My eyes grow wide. Claire? What on earth is she doing here?
“She said she’ll wait to have lunch with you.”
“Lunch?” I glance at my watch.
I hadn’t realized it’s almost noon. It’s almost noon and I’ve barely accomplished anything. I guess I might as well go have lunch with Claire. I’ve been thinking about her so much I might as well have called her here. And who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to focus on work after.
I look at Miller. “Tell Ms. Parker I’ll be down in ten minutes.”
~
I get down in five because I hate to keep a girl waiting. There aren’t a lot of people in the lobby, so I spot her immediately. Then again, even if there was a crowd, I’m pretty sure I could still pick out Claire’s head of gorgeous, blonde curls and her emerald eyes.
She’s wearing a white, knitted sweater paired with faded denims. It’s a simple outfit, and yet it hugs her slim figure so well that I find it hard to take my eyes off it. Or her.
Who am I kidding? She could be wearing a chunky, ugly Christmas sweater and I’d still find her attractive.
“Hey.” She gives me a smile as she stands up. “I hope I didn’t cause you any trouble by coming here.”
“No trouble at all,” I tell her. “But you could have just called if you needed anything.”
“Yes, I could have.” She takes out a box from her purse. “But then I wouldn’t have been able to give you this.”
I look at the box. “You baked me cookies?”
“Not me.” Claire shakes her head. “I don’t bake.”
My eyebrows furrow. “You’re a chef, right?”
“I know how to make pastry. I just don’t.”
Come to think of it, I’ve never seen her post a picture of a cake.
“Okay. So…” I look at the box of cookies again. “You… bought these?”
“Natalie baked them. I brought them. I thought you might want to taste them. Also, she baked a ton and I can’t finish them all by myself.”
Now I understand.
“I see.”
“In exchange, you can treat me to lunch,” Claire says.
I’m confused again. “I thought you said Natalie made the cookies.”
“But I wrapped them up and brought them to you,” she tells me with a grin.
I still don’t think that warrants a free lunch.
“Plus you didn’t buy me a drink at the bar when we first met,” she adds. “I mean when we met after I got back in town.”
True.
“And you’ve got a lot of money.”
Also true.
“Fine,” I give in. “I’ll treat you to lunch. And while we’re at it, we can start planning for Joel and Natalie’s wedding shower.”
Claire nods. “Yeah, sure.”
She grabs her coat.
“By the way, I’m in the mood for something Korean.”
~
In all my thirty years, I’ve never eaten at a Korean restaurant. I’ve never had Korean food. Yet here I am eating bibimbap while Claire is having a soup with dumplings, very spicy from the looks of it, though she doesn’t seem to mind.
I don’t mind my food, either. It tastes good, actually. Not too spicy. Lots of flavor. There’s a lot of texture in it, too. I’m not a chef but I’d say it’s a noteworthy dish.
“You like it?” Claire asks me as she dabs the corner of her mouth with a table napkin.
I nod. “It’s good.”
“Good.” She gives me a big smile. “I was a little worried that you…”
The rest of her sentence gets garbled as I get distracted by the green between her teeth. A bit of green onion, I think. Should I tell her about it?
“Anyway, thank you for granting my request. I…”
She stops as she catches me staring. Shit.
“Is something wrong?”
I should tell her. It’s the right thing to do.
I lean forward so I can whisper close to her ear. “You, um, have something between your teeth.”
“Oh.”
She turns away from me as she tries to fix the problem. Then she gives me another smile, this time without the green onion.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” I tell her.
Claire picks up her chopsticks. “I’d be embarrassed but you’ve seen me worse.”
True. So why am I acting like we’re strangers on a first date?
I relax my shoulders. “So, since when have you liked Korean food?”
“Ever since I went to Korea,” Claire answers. “I’m like that. I go to a place. I eat their food. I learn more about it. And I just fall in love with it. And that relationship goes on even after I’ve left that place.”
“Wow. So you’ve been… dating cuisines all this time?”
“Exactly. And I don’t have a favorite one. I love all of them. It just so happens that I’m in the mood for some Korean today.”
“Hmm. I hope the others don’t get offended.”
“You mean jealous?” She shakes her head. “Nah. They’re cool. Our relationship is very solid. They know I’m committed and they’re never going to break up with me. They can’t. They love me.”