“I’m on my way to the restaurant, don’t get your panties in a twist.”
“Okay, I’m leaving in ten, so I’ll meet you there.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I say and hang up on him. I pull into the parking lot at the same time as Luke is walking out.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he asks when I get out of my car, looking at his watch. “It’s ten o’clock on a school night.”
“I know,” I huff. “I’m meeting a friend.”
“The hockey player?” he asks, and I gawk.
“Is nothing sacred?” I cross my arms over my chest, and he laughs.
“The restaurant is closed for the team.” He chuckles. “But Clarabella did say you went to the game tonight.” He looks around. “She would be very interested to know that you came here.” I start to talk, and he holds up his hand. “I’ll save that for you to tell her.” He comes over and kisses my cheek. “Go in the back so no one sees you walk in.”
“Thank you,” I say, walking over to the back door. I smile at the cooks as I make my way to the front, sliding onto a stool at the bar.
“If it isn’t Sofia,” Anthony, the bartender, says. “My night just went from sucky to amazing.” He winks at me and I just laugh. Anthony and I have worked side by side behind the bar a couple of times when we were stuck at the venue and had to call in help. “What can I get you?”
“I’ll have a white wine, please,” I tell him and he nods and walks away. I’m about to take my phone out when I feel the stool next to me being pulled out.
I look over and see him, his hair still wet from the shower. The smell of his cologne hits me right away, and suddenly, I’m back in the whirlwind that is Matthew Petrov. I’m about to say something to him when he shocks me with his question. “Is that a friend of yours?”
matthew
I stand here for a couple of seconds waiting to see if she is going to answer me, putting my hands in my pants pockets before I do something stupid like drag her away from here and anyone else who wants to look at her. She looks over at me. “Anthony and I are friends actually.” I smirk at her answer. The minute she agreed to meet me, I ran back in the room, gave two interviews that I rushed through, and ran out of the shower not even waiting to dry my hair. I tucked my tie in the jacket pocket and hightailed it to her. When I walked in, it took me two seconds to find her at the bar.
“Where is the girl?” I ask, looking around.
“She had to get home to her daughter,” she replies, and I’m even happier it’s just the two of us. I mean, I would have taken her any way I could.
“Here you are,” Anthony says, coming back over. He puts a white square napkin down on the bar before he places the glass of white wine in front of her. He smiles at her before he turns to look at me. “Can I get you anything to drink?” he asks.
“I’m good,” I tell him, instead of doing what I want to do and that is throat punch him. He nods at me before walking down the bar. “Should we grab a table?” I ask, looking around to see that most of the guys came out tonight. There are definitely more people who come out after a win than when we lose. It’s usually a hit or miss for me. If Sofia wasn’t here, I would have gone home, but nothing could have stopped me from talking to her.
“Yes.” She nods, grabbing her bag and holding her hand up for Anthony, who comes back over. He walks as if he’s on a catwalk, and if I thought I hated him before, I was wrong. “Can I get the bill?”
“I’ve got it,” I assure him. “We’re going to go to the table. I’ll settle up at the end.”
“No problem,” Anthony says. “Besides, that one was on me.”
Do you know those cartoons where you see the guy getting hit on the head with a frying pan over and over again until he sees stars? That’s what I think of when he says this.
“Aren’t you the sweetest?” Sofia plays with him, and I have to bite down. “Next time, it’s on me.”
Never going to happen, I almost say out loud, but instead I put my hand to her lower back, guiding her to a booth in the back of the restaurant. She slides into the booth, while I take off my suit jacket and toss it at the end of my side of the booth before sitting in front of her. I roll the sleeves of my shirt up to my elbows once I unbutton them.
“Have you eaten?” I ask while I look down at the menu that was placed on the table before we even sat down. We usually rent out the whole place so no one is coming up to us while we enjoy our meals.
“I ate a hot dog at the game,” she says, grabbing her glass of wine, “and a pretzel.” She takes a sip and looks around.
The server comes up to the table. “Hi, I’m Suzanna. Can I get you anything?”
“I’ll have the grilled salmon with steamed veggies,” I tell her, then glance at Sofia, who is now looking down at the menu.
“I’ll take a small house salad and a plate of fries.” She looks up, smiling at the server, who nods at her before turning back to me. “Can I get you anything to drink?”
“I’ll have a water,” I tell her, handing her my menu for her to take the hint and leave us alone. Ever since I walked in here and saw her, all I knew was I didn’t want to share her.
“Coming right up,” she chirps, walking away from us. I look back over at Sofia, who is still looking around.
“What are you doing?” I ask, turning my head and looking around, wondering if she saw someone she knew.
She finally looks back at me, tapping her finger on the base of her wineglass. “Is this going to be something they talk about tomorrow?” she asks, and my eyebrows pinch together because I have no fucking clue what she is talking about.
“I have no idea what you mean by that,” I say, leaning back on the booth and stretching my arms across the back.
“Well,” she says, grabbing her glass again, “not too long ago, you were engaged.” She brings the glass to her lips. “And I was your wedding planner,” she adds, right before she takes a sip to stop herself from talking.
“Things change.” That is the only thing I can say. I hadn’t really announced that the engagement was on. And if it wasn’t for Helena’s post on social media with a picture of the ring, no one would have caught wind of it.
“But do they?” She puts her glass down, and Suzanna comes over with the glass of water for me.
“They do,” I confirm, grabbing the glass and finishing half of it.
“Let me ask you something.” She looks me dead in the eyes, and for the life of me, I can’t remember a time I didn’t love her. Which is the strangest thing because I haven’t seen her in two years.
“You can ask me anything,” I tell her. Now it’s my turn to tap the table nervously.
“After we met the first time.” I tilt my head to the side. “Why did you come back?”
The pit of my stomach burns with this question. “I didn’t,” I finally say, “I wasn’t planning on it. Actually, the minute we walked out of the office, I turned and said we weren’t using you.” Her eyebrows go up at this declaration. “Helena told me at the last minute she booked you.”
“You didn’t try to convince her otherwise?” she asks the loaded question. It’s the same question Christopher asked me when I told him we were using Sofia. It will probably be the first question my cousins will ask me once they find out.
“I figured if I did.” I look around, not ready to admit the next part. “She would want to know why.”
Sofia’s eyes almost bulge out of their sockets. “So she didn’t know about me?”
“No.” I say the word and see the hurt in her eyes, right before she builds the wall back up, making my heart hurt. I want her to ask me why. I’m ready for her to ask me why. She might not be ready for it, but I am. Except she doesn’t ask me another question. Instead, she picks up her glass of wine and looks away from me as she takes two gulps.