with us was work-permitting. How oftenwasour time strictly our own? Even here in paradise, on our last day, Claire was still working. Chasing her deal.

I pulled out my phone, then put it away. I didn’t need to check my calendar to know it was jam-packed. To know hers was too. I could dream all I liked, but dreams died on waking.

“Claire’s the best,” I told Ken. “These times with her are the best of my life.”

CHAPTER 16

CLAIRE

Ken whisked Verity off somewhere soon after lunch, and Conrad and I walked barefoot down the beach. We strayed past where the tourists were, splashing in the surf, carrying our shoes and socks hooked over our fingers. At first I felt sad and… pre-nostalgic, missing this place before we had even left it. Then Conrad splashed me and I splashed him back, and I let tomorrow go to give him a drenching. By the time we were drying off in the sun, I’d laughed my clouds away and I felt better.

We walked till the sun hung low and we got hungry, then we made our way back to the resort. We watched the sunset from up on the roof, sipping frozen cocktails from sugar-rimmed glasses. Conrad took his paper umbrella and twirled it around.

“I’m glad we got stuck,” he said.

“Me too.” My throat tightened. “I mean, if we hadn’t— I think today clinched my deal.”

Conrad folded his umbrella, then snapped it back open. “Is that the only reason?”

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