Page 44 of The Problem with Dating

He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “That was the hope.”

“I’d love that.”

He sighed and pressed his hands to his chest. “Oh, great. I was nervous. Are you free Friday night? I know it’s last minute, but if you say yes, I already booked a dinner reservation.”

Taking the initiative to make reservations. That was a win in my book.

“I’d love that.”

“Great! I’m excited. I was lucky to get a reservation at this place. They are booked out for months, it seems. My coworker had a timeslot but had to go to New York for a meeting, so she offered it to me.”

“Oh? What’s the place?”

“Isla Iberia. It’s right across from your shop on Main Street. It’s supposed to be one of the best. Did you know Alex is a Michelin star chef? I ran into him the other day, and he told me all about it. Nice guy.”

Choking.

I was choking on my tongue.

Alex? A nice guy?!

My poor British future husband was so naive. If only he knew the truth about Alex, he would’ve thought differently. I almost thought of telling him about how Alex Ramírez went around shattering water dishes, but I refrained from it. I couldn’t break his sweet, British heart.

“The reservation is there?” I asked.

“Yeah, is that okay?”

“Oh, yes.Totallyfine. Not an issue at all. Cool. Cool. Very cool. Neat. Okay. Well, I better get inside and rest. I have a long day tomorrow.”

He smiled. “Perfect. I’ll meet you at Isla Iberia on Friday night at seven. Have a great evening, Yara.”

“You too.”

He hurried away, and I closed the door behind me, almost sinking to the floor as the realization settled that I’d have to step inside Alex’s restaurant. As I tried to shake off that realization, I opened the container of cookies, picked one up, and took a bite.

That bite instantly flew out of my mouth and back into the container.

“What in the dog food is this?!” I shouted, stunned, appalled, offended.

Did Josh hate me? Why in the world would he feed me something so atrocious?! There was no way he thought those cookies were good. Or, sadly, he lacked taste buds. Josh might’ve had a lot going for him in life. A great job, a dazzling smile, and a remarkably attractive accent.

But baking?

One out of five stars.

Would not recommend it.

If I could give it zero stars, I would.

CHAPTER14

Alex

“Shame on you, Alejandro Luis Ramírez!” Tatiana scolded me after she came into work the day after my odd encounter with Yara on the sixteenth floor.

Tatiana must’ve heard about the less-than-nice exchanges I’d shared with Yara. I’d never seen Tatiana upset, but I was almost certain steam would’ve been shooting out of her ears if possible.

The restaurant wasn’t even open for a few hours. There was no reason she should’ve been barging into the front door.

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