Page 28 (1/2)

"So, decaf with dessert tonight?"

"Even that ht be too much"

"Then maybe some ill counteract it"

When ere seated at our table, I had the strangest feeling that I was sitting across fro for months, but this felt like a first date--the aard kind of first date where you can’t think of anything to talk about because you don’t know enough about each other to even start a conversation and asking questions to get to know each other feels like an interrogation

"What’s the new boss like?" he asked h it was an obvious topic for discussion, because I was afraid I’d gush "He seems pretty cool," I said hat I hoped looked like a casual shrug "He’s got a lot of ideas aboutpeople will leave their coy, I take it None of those newfangled e-books for hie to jump to Owen’s defense

"Actually, he’s pretty young--around thirty, I’d say But he is kind of old-fashioned, in a good way I like his vision of bookstores, and he’s asked y"

"That should be good for your résu wasted the past year in a retail job, you can now call it a job within your field"

I bristled again, but cru "If I get to do interesting stuff, Icoffee, but if I get to help on the business side of things, itaround for I really seem to have clicked with Owen"

He choked on the sip of wine he’d just taken, then had a brief coughing fit "Sorry, that went down the wrong way," he said

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I’ry, alar Was he jealous of a boss I’d barely mentioned? I’d worked so hard to talk about Owen in a neutral way Maybe I’d overdone it to the point it looked like I was hiding soh the rest of dinner, and hisup soot the io over well I would have begged off of dessert and said I needed to get home, but he did it before I could He didn’t even walk ave me a perfunctory kiss at the restaurant door and hurried away, like he was late for a iven up dinner with Owen for that very unsatisfactory date

Before I even had , Florence demanded, "I want to know the whole story"