Page 104 of Debugging Love

Neither Drew nor Morgan acknowledge her, so I order everyone water and three “The Works” nacho appetizer plates. Moments later, she returns with our waters, which I sip while feeling like a third wheel.

And then my heart stops. I take a drink of water to restart it, which works. Minimally.

Chance is headed this way wearing a black cowboy hat, dark wash jeans, and alligator skin boots, looking mysterious and statuesque and so perfectly clean-shaven that the bar lightsreflect on his angular jaw. I’m like one of the water droplets on my glass, except I try my level best to hold on rather than slide into a puddle.

He stops beside me, takes off his hat, bows, and says, “Hello ma’am.” What should be goofy and awkward is the sexiest thing anyone’s ever said to me. Never dropping my gaze, he glides into the booth and sets his hat well away from any dripping water glasses. I prop my elbow on the table to hold up my jaw. Despite being smooshed by a hat, his hair looks perfectly styled, curls twisting expertly throughout. Chance may be a little extra, but he sure knows how to put himself together.

I look down, unable to bear his smoldering gaze.

“Yay, everyone is here.” Morgan pulls the sampler box of teas out of her bag, unfolds the lid, and hands it to Drew. “I decided to share.”

Drew lifts the box up to his nose and sucks in a breath.

“There’s twenty-four individually wrapped tea bags,” Morgan adds. “Everyone gets six.”

Drew starts shuffling through the offerings.

“I don’t drink stale tea,” Chance says.

Morgan looks inordinately offended. “Each bag is individually wrapped,” she reiterates.

“In bleached paper that’s holding the dregs of the tea leaves.”

For some reason this offends her less. “Okay, tea snob.”

“I am a tea snob. My dadi makes all her tea using fresh, loose leaves and a stainless steel tea infuser. Once you have that, you’ll never go back.”

“You should make us some fresh tea at work sometime,” Morgan says, and then her eyes widen. “You should serve it during our book reports! Fresh chai for the Chai World debriefing.”

He grabs the bowl of his hat, lifts the rim a few inches, and then drops it back to the table. “That’s actually a good idea.”

My eyes rest on Chance’s well-sculpted hand. Morgan’s eyes rest on his cowboy hat. “How does a guy like you become a cowboy?” she asks.

“You mean a guy from California?”

“Uh…sure.”

“You work in Austin, Texas for a year and frequent the local bars.”

“To throw out a wide net,” I say.

Chance accepts my challenging stare, undeterred by my condescending tone. “No. To learn all the latest line dances.”

I smirk at him as I try to imagine him yucking it up on the dance floor in his cowboy boots. “Are those real alligator skin?”

“Caiman.”

“What’s that?”

“A big lizard. Dadi would freak if I brought home cowhide boots. She won’t like me killing lizards either, but I imagine she’ll mind it a lot less.”

“Are you planning to move back to India?” The thought unsettles me a bit, which further unsettles me.

Our waitress cuts in, holding up a huge tray. “Can I get you something to drink?” she says to Chance.

“Coke Zero,” I answer for him.

He grins at me and then flicks his eyes to Elaine. “Yeah, that.”

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