Page 47 of Happy Endings

Everything was falling into place.

Chapter 18

Andre padded down the stairs of his mom’s row house. He yawned and followed his nose to the kitchen, where Keisha had brewed a pot of coffee. Working the busy bar during the busy pop-up followed by the late night pressed against Trixie’s body had worn him out.

“I can’t believe you slept in,” Keisha said from the kitchen table. Textbooks and papers surrounded her. “What time did you get home last night?”

“Late.” He fumbled with hisI♥NOLAcoffee mug and filled it to the top with coffee.

“Late, doing what?” Keisha raised an eyebrow. “Most of the cleaning was already done when I left.”

“The bar was really messy last night.” He squinted at his coffee before taking a sip. “I had lots of glasses to clean.”

“Oh.” Keisha’s face fell.

“What did you think was gonna happen?” Andre avoided her eyes and put two slices of bread into the toaster. He wasn’t surprised that she wanted to play matchmaker for him and Trixie. If he told her about Trixie right now, Keisha would declare her success and never let him forget it. Nope. Getting back with Trixie was his plan alone.

“Nothing.” Disappointment flashed over Keisha’s face, but she covered it with a small smile. “I forgot to tell you. Your etouffee and scorched rice was a hit last night!”

“Really?” With everything that happened last night, he’d forgotten about the new dish. “What did people say about it?”

“Once I explained what it was and how to eat it, they loved it. People liked the crispiness of the rice mixed with the rich etouffee.”

“Well, damn.” Andre couldn’t believe it. “Did they think it was too hard to eat? Or wasn’t authentic?”

“Andre, I said they loved it.” She shook her head at him. “In fact, we ran out of it before anything else.”

“Okay, cool.” He rubbed the back of his head. The last twenty-four hours had been, well, a lot. He’d volunteered as a guinea pig for massage oil. He and Trixie were on their way to making up. And his new dish was a hit.

“I think we should add it to the menu.” Keisha’s eyes shone in the way they did when she had a new idea. “I mean, we already serve it with rice, but now we just burn it a little.”

“Maybe. Let’s not get too excited. It’s just one pop-up. Let’s see how it sells during regular meal service.” Andrewasthrilled, but Trixie’s family had inspired the unconventional pairing. He couldn’t add it to the menu without telling her.

“People will love it.” She turned back to her notes. “I hate accounting. Why do I have to learn all this manual stuff when there are computers that do all the work for me?”

“I’m sure your professor has a reason.” Andre didn’t really know. He didn’t go to college and all the accounting he knew he’d taught himself via internet searches and YouTube videos. “You’re welcome to take over and automate our bookkeeping when you graduate.”

Keisha rolled her eyes. “You just want to pawn off work you don’t like onto me.”

“Maybe.” He held back a laugh. She wasn’t wrong.

The toast popped up, and he slathered each piece with homemade peach jam. Mrs. Harris made a huge batch every year and gifted the entire neighborhood with jars of it. It was the best peach jam he’d ever tasted—outside of his mom’s. Not that he’d ever tell Mrs. Harris.

“Can I talk to you about something?” Keisha pointed at the chair next to hers.

He sat down with his coffee and toast. “Look, I told you once you graduate, you can help—”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Keisha interrupted. She drummed her fingers nervously on her notebook. “Promise me you won’t get mad.”

That didn’t sound good. His brain raced. Did something terrible happen? Was she sick? He took a deep breath.

“I promise.” No matter what happened, he’d take care of Keisha.

“I want to quit school and help out at the restaurant full time,” his sister blurted.

“What!” He set his coffee mug down so hard that coffee splashed onto her notes. Andre grabbed a towel and dabbed furiously at her papers. “Sorry I ruined your accounting notes.”

“See, if I didn’t have to learn how to do this on paper, I could have pulled out my backup from the cloud.” She pressed her lips together when he didn’t respond to her joke.

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