Page 59 of Can We Skip to the Good Part?
“What? Really?”
“To celebrate. Come downtown. There’s a little place around the corner from my office that I think you’ll love. Every time I pass it, I think of you. Today would be the perfect day to sit by the window and enjoy the gorgeous sunshine.”
“Listen to you. Why are you so cheerful today?” Ella asked, but she knew. She felt it, too, and kept checking her shoulder for bluebirds. None yet.
“Let’s just say it’s been a much-needed fifteen hours. Are you coming downtown?”
“I’ll be there. A corporate lunch.”
“If you ask a few legal questions, it certainly could be.”
The thought of Max explaining the law to her made her have to adjust the way she was standing. It took so very little to set off the sexual energy that bopped between them to its own unpredictable rhythm. “Well, now I have to. How about noon?”
“You’re on. I’d better go so Sonya can stop tap dancing for this couple. Today we’re discussing their Disney points and who should retain them.”
“Don’t give them to the wrong person either, Max. Make the mouse proud.”
“Says the real-life Disney princess.”
“Gasp out loud. Me?” She grinned, amazed that’s how Max saw her.
“Don’t get me started on the fantasies I’m not going to have the second we hang up.”
“Just know they’re encouraged,” Ella said, leaning in. “How are your boobs, by the way? Do they miss me?”
She was greeted with silence. Until finally, “You know they do. You are going to be the death of me in the best way.”
She grinned. “And on that note, I’d better go.”
“If you say so. Bye, Cinder-Ella.”
For good measure, she picked up her imaginary gown and walked sideways through the kitchen.
Max pushed openthe café’s glass-paned door, and a soft chime rang overhead, a delicate sound that suited the place perfectly. Inside Sugar and Bloom, the air was warm and rich with the scent of espresso and something buttery, like fresh croissants just pulled from the oven. Sunlight spilled through lace-curtained windows, casting patterns onto the checkered tile floor. Tiny tables, each adorned with a single bud vase holding a fresh flower, were arranged in cozy corners, and the walls were lined with shelves of mismatched teacups and framed sketches of Parisian streets.
It was the kind of place that felt tucked away, like the sort of café a romantic would stumble into while wandering a charming European side street. And it was exactly the kind of place that made Max think of Ella.
She glanced around, feeling just a little out of place in her usual business suit, but at least it was cream today and not black. She exhaled. There was something about the whimsy of it all—the delicate china, the handwritten menu on a chalkboard, the soft hum of French music—that made her smile. She hoped Ellawould feel the same way. This was kind of fun, an impromptu lunch.
She found a table in the corner, ordered herself a club soda with lime, and reflected on the upside-down week she had going. The bizarre dinner with her parents. The night she’d shared with Ella that felt like it had catapulted them into somewhere new and unexpected. The doctor’s appointment that loomed the next day with her mother. Then there was the still-dangling issue of her past with Rachel and Rachel’s friendship with Ella. In the midst of a whole lot going on, she chose to focus on the here, now, and the woman who just walked through the door and lit up the entire room.
Ella’s eyes roamed every inch of the place, taking in the detail with a childlike wonder that was so very her. She had a way of relishing the happy details. It made Max want to do the same.
“I love this place,” she said, depositing her bag on the table with a thunk. “Oh. Sorry about that.” She removed it. “Probably not my best Parisian manners.”
“The French are forgiving,” Max said with no knowledge of whether that was true or not.
“You scored us a table by the window, even. This day gets better and better.” She sank into the chair across from Max just as the sunlight lit up her blue eyes.
“I find if you ask for what you want, people are inclined to try and give it to you.”
Ella nodded and rested her chin on her hand. “That’s a tip I should pocket and use. I tend to make myself smaller when I’m intimidated.” She sighed. “I don’t think I advocate for myself as much as I should.”
“Well, you’ve certainly put me in my place a few times. It was a master class.”
“That’s different. You’re an entirely different example.”
Max quirked her head. “How so?” This was getting good.
