The Fortune Cafe (8 page)

He drummed his fingers on the table top. “Gotta watch out for those sneaky guys.”

“Especially when they’re good-looking.”

Her face heated up from merely warm to sun surface temperatures when she realized she said that part out loud. But the look on his face, the one of approval, and the leap of excitement in his eyes were reward enough to make her not regret it so much as simply feel embarrassed by it.

“I’ll call you maybe,” she said. “If I need anything. Thanks for coming in to check on me. See you later?”

“You absolutely will,” he said.

She rushed to the back kitchen to fetch table nine’s food and get it delivered to them. She’d been talking long enough that the orders had to be ready. On her way back to deliver the food, she halted mid-step, startled to find Harrison still sat at table thirteen. Hadn’t they just said good-bye? Why was he still sitting there?

As she maneuvered her tray over to table nine, she shot another look back at him and her toe caught the edge of a chair. The stumble off-balanced her with the tray in her hands, and it tilted and crashed to the ground. That was when she realized that not only had she dumped an entire order on the ground, she’d nearly dumped it on an actual customer. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” Emma said, horrified that she’d been too sidetracked by looking at Harrison to focus on her job. “I’ve never done that before. It’s lucky you moved right then, or you’d have sweet and sour sauce all over you right now.”

The younger woman shrugged off her near calamity as if it was nothing. Emma ran back to let Nate know they needed table nine’s orders remade, then rushed to table nine to apologize for the misfortune, promising the couple free dessert to make up for the inconvenience. Only then could she focus on the mess.

Except that Harrison was already there cleaning. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“This is that helping thing we talked about a minute ago. I’m getting the feeling you don’t let people assist you enough, or you wouldn’t have to have me continually defining it for you.”

Cái peeked around the corner and saw Harrison kneeling on his tiled floor cleaning up Emma’s mishap. He grinned at Harrison. “You know if you want to work here, I can get you an application.”

Harrison laughed as he scooped up sweet and sour glazed chicken and dumped it into the bin Emma had retrieved for him. “Well, I do know where all your cleaning supplies are located. Do employees get any kind of perks?”

Cái wagged a finger at Harrison. “You already had your fortune. What greater perk could you need?”

Emma groaned as she dumped the last bits of broken dishes into the garbage can. “Cái thinks his restaurant is magic.”

“Really? Why?”

“Here, the fortunes
really
come true.” Emma nodded as if sharing a great secret instead of a great bunch of baloney. She lowered her voice to a stage whisper. “We have magic cookies.” She nodded again and winked at Cái, who for once didn’t seem to be taking the bait.

He only grinned at her. “Yes, Emma. Yes, we do. Don’t you agree, Harrison?”

Harrison gave Emma a look she couldn’t read, but he didn’t answer. He straightened and made a grab for the mop, but Emma pulled it from his reach. “Don’t tell me you’re buying into Cái’s creepy cookie theory.”

“I’m just glad to be here.” He then said, “Except actually…” He pulled his phone from his pocket and scowled. “Hey, I gotta go run some errands and keep my world turning for a little while longer.”

She nodded her agreement, and he turned away, his face unreadable as he peered at the screen of his phone and hurried out of the restaurant. Maybe she’d freaked him out when she told him that Cái believed in magic cookies?

She glanced around the kitchen area and swallowed her disappointment. Harrison had left, and his leaving felt abrupt enough to be called an escape. She considered asking Cái for a refund on her cookie fortune but felt too disheartened.

Better to get back to her job and focus so she didn’t drop any more trays. She serviced the table where the young woman she’d nearly spilled the tray on sat. The young woman sat with two older couples and a guy who looked annoyed to be there. It had to be a meet-the-new-in-laws get-together. And Emma was the
lucky
waitress who served them.

She felt sorry for the girl and, as she went back to the kitchen to place the orders, decided that the one good thing about being perpetually single was that she’d never have to do the awkward in-law meeting.

Except looking at the bright side of her singleness thrummed something raw and painful deep in her stomach. She’d had a boyfriend in high school, but none since.

When her dad died and the world fell on her shoulders, there hadn’t been time for men. Besides, who wanted to date the girl with the neurotic mom? The couple of dates she had been on had been interrupted with phone calls demanding immediate attention as her mom wailed her distress loud enough that the guy had heard every word. Those guys never called back.

She didn’t want Harrison to be like those men. She didn’t want him to think she wasn’t worth the trouble. Because no matter what she’d said to Cái, she really liked the idea of Harrison chasing her. But maybe it was better if Harrison didn’t chase her, because there was no way she could allow herself to get caught. She couldn’t pull anyone else into the emotional black hole of her mother’s life.

She was glad she’d canceled the dinner plan, glad she’d told him how busy her life would be, and glad that he’d checked for himself to find that she’d been honest about that. He was only in town for two weeks. He could spend that time with his family and go back east, and she could continue being resigned to living her life as the reclusive girl with the crazy mom.

Because she didn’t want him falling through the chasm of her mother’s depression. That was a fall she had to take alone.

Harrison glanced at his phone again to see the address his sister had forwarded him. She wanted him to meet her at the seaside reception center where she’d planned to hold their parents’ thirtieth wedding anniversary party. He’d managed to avoid her since the restaurant fiasco. He wasn’t up to her instigating a face-to-face confrontation with Andrea. But the anniversary party was important. He couldn’t put it off any longer. He pulled into the parking space next to his sister’s sedan and then entered the marbled building to find her.

