Page 35 of With Love, from Cold World
This wasn’t exactly a surprise. Just from looking around, Asa could see evidence that things weren’t quite as they used to be. Minor signs of wear and tear that weren’t rushed to be fixed, understaffing during their off season, employee perks that had been gradually phased out. Nothing huge. And the business was old—Dolores had been running it a long time, and things had stagnated. It was presumably the reason she’d come up with her request for proposals to give the place a makeover.
But the way Lauren said those words—way down—made it sound more serious. He couldn’t tell if that was due to her propensity to worry, or if the situation really looked that dire.
He was working up the nerve to ask when his phone rang. “Hey, Kiki,” he said into the phone.
“Where are you? You were supposed to be home an hour ago.”
“Yeah, sorry, I’m still here. I’m actually—”
When he glanced over at Lauren, she was shaking her head emphatically, her eyes wide and stricken. It wasn’t hard to read her body language, and he pivoted quickly to avoid telling Kiki she was there. “It’s going to take longer than Ithought,” he said. “Don’t bother waiting for me. Anddon’ttell John, but I saw a spoiler online so I already know the elimination and it’s—”
“La la la,” Kiki sang childishly into the phone. “I’m not listening.”
He grinned. “I wasgoingto say it’s totally unexpected. You won’t see it coming.”
“Well, now I will! Because you told me not to expect it! That’s basically the same thing as a full-out spoiler.”
“Oh, then you won’t mind if I—”
She hung up on him. That didn’t bother him—he knew he’d deserved it. He typed a quick message into the group chat just to confirm that no one should wait up for him because he didn’t know how late he’d be. When he glanced back up, Lauren was watching him.
“Don’t want anyone to know you’re here with me, huh?” he asked.
She tugged the sleeve of her cardigan down over her hand, fiddling with a loose piece of yarn around the frayed edge. “Kiki helped me get ready for tonight. I just didn’t want her knowing it didn’t work out.”
Of course. Now Asa remembered the reference Kiki had made to Lauren borrowing and returning her dress, and she must’ve loaned it out again to Lauren for this date with Daniel. The idea of Lauren at his house, doing her makeup and fixing her hair, giddy with excitement about spending time with Daniel, assessing herself in the mirror and wondering whathewould think...
Under the table, Asa curled his hands into fists, then released them. “What is it about Daniel, anyway?”
He hadn’t meant to ask the question. It had just popped out. For one thing, he adamantly didn’t care to hear her extolhis virtues. For another, he already had a fair idea of what they were—Daniel was conventionally handsome and had all the outward markers of success. He was a businessman. He’d probably never had a single job that restricted when he could use the bathroom, for christ’s sake, whereas Asa had spent the last ten years counting out his federally mandated fifteen-minute breaks.
She’d finished her sandwich, the cling wrap folded into a neat square on the table in front of her. “He’s close with his mom, for one thing,” she said. “And I love Dolores.”
Danielworked forhis mom—that didn’t necessarily mean he was close with her. Asa got the impression that Daniel’s main connection in life was to himself. But maybe he was being unnecessarily harsh, given that if one of Lauren’s key attributes in a potential partner wasclose with family, that would eliminate Asa from the running.
Not that he wanted to be in the running.
“That’s it?” Asa prompted. “He has a good relationship with his mother?”
She shot him a glare. “No,” she said. “He also happens to be extremely...”
She appeared to be struggling to come up with the word, so he tried to help her out. “Boring? Arrogant? Dismissive? Rude?”
“You don’t even know him!”
“Andyoudo?”
She opened her mouth but shut it again, and he couldn’t hide his satisfied smirk.
“He also happens to be extremely sexy!” she burst out. “I’m not oblivious, okay? I know a guy like that would never look at someone like me. I know we’re not going to get married and have kids and live in a big house with a mother-in-lawapartment for Dolores. But he’s an attractive guy who wasfinallypaying me some attention, so sue me if I wanted to just see where it could go.”
Her eyes were bright, and he had the uncomfortable feeling she was close to tears. When he’d started down this line of questioning, he hadn’t thought she’d take it as an attack. He’d thought it was clear that his issues were with Daniel, and nothing to do withher. But then, maybe that was the problem—he hadn’t really thought this through at all.
“Lauren—” he said.
She stood up, pushing her chair back, and gathered the remnants of her dinner. “Thanks for the sandwich,” she said. “I’ll pay you back tomorrow.”
She chucked her folded cling wrap and crumpled napkin into the nearest garbage can and headed in the direction of the front office.
