Page 14 of The Husband Hour
Desiree slid him his beer and handed Stephanie her cocktail. He waited until she was a safe distance down the bar and said, “What about you? Here for the summer?”
“Maybe. Things are a little up in the air at the moment. Cheers.”
“Cheers. You have a house here?”
“My family does. My sister lives here year-round.”
Matt’s heart beat just a little faster. “Really? I can’t imagine being here in the winter. What is there to do?”
Stephanie shrugged. “For normal people? Not much.”
“Your sister isn’t normal?”
“Depends on who you ask. My mother thinks she’s perfect.”
The last few syllables of that sentence were mush. Clearly, Stephanie was a few drinks in.
“And what does she think of you?”
“What do you think of me?” she asked, her hand on his thigh. Her eyes were glassy. Okay, he had to work fast. She was going to suggest they get out of there, he would have to say no, and that would be the end of that.
“I think,” he said carefully, “I think that you’re very beautiful. And I am going to tell your mother, and your sister, that I think so.”
“You should,” she said, slurring. “You should tell them! I dare you.”
“Dare accepted. I am going to tell them right now.”
She laughed. “You can’t tell them right now.”
“You’re right. Okay, I will tell them tomorrow. Where can I go to tell that sister of yours that you are the one who is perfect?”
“Well, that depends,” she said. “Are we having breakfast together?”
“I don’t eat breakfast,” he said.
“Too bad. She works at a breakfast place.”
“Maybe I’ll make an exception. What breakfast place?”
“Nora’s.” She finished her drink and set it down heavily. “Want to get out of here?”
“I wish I could, but I can’t.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why can’t you?”
“I’m working,” he said. And sleeping in my car.
She stepped shakily off her stool. “Your loss.”
“Agreed. Do you need a cab?”
“Fuck you,” she said.
Chapter Eight
The café expanded by ten tables every summer when Nora opened the outside seating. These were the days when the waitstaff would increase by three or four college kids, and Nora might find things so busy that she herself jumped behind the griddle. Lauren always felt off-kilter during the first “outdoor day,” as they called them.
She stuck to her usual section, front of the house, near the windows. Nora seated a thirty-something man, tall and good-looking enough to turn a few heads, alone at a two-top.