She stood at a fountain that burbled in the center of the main room. She stared at a large menu in her hands. It appeared that Andrea wasn’t with her. “Hey, Kris!” he called.

“Harrison!” she called back, but hers was not a friendly greeting. It was a definite growl. “You’re in trouble.”

“Usually am.” He gave her a hug even though she stood rigid and glaring at him. He refused to let go until she gave in and hugged him back— even though she did it with a swat from the menu to his shoulder.

“I can’t believe you humiliated Andrea in front of an entire restaurant.” She took another swipe at him. “And then you never called her to apologize.”

She raised her hand to smack him with the menu again, but he caught her hand.

“Called to apologize? I can’t believe you’re taking her side. You’re unbelievable. I’m the blood relative here, and I’m the one who was assaulted and humiliated.
She threw her meal at me.
”

“She actually did tell me that.” Kristin’s voice softened a little. “How’s the waitress?”

Harrison let go of Kristin’s hand and narrowed his eyes. “She didn’t press charges. Andrea’s lucky.”

Kristin finally had the decency to look abashed. “It was bad enough she could’ve pressed charges?”

“Andrea threw a plate at the owner, but it hit Emma instead. Property was damaged, Emma’s arm looks like a car ran over it, and a huge mess was made.”

“She did say she had no idea what came over her. Your rejection threw her pretty hard. She really does love you, Harrison.” Kristin lifted her eyebrows. “I have no idea why.”

“And it isn’t that I don’t care about her— although I confess I’m far less inclined to care about her after her little outburst— but we’re not good together. You know? Not like you and David. Not like Mom and Dad. Some people make sense. Others... don’t. Andrea and I don’t make sense together. You can respect that, right? No more trying to force us back together?”

“She’s my friend. I hate to see her heartbroken.”

“I’m your brother. Doesn’t my heart count?”

Kristin blew out a breath of annoyance and put her arm around him for a squeeze, though he flinched because he thought maybe she planned on swatting him with the menu again. “I guess so. But please tell me you’ll still bring her to Mom and Dad’s party. Things will be so awkward if she has to come alone.”

“Kris... what if I want to bring someone else?”

“The waitress?”

“I can’t believe Andrea even brought that up to you guys. Don’t say it like that. Emma isn’t just the waitress. I’ve known her since high school. She saved me from getting beat up every day. She’s... always been interesting to me.”

“You are such a wimp. A girl had to save you from getting beat up?”

He leaned over to the fountain and flipped his hand so water sprayed out at his sister. She let out a squeal and moved to retaliate except one of the employees of the center ducked his head outside of his office to see what was going on. Kristin straightened up.

“It’s just a night. You don’t have to be there as Andrea’s date, but she
is
going to be there. I can’t not invite her just because you get all lovesick over a waitress. And it’ll be insanely awkward if you bring a different girl. Maybe go stag? I just want the night to go well for Mom and Dad, okay?”

“I’ll think about it, but I promise nothing.” With that declaration, he and his sister got down to business.

She toured him through the location, showing him where the food would be set up, where the DJ would be able to hook up his equipment, and how the dining tables would be arranged around the dance floor. She handed him the menu and rattled off all the details of the food, expecting Harrison to pay attention. He had a hard time focusing, because he kept thinking about Emma.

He had really wanted to take her to his parents’ party. Maybe he could talk to Andrea and work out something that wouldn’t be awkward, but he doubted it. The way she’d flipped out on him was unreal, a complete mental break.

He followed his sister around the gardens with the outside fountain while she droned on and on about fairy twinkle lights. He hadn’t even known fairy twinkle lights were a thing. He made all the appropriate expected comments about how fairy twinkle lights would be great and of course a vegan option made sense for those guests with particular food needs, even though he knew the only guest his sister worried about was Andrea.

Harrison appreciated the work his sister had put into the event because he knew it really did mean a lot to his parents. He also appreciated that his sister had insisted she needed help in planning and had strong-armed him into taking two whole weeks off for the party.

He might not have met up with Emma otherwise.

He owed his sister big time for that one. And he planned on using the two weeks to the fullest. He smiled thinking about the way Emma had blushed when her boss had teased her over the fortune she’d received. And though Harrison didn’t put any stock in the silliness of clairvoyance, the fortunes he and Emma had received were totally dead accurate. He’d been brave once and actually said the words “I love you” to Emma on their graduation day, but he hadn’t been brave enough to say them loud enough. He had loved her all those years ago. Loved the quiet way she helped other people— the quiet way she helped
him
. Loved the doodles on her papers, and had loved reading the papers themselves. As soon as he saw her again at the restaurant, he knew he’d been reunited with his soul mate. And he had every intention of chasing her down. So what if he had to give up one night to the anniversary party?

He still had eleven other days and nights before his flight took off. He planned to use them to maximum capacity, which meant he needed to hurry his sister along with her little tour so he could call Emma and see if she needed any help with her mom. He could offer to bring over some soup, or whatever. He sighed as Kristin pointed out the various places they could use for family photos.

He was ready to chase Emma in earnest.