Page 5 of The Dreidl Disaster

What was going on.

“Nu?”

“Finished a stage,” Abe replied in what most likely was horribly accented French. “And Chef wants me back to relish the spoils of my work.”

Stage. Internship. While Artur had been in Eastern Europe, Abe had been working at different places, learning the restaurant business. He’d get random phone calls where his best friend updated him about the things he’d been learning, and the choices he was making. It kept them close.

“Where?”

“Levitan’s.”

Levitan’s, a Briarwood staple, was the last place Abe had been working. “Busman’s holiday?”

“B’s out of town, filming upstate. Hanukkah history at a Christmas tree farm,” Abe replied, because Abe and his wife Batya were in love and still adorable. “So, it’s just us. And yes,” his best friend continued because Abe knew him well. “I’ll meet you there.”

As he ended the call, he felt excited.

Of course, a few hours later, he’d learned one of the most important lessons—never play cards outside without gloves in November. Chess was different; there was time and space to put your hands in your pockets. But cards?

Completely different story. As comfortable in the cold as he was, his hands were a mess and needed warmth stat.

The game was fun; the ten guys who were playing were hilarious. They liked his fortitude but not enough to give him any information about Hanukkah.

A quick stop at the Cupcake Stop gave him warmth in the form of a gelt latte but no information.

He then headed to the comic book shop, where he was starting to see the pattern.

A smile, his food, or service and then nothing when he started to talk. Politeness to the extreme, as if they’d recognized he wasn’t local.

Which did something to his insides he wasn’t ready to discuss publicly, if ever.

A few more stops: a quick knish, and then the skate shop where he talked about new skates, but was stopped when he mentioned Hanukkah.

Finally, at around three, his phone buzzed, telling him that Abe was on his way. Which meant he headed over to Levitan’s.

*

Thankfully, Liv onlyhad to pull herself away from the manual and head to the car when Naomi called later that afternoon, and there was a parking space right near the front of Levitan’s private parking lot. She pulled in, and ran toward the restaurant.

Of course, before she went in search of her cousins and their table, she wondered if she should actually give herself a look in the mirror, maybe stop and…

No.

She was avoiding them, or rather avoiding the prospect of dealing with what her cousins and her sister would say when she arrived.

And that she needed a shield for, which meant her first stop would be the bathroom.

“One sec,” she said as she passed Naomi, heading toward the back of the restaurant, past tables and people into the corridor where the happy, boisterous noises from the kitchen emerged.

And made a left, heading toward the bathroom and smacked into…something hard and soft at the same time.

She inhaled sharply, musk and joy rising up her nostrils, and when she looked up, she had to brace herself from the shock of hazel eyes. “I’m sorry,” she managed, pulling herself together, trying desperately not to fall into the constantly changing autumn of those eyes, and cheekbones cut like glass.

“It’s okay.”

She nodded, again, trying not to let herself succumb to…him. “Fine, thank you.”

The silence wasn’t uncomfortable; it felt dangerous. She couldn’t explain or trust the pull he had over her, and she had a mad impulse to kiss him.

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