Page 13 of Finally Loved

“Well, you’re paying, so whatever you want.”

“I didn’t agree to that.”

“And I didn’t agree to eat here, but, oh, look, here we are.”

“Wow. We can go somewhere else if you want.” She desperately hoped Zainab didn’t suggest another place. She knew it was wrong, and she definitely should have asked first, but Alba wanted to eat here.

It wasn’t even like it was really that weird. Neve hadn’t said she went here. She hadn’t said anything about it. She hadn’t said anything about any café she’d ever been to in her life. Alba had simply noticed it when she was driving Neve home. It wasn’t like Neve lived across the street. There were plenty of cafés a similar distance from Alba’s apartment that she never went to. It really wasn’t that odd.

Zainab shrugged, taking the lead on the way to the door. “It’s fine. I’m hungry, they have food, and, apparently, it comes recommended, so I’m sure it’s fine.”

“Right.” Recommendations from online reviews counted, right? It was only a slight bend of the truth.

“Maybe the staff will be cute and you can pick one of them up and stop pining over the dumped girl.”

“I’m not pining,” Alba insisted, catching her up. “And I’m not looking for a date. Despite your apparent insistence, I don’t even want to date Neve—”

“Nice name.”

“Right?” Alba felt herself smile before squashing it. “I really do just want her to be okay, and I hate not knowing things like that.”

“Indeed.” She opened the door and gestured Alba in ahead of her.

The place was nice—a well-developed aesthetic, plants, sleek wooden chairs, one wall painted with a dark limewash. Alba liked it a lot, which was both pleasant and unfortunate. If she liked it too much, she’d want to come back, and if she kept coming back, the chances of running into Neve in the area increased, and that would be… weird.

But she really meant it when she said she wasn’t interested in Neve. She had literally just been dumped. And, yes, maybe Zainab was right, and, in another set of circumstances, Neve would be Alba’s type, but Alba didn’t fancy every person she met who fit a handful of criteria. And she didn’t make a habit of crushing on sobbing, recently dumped women. No matter what Zainab seemed to think.

“Huh, not bad. Your friend’s got good taste,” Zainab said, pausing beside Alba.

“I’ll… tell them you said so,” Alba offered, knowing it was a lie, but deeply unwilling to share that Neve was the reason they were here. If she gave up that information, even if the recommendation hadn’t come directly from her, Zainab would never let it go.

“A friend I know?” she replied, asking exactly the question Alba didn’t want to answer.

“Um… Should we sit down?” The question was a cover, to buy more thinking time, but it was also a genuine question. The café seemed to sit somewhere between a regular café and a restaurant, and Alba wasn’t clear whether that meant they were supposed to pick a table, wait to be seated, or order first.

Whether or not Zainab noticed the stall quickly became irrelevant when a guy popped out from around the corner with a warm smile that did nothing to alleviate the shock of his sudden appearance.

“Eating in?” he asked, apparently unaware of the spike in Alba’s heart rate he’d just caused.

“Yes. Please,” Zainab replied, her tone implying a similar level of shock.

“Great.” He pointed down the room in a way that suggested there were more seats further back than they could see. “Find a seat anywhere you like and one of us will be with you soon. There are menus on the tables.”

“Thank you.”

Alba could hear the suspicion in Zainab’s voice, but she hoped the guy couldn’t.

They walked through the café together and, once they were out of earshot of him, Zainab hissed in Alba’s ear, “And your friend couldn’t have warned you about that?”

“I doubt he’s here every day,” Alba protested, suddenly protective of her non-existent friend. However, she felt certain that wasn’t the regular greeting because she’d read more than her fair share of reviews for the place and not one of them had mentioned getting the fright of their life upon entering. People liked to complain about a lot of things on the internet, so she could only assume that would be one of them.

“The rest of us won’t be here for many more days if he keeps jumping out like that.”

“Well, you can be sure to let them know via email if you so choose.”

She rolled her eyes. “Please, I’m not complaining.”

“Could have fooled me.”

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