Page 2 of Wrong Number, Right Valentine

I did a final twirl in front of the mirror. My butt looked rather delicious and hard to resist. I hoped Reg was starving because I would yank my pants down so fast…

Damn! Maybe my boss was right and I should date more. Reg might be a jerk, a bore, or have bad breath. He could run out leaving me to pay the bill, assuming we were having a meal at some point.

I was picturing getting undressed when he could be a serial killer.

Slow your roll, I told myself.

No matter what happened, I had a cute butt. And no one could convince me otherwise.

Grabbing my keys and phone—no need for a wallet, as I paid with my phone—I locked the apartment and strolled to the elevator.

It was weird that Foster had set me up. It had to be someone he knew well or he wouldn’t have arranged the date. Would he?

Before starting the car, I wondered if I should phone a friend and arrange theget of my datecall.

2

REG

Owning the hottest restaurant in town was great. I never had to worry about my boss being a dick, my bills were always paid, and I got to do what I loved every single day. Sure, it also had its share of stress, but the payoff was worth it. Besides, what job was perfect?

This time of year was beyond chaotic. Valentine’s Day was nearly upon us, and it was by far my busiest single day of the year. This year it was slated to be even more so. Someone had done a social media review of our restaurant, and we ended up having to add additional seatings to fit all the people wanting to come and woo their Valentine with a romantic dinner that “tasted like it had been infused with love,” whatever that meant. It was slated to be our busiest night since we’d opened, and I was ready for it… almost.

The phone rang, and I jogged over to the hostess station to grab it. We’d thought about switching to an online reservation system, but there was something so impersonal about that— not to mention the horror stories I’d read online about accidental double bookings and disappearing tables. But even with that,after today, I was starting to think that maybe giving it a try might be for the best.

As I reached the phone, I saw a sticky note saying that all but one of our seatings were already full. Hopefully, whoever was calling on the other line was flexible. We really couldn’t add more seatings at this point. People would be eating their romantic dinners at lunchtime or into the early morning if we kept on inserting more, and the staff? We were hardworking, but everyone had their limits.

“Sizzle and Grill, how may I help you?”

“Hi, we were hoping for a reservation for two for Valentine’s Day.” The man sounded like a ball of nervous and excited. My guess was this was a first date or a special occasion, and even if we didn’t have spots, I was going to try and figure something out. It drove the staff bonkers when I did this, but I was a softy at heart and was all about true love finding its way.

True love never seemed to find itself to me, but that was mostly my fault. I lived at the restaurant and have since it opened. Sure, I had a place of my own, but I spent nearly all of my hours here. At first it was to make sure it got off the ground, and now? Now it was habit, and where else was I going to go? I’d all but shut down my social life when I decided to follow my dreams. I had zero regrets, even with some really lonely nights.

And besides, I was a romantic kinda wolf. I believed in the wholeyour fated mate will find you when it's the right timefairytale. Had that happened to anyone in my birth pack? Not that I knew of, but neither I nor my wolf was interested in much more than friendship with anyone that wasn’t meant for us. It would be pretty fantastic if fate hurried up and introduced us already.

“Sure, let me see what I can do. Options are limited, but I bet I can squeeze you in.”

“Thank you so much.”

I found two tables left for the entire night. One of them was not ideal and I tried not to fill it if I didn’t have to. It was closer to the bathroom than anyone wanted to sit. It was great to have in a pinch, but far from the most romantic seat in the house.

“I have one for you.” I gave them the details, and they were thrilled. “I just need your name and number.”

I filled in the reservation, noting beside their name that dessert was on us. If this was as special as my gut said it was, I wanted it to be perfect for them.

The second I hung up the phone, it rang again. I assumed they had forgotten to give me some information and were calling back. I was wrong. It was Hank, by all accounts my best server, and one of my original hires.

“Hey, Hank, what’s up?”

“I got bad news for you.” I did not like the sound of that at all.

“Please tell me you’re going to be in today.”

“I’m not, but that’s not the really bad part. Junior has the flu and pneumonia. I won’t be in for the rest of the week.”

I couldn’t even be upset with him for calling out. His son came first, always. That was how family worked. I did feel horrible for poor Hank. The flu was never good on its own and adding pneumonia to the mix had to be miserable.

“Oh no, is there anything I can do?”

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