Hello, Sunshine

“Do you make martinis?”

“Not well.”

“Just a beer, then.”

I filled up a pint and put it in front of him. “Five dollars,” I said.

“Five dollars?”

He shook his head, taking out a ten, motioning for me to join him in a beer. It was an offer I had to accept, pouring myself a pint, so I could pocket the other five.

“Maybe you should learn how to make a martini,” he said. “Increase that profit margin.”

“I don’t intend to be here long enough for it to matter.”

“Where do you intend to be?”

“Anywhere else.”

He tilted his head, taking me in, his phony smile disappearing, a different look appearing on his face. Like all of a sudden I interested him.

“To anywhere else,” he said, lifting his glass, tipping it toward mine.

I heard a glass shatter on the ground and turned in time to see Austin stand up, Carla slamming him in the chest.

“I’m out of here!” he screamed, throwing the front door open, heading outside. Then Carla started crying hysterically.

Ryan nodded in their direction. “Lovely couple,” he said.

“They’re here almost as much as I am.”

He motioned toward the front door. “I was just eating at the new French-Korean restaurant around the corner. Have you been there?”

I shook my head.

“The CEO wanted me to check it out with him.”

“Before he fired you?”

“We’re doing this new show, restaurants off the beaten path. Or, I should say, the Food Network is doing a show on off-the-beaten-path restaurants,” he corrected himself. “Though I’m taking it you’re not a regular viewer.”

“Not exactly.”

“Do you like to cook?”

“Does grilled cheese count?”

“But you like to eat?”

Truthfully, I loved to eat. My favorite activity since moving to New York (and one I couldn’t really afford) was scoping out delicious restaurants and dragging Danny to them on a day off. With our schedules, the scoping had subsided, as had the eating out. But I still kept notes of places I wanted to try, and of the most appealing foods—for whenever we had more time to seek them out.

But I didn’t have an opportunity to say any of that.

Ryan looked me up and down, the extra padding in my hips all the answer he seemed to need.

“Obviously you eat.”

“Are you getting to a point?”