Page 48 of Cookbooks and Demons

“Better to endure those things in reality than the alternative,” he said with the sort of strength that came because someone had suffered much.

“I’m so sorry, Raffie,” she said and lifted his hand up to hold against her cheek.

“Don’t. Don’t pity me. I deserve this.”

She shook her head. “No, nobody deserves this.”

Chapter 25

Lunch with

Cindy

“Ijust don’t know what to think about him, you know?” Helena asked as she held onto her glass of water. The cool condensation on the surface made the texture glass slick. It was very sunny for a winter day, though there was no snow on the ground to let anyone know it was winter other than the time of year. She had left Rafferty at her place so she could run to the office for a weekend meeting that came up at the last minute, which she could not have imagined doing before her promotion.

Luckily, Cindy was just getting off from work herself, so they were meeting for lunch.

After the … events of last night, she thought she and Rafferty needed a little space from each other.

“If I’m honest, Chris is more your friend than mine,” Cindy said, taking a long drag from her own glass.

“Yeah, but you know him enough. Do you think I’m misreading the situation?” Helena asked, hoping her friend could see how since she reallycouldn’t.

“Here—just let me repeat it back to you to make sure I understand. You were out on a dinner date at Tower Top restaurant, and you saw Chris there … with a woman … and they were making out.”

“Strictly, I only saw them kiss once,” Helena declared. “But it wasn’t a very chaste kiss. And by that I mean, it wasn’t pornographic, but I wouldn’t kiss my mother that way.”

“Got it. Picture crystal clear,” Cindy said as she brought her hands together in a prayer position that she pressed against her lips while she thought. “And then after that, he spotted you, came over and confronted you, and had to be chased off by the waiter.”

“Yeah, before Rafferty and him came to blows, and I really thought it might happen there for a moment,” Helena added.

Cindy nodded. “Mmm-hmmm, mmm-hmmm, okay. One question: Who isRafferty?”

Helena felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. “Oh, right. Who is Rafferty,” she repeated in a tone of voice that she recognized meant that anything she said after would immediately sound like a lie.

“He… is…” She sighed. There was no help for it. “You remember a few weeks ago I had that dinner party?”

“You mean that dinner party that changed the course of my life with its food and made me change my orientation to foodie? No, doesn’t ring a bell. Continue,” Cindyquipped.

“Well, you remember the guy I had over who helped me get the dinner together after I had bombed it initially?”

Cindy’s eyebrows puckered. “The caterer? I thought his name was Lares.”

At the sound of that name, Helena felt like she had been used as a clapper inside an enormous bell. “Lares?” she repeated. Even as she said the name, she realized it sounded familiar and at the same time felt like it was the first time she was hearing it.He told me he ate his name so I couldn’t summon him with it,she remembered.

“Uh, yeah. Lares Rafferty, but he prefers to be called Rafferty,” she said, adjusting the lie to fit the truth.

“Oh weird. That’s very old world of him,” Cindy said, wrinklingher nose.

“Well, when your name is Lares Rafferty, I can understand wanting to minimize the weird,” Helena joked.

“I suppose that’s fair,” Cindy allowed, then leaned forward to rest her chin on her fingers joined like a little platform. “So tell me, you guys have been making sparks in the kitchen since?”

No power in the world could have stopped Helena from both blushing and smiling like an idiot. She was forced to hide her face while Cindysquealed.

“No, no, no! It’s not like that,” Helena tried to say, but it was useless and made her friend’s hooting worse. “We’re justfriends!”

“The best relationships are with your friend! It’s like you’ve not watched the literal show on the subjectFriendsor something!”

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