Page 69 of Third Time Lucky

I grab another dish towel and fan the offended alarm until it quiets. If only I could spontaneously combust right now and finish the performance.

I turn back to the two women a tad sheepishly to see their reactions – Lucy with a mischievous grin and Mitzi with a stunned expression. Well, this is embarrassing. A beautiful woman enters the room, and I nearly burn her fucking house down.

‘I’ll have to uh— start that one over,’ I say with a nervous laugh.

‘It happens to the best of us, dear boy,’ Mitzi says, now turning her attention back to the newspaper folded in half in front of her. ‘You should ask Lucy about the time she attempted a tuna melt in the toaster oven…’

Lucy cocks her head, looking at Mitzi with half a smile on her face.

‘I didn’t know you had to choose a “how toasted do you want this” setting. I also didn’t know it was already set to ten.’

I smirk, her sending one right back.

‘It stunk up the house for the entire day,’ Mitzi laughs. ‘We had to open all the downstairs windows.’

The two laugh, taking the attention off of me and giving me a chance to admire Lucy.

‘You, uh— you look nice,’ I say, my mind finally settling.

Her lashes flutter down, grazing her cheeks before returning to meet my gaze. ‘Just nice?’

‘More than nice.’

‘Thanks,’ she says with a proud smile.

‘Overlooking the fact that we almost just had to make an emergency call – you do look nice, dear,’ Mitzi coos. ‘What’s the occasion?’

She shrugs and sits down. ‘Just thought I’d dress up instead of down, that’s all – no need to scare Ash away every night. I didn’t realize he’d become a fire hazard at the sight of me,’ she teases, glancing at me with a crooked grin.

‘Sorry about that. I guess I got a bit distracted,’ I say with an apologetic smile, trying to regain some semblance of composure.

Mitzi lets out a light chuckle from behind her newspaper, clearly amused by the situation. ‘Oh, don’t worry, sweetheart. We’ve had worse disasters. Paul insisted he fry a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner a few years back. Remember that, darling?’

Lucy nods. ‘And that’s my dad’s “nearly burned down the house” story that influenced Mitzi’s decision to remodel the kitchen,’ Lucy says with pride. ‘Don’t worry, you’re only the third person to attempt burning down Mitzi’s house.’

She hops off her stool and joins me, opening the cupboard that stores the best pots and pans money can buy.

‘What can I help with?’ she asks, handing me another frying pan.

‘Nothing,’ I insist. ‘It’ll take me five minutes to get back to where I was. You sit.’

After pouring three glasses of wine and handing one to each of us, she follows the instruction.

‘You know,’ she says, sipping her wine. ‘I was thinking about your menu, and I have some ideas.’

‘Oh yeah?’ I ask, slightly terrified to look away from this pan. ‘Do I need to make an official appointment?’

She shakes her head. ‘I could just show you really quick,’ she shrugs.

‘No way. I’m hiring a professional to work for me and I’d rather witness your graphic design skills in action. Let me schedule an appointment formally.’

She presses her lips into a tight smile. ‘Alright, I’ll text you with the details.’

‘Perfect,’ I say.

At that moment, as she holds her phone in her hand, both of our devices chime with incoming texts. We share a laugh, knowing exactly what it is. Our goofball friends are taking this double-dating challenge to the extreme.

‘Do you want to read it or shall I?’ Lucy asks.

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