Page 60 of The Fix-Up

“Mija, I do not know what to say about him. Sometimes there is nothing to put a finger on, you know? He’s not right for you.” She shrugged. “But maybe I am wrong.”

She was never wrong.

With slightly less enthusiasm than I’d had five minutes before (and I hadn’t had much to begin with), I let her lead me to a dark-haired man. He stood when he saw me, smiled, gave mea hug. He smelled good. Not fancy laundry soap good, but still good.

“So, you own a café? I think that’s what Ali told me, eh?” he asked when we’d settled in and placed our orders.

When Ali had told me Tony Olson had an accent, she hadn’t mentioned it was Canadian. Not French-Canadian. All the other non-French Canadians with their ehs and constant apologies.Thatwas his accent.

Paired with my desperate need to be liked, we’d actually gotten into a vicious apology cycle the first ten minutes we met. We just kept apologizing for…well, who knew? But I’d asked Mae and Ali for a non-jerk blind date candidate and Tony fit the bill. He’d pulled out my chair for me. Seemed interested in my answers to questions.

Was that where I’d set the bar these days? If he pulled the chair out and made conversation, then he was a keeper?

I smiled. “I do.”

“I’ll have to come try it out.” He had friendly brown eyes and a nice, easy smile. Unlike other men I knew.

Why was I thinking about Gil? Who I had left forty-five minutes ago with Oliver, the two of them sitting on the couch engaged in a serious discussion about dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period. I’d had the sudden, strange urge to cry at the sight of it.

Sunny would have something annoying to say about that, I was sure.

“You should. I have great muffins.”

He laughed. “Is that right?”

I blushed. “I meant actual muffins. That was not a euphemism or anything. Just, you know, muffins.”

“I like muffins.” He grinned. He had a soothing sort of way about him. He wasn’t mysterious or closed off. He probably doesn’t own a toolbelt though.

“So, what do you do?” I said, desperate to get my mind firmly in the present. “I think Ali said you’re in sales?”

“I am. Regional manager for a carpet company. I cover Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.”

“With carpet.”

“What?”

“You cover Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma…with carpet…Sorry. Silly joke.”

“Oh, I get it. Sorry.” He sort of chuckled.

Focus on his nice face and…and his hands. He had long, elegant fingers that probably hadn’t touched a hammer or a wrench or a drill. It was getting a little warm in here. It really wasn’t fair of Gil to prance around in that toolbelt in front of me. Especially right before a date. It was almost indecent.

I should leave him a sticky note about it.

“So, Ali said you have a son?” he asked.

Ah, a topic I could talk about for hours. “I do. He’s six and his name is Oliver. He’s amazing.”

“I love kids,” Tony said. “I have fourteen nieces and nephews.”

“Whoa. You must come from a big family.”

“No, just my brother and me.”

“Wait. Your brother has fourteen kids? That’s…a lot.”

“Two sets of twins, too. Do you want a big family?”

---