Ezra turned to me. “Hmm?”
“Nothing.” I walked around Ezra to check out more of the wall. “I was just talking to myself.”
“You look happy,” he commented. “Did you have a good day?”
Without looking at him, I admitted, “I had a terrible day.” I ran my finger down the side of a black picture frame. “But this makes it better.”
I heard the smile in his voice without looking at him. “I was just thinking that.”
Those butterflies came back full force, jumping and flapping and causing all kinds of chaos inside me. Spinning toward him, I met his gaze bravely. “Do you want to hear my idea?”
He stared at me. “Do you want to tell me your idea?”
I shook my head, half mesmerized by the mysterious look in his eyes. It was warm and tender and familiar all at once. “Not really.”
He lifted one shoulder in a slow shrug. “Then I’ll wait for the big reveal.”
His answer made me doubt his sincerity. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Why would I be kidding?”
Because you’re a completely adorable control freak. “You really trust me that much? I’m painting an entire wall, Ezra.”
“In matters like these, Molly, I’m beginning to think I trust you more than anyone else I know.”
What was I supposed to do with that? Besides memorize it and the way he looked right now and the way his words made me feel safe, and important, and seen. I wanted to bottle this moment and keep it with me forever so I could pull it out every time I felt insecure or less than. So I could remind myself of what it was like to feel respected.
Because I did feel respected. For whatever reason, this super successful restaurateur had decided that I was a peer. Where my entire office failed to put any faith in me, he had risked his entire empire on me and my taste. He trusted me. When my boss shot down my ideas and dismissed my vision and groped me, this man had asked me to help him, put his full trust in me.
And he’d given me complete autonomy to do what I thought was best.
Ezra had no idea how much that meant to me, how much he had changed every single thing I believed about the world and being a grown-up and having a job.
“What do you need from me?” he asked when I hadn’t said anything after a while.
“Nothing right now,” I told him. “Will it be okay to put up the screens? I’m hoping to get a good start Saturday, but I don’t want to be too intrusive.”
“You’ll be fine,” he promised. “Let me know what I can supply you with and I’ll have it here for you.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you hungry?”
“What?”
He’d somehow managed to close the space between us. “Are you hungry? Have you eaten?”
“Uh, no.”
“Do you want to join me for a quick bite?”
My heartbeat tripled. “Like right now?”
One half of his mouth lifted in a smile. “Yes, like right now.” The smile disappeared. “Unless you have somewhere else to be.”
An irrational need to see his smile reappear prompted me to say, “No, I don’t have anywhere to be. So sure, dinner sounds good.”
“Okay, great. Have a seat over… here.” He walked me to a two-person table near the kitchen. “I have to go check on the kitchen before I sit down, but I’ll have Sienna bring you a menu.”
He pulled the chair out for me with a swift tug of his arm and suddenly I was beyond nervous. What was this exactly? An obligation? A working dinner?
“Thank you,” I rasped, barely getting words out of my dry mouth.
He motioned for Sienna the hostess to come over with an elegant flick of his wrist. She hopped into action, scurrying through the restaurant to see what he needed. Either she had a high school crush on him or he was a terrifying boss that she was petrified of pissing off.
Or a mixture of the two.
Not that I knew anything about that.
“Can you bring Molly a menu,” he asked her. “And a glass of water.” He looked at me. “Do you want anything else? A cocktail? Wine?”
I cleared my throat, hoping to magically get better at speaking. “I’ll just start with water. Thank you.”
“I’ll be right back,” Sienna promised.
Ezra smiled down at me when she’d disappeared. “I will be too. I just have to make sure everything’s running smoothly. Flag Sienna down if you need anything, or any of the wait staff if you can’t find her. This is my usual table so they’ll check on you.”
“Okay.”
He started to walk away, but paused halfway between me and the kitchen in door. “You’ll wait for me?”
His uncertainty made something hum inside me. “I’ll wait for you,” I confirmed.
That rare smile appeared, transforming his entire aura into relaxed happiness. It was amazing how he could switch it on and off. He went from intimidating dictator one second to blindingly beautiful in the next.
Not that he’d been much of a dictator tonight. In fact, he’d been really kind and thoughtful and attentive. Surely that would change. When he came back we’d find something to argue about. There weren’t two people that were more different than us. It was only a matter of time before we slipped back into our old habits.
He’d order me to do something. I would obviously refuse. He’d argue with me. I would win the argument this time. Then he’d have me escorted from the premises.
Which would be the perfect ending to my already stellar Monday.
But for some reason, I was looking forward to sparring with him.
Instead of dwelling on my work day, I pulled out my phone and started discreetly googling the ingredients to the French dishes he wanted me to pick from. They weren’t any help. I thought about grabbing Sienna to see if she could help make sense of the menu, but I chickened out when she refilled my water.
After a few minutes of waiting, Ezra returned to the table sans chef’s coat. He ran a hand through his hair several times on the way to the table as if trying to get it to obey again after it had been held captive beneath his chef’s hat. That alone should have kept my attention for the next five years seconds, but there was so much more to him than just the hair.
He was wearing a t-shirt. A t-shirt!
I had never seen him in a t-shirt before. And to be honest, I had never once, not one single time, thought a t-shirt could be revolutionary. But on Ezra it somehow was.
He looked younger and more relaxed. His arms were on display for the first time ever and they did not disappoint. Muscular and defined just like I knew they would be. He instantly made me recommit to five-thirty in the morning spin class.
His smile was big and genuine, gentle in a way that was so unexpected from him. He sat down across from me and I thought that maybe this was the moment I fell in love with him. Or okay, not love, but definitely lust.
So much lust.