Page 47 of Call My Bluff
Noah looked warily toward the bag without taking it. “This feels very familiar,” he declared.
She smiled slightly. “Don’t worry,” she assured him. “It’s just food. Really good food, actually; who knew you were such a good cook?”
She sounded surprised and—unless he was imagining it—more than a little impressed. He brushed the comment off as if it didn’t matter, even though it ignited a spark of pride within his chest. “I have many hidden talents,” he said, accepting the bag at last. “I’m glad you got to try some. You didn’t have to share.”
“It’s nothing,” she answered with a wave of her hand. “Like I said, I needed to come up anyway. I just wanted to say thank you—for the dinner, and for hanging out with me. It was nice to not be alone.”
“No problem.” Noah unzipped the top of the bag and immediately smelled soy sauce and garlic from the meat. The containerwas still warm, and his stomach growled loudly, despite the fact that he’d just finished eating.
“Well, I’ll let you enjoy. You probably don’t have a lot of time left,” Olivia said as she took a step backward. “Thank you, again.”
She didn’t stay to let him answer, and Noah peeled back the top of the covered dish without wasting any more time. Then he realized he didn’t have any utensils. He reached into the bag again, hoping she’d thought to bring him a fork, and was surprised to discover not only a fork but another square container as well. He pulled it out and opened it.
Inside was another sandwich. A toasted sandwich, to be exact... with dark-brown Nutella and pale bananas visible along the edges.
“My comfort food is Nutella toast with bananas.”
She’d remembered!
He looked up, first toward the store and then around the parking lot, and saw Olivia already climbing back into her Mustang in the next row, her hands empty except for her purse.
He smiled.
She hadn’t bought oatmeal.
13
On Monday afternoon,Noah left the grocery store and looked this way and that across the sparsely populated parking lot. His shoulders slumped when he realized there were no blue pickup trucks anywhere—not that he’d expected curbside taxi service, but he’d at least been hoping Jake wouldn’t forget about him.
He pulled his phone from his pocket before dialing his best friend’s number; it was one of the few he actually had memorized. The line rang, and rang, and rang again before finally connecting, but what he heard wasn’t Jake’s voice at all.
“Noah?” a woman asked, and it took a few seconds for him to realize he was talking to Lexie.
“Hey,” he answered. “Where’s Jake?”
“We’re in Copper Hill with his family. Did you need something?”
“Yeah, he’s supposed to pick me up from work. Conner hid all my tires, and my car is up on blocks in our driveway.”
“Noah, I’m sorry. Jake’s great-grandmother passed away a few hours ago, and the whole family is really busy.”
“Oh, tell him I’m sorry,” Noah answered, feeling his chest deflate. His conscience warred between feeling sorry that his friend had lost someone—which obviously wasn’t Jake’s fault—and irked by the very real possibility that he’d have to walk home.
“Do you have any coworkers going that way?” Lexie asked.
Noah glanced through the front windows of the store and saw Riley talking to a customer and Brendon cleaning up broken glass from a jar of spaghetti sauce. “No, not for a while anyway. I got lucky with a short shift,” he answered. “But don’t worry about it. You go take care of Jake, and I’ll figure something out.”
“You should ask Olivia,” Lexie suggested.
Noah considered this for a moment. He knew Olivia would be at her internship right now. But all he knew about it was that it involved working with kids; he honestly had no idea where it was actually located.
“She’s right down the street at the Harrelson Center. You know that place with the purple sign?” Lexie explained.
Noah leaned forward to peer down the four-lane highway in front of the store. He remembered seeing a big purple sign with stick figures and rainbows on it a few blocks away, though he’d never paid much attention. He could almost see it through the trees from where he stood.
“You probably should have thought of her first,” Lexie added. “You know... since you’re dating and all.”
There was a taunting edge to her voice that reminded Noah why this option made perfect sense. Or, at least, why itwould—if he and Olivia were actually together.
