Page 55 of She’ll Steal Your Heart
Mia didn’t getnervous very often, so the jittery feeling in the pit of her stomach on Friday night as she approached the restaurant where she was meeting Beth for dinner caught her off guard. And when her hands started fidgeting while she stood at the hostess desk, the realization that she was nervous only served to make her even more jumpy.
She’d been on a lot of dates over the last month, but this felt different because she and Beth had been flirting for months at the café. Mia really wanted tonight to go well. She was tired of first dates. She was ready to take the next step with someone. Surely she was at least ready for a kiss. God, it had been so long since she’d been kissed…
Her mind flashed to an image of Lauren, bare faced and rumpled after her nightmare. She remembered how good it felt to hold Lauren in her arms, the yearning in Lauren’s eyes when she’d looked at Mia, and how badly Mia had wanted to kiss her.
She’d promised herself that she’d get through this date with Beth before she addressed her feelings for Lauren. She had to be able to at least say she’d tried, because if she and Beth hit it off, well, that would be so much less complicated than starting something with Lauren. Mia exhaled, smoothing a hand over the front of her dress.
Lauren would like this restaurant, though. In fact—
“Mia.”
She turned, and Beth stood there in an emerald-green jacket over black slacks. Her dark hair was carefully styled, sleek and glossy. Mia smiled, unsure how to greet her, and those nerves reappeared, tightening her stomach. “Beth, you look amazing.”
“Thanks. I was going to say the same to you.” Beth leaned in, and they gave each other an awkward little half hug.
“Shall we?” Mia gestured to the hostess desk.
They were shown to a table in the middle of the dining room. Mia shrugged out of her jacket and hung it over the back of her chair before she sat, fiddling with the hem of her dress. Why was she so fidgety tonight? It was entirely unlike her.
“So, Mia,” Beth said as she sat across from her. “I’m curious. How did you go from being a lawyer to owning a cat café?”
“I guess you could say I burnt myself out,” Mia told her. “My wife and I worked for the same law firm, and we were extremely competitive with each other because of it, to the point where it made our entire relationship toxic. I landed in the ER with a bleeding ulcer, and it was a pretty harsh wake-up call.”
“I bet.” Beth’s tone was sympathetic.
“One day not long after that, I jokingly said to a friend that I wished I could just run away from my life and drink coffee and play with cats all day, and she suggested I open a cat café. She wasn’t serious, but I realized I was. I was ready for a change.” Mia smiled at the memory. It seemed fitting that it had been Lauren who gave her the nudge in this direction. Everything in her life seemed to circle back to Lauren these days.
“It must have been a pretty big adjustment,” Beth said.
“Huge,” Mia confirmed. “I’m still adjusting, really. Some days, I feel like I’m about to jump out of my own skin because the café is so quiet. I miss the thrill of being in the courtroom, but I couldn’t go back to that lifestyle.”
“Sounds like a good change, then.”
“Yes. Did you always want to work in advertising?” Mia asked, steering the conversation away from herself.
“Actually, no.” Beth’s lips curved in a small smile. “I wanted to be a television reporter.”
“You certainly have the face for it,” Mia said, meeting Beth’s gaze.
“I lasted two weeks reporting on traffic accidents and unruly shoppers in freezing, soggy weather before I realized it wasn’t for me. I’m much happier in an office.”
The waiter arrived to take their drink orders, and they ordered a bottle of wine to share. The conversation stayed lively as they sipped wine and ordered their entrees. Beth was smart and funny, exactly the kind of woman Mia had hoped to find, and yet, she couldn’t stop her mind from wandering as she ate.
Lauren was at home, working on her book, probably wearing the gray pajama pants with little kittens on them that Mia had given her last week. She’d seen them when she was shopping and couldn’t resist getting them for her. Lauren looked unfairly adorable in them. And…this wasn’t working.
Mia had assumed her attraction to Lauren was something she could move past, something sheshouldmove past. She didn’t want to rebound from her marriage with a friend, certainly not with a friend she valued as much as Lauren. If they crashed and burned, it could destroy their friendship, and she couldn’t bear the thought of that.
And yet, as Mia sat here, feigning interest in Beth’s tale about a difficult client, she wished she was with Lauren. She would be having so much more fun right now. She couldn’t seem to get Lauren out of her head, no matter where she was.
“I had a really nice time tonight,” Beth said after they’d settled the check.
“So did I,” Mia said, wishing she meant it.
They put their jackets on and walked outside, pausing on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. Beth moved closer, her intention clear on her face, and Mia took an involuntary step back. The thought of kissing Beth made her stomach clench, and not in a good way. Beth’s brow knitted, but she didn’t make another move to kiss her.
“I’d like to see you again,” Beth said. “Do you enjoy theater? Maybe we could see a show together.”
“I do.” Mia hated herself for what she was about to say. “But I think…maybe I’m not as ready to date as I’d hoped. I’m so sorry. It’s nothing to do with you. If I weren’t so recently divorced…” Or so completely infatuated with Lauren, but that seemed unfair to say.
