Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lilly sat at the end of the bar on one of the tall wooden stools.
It was a quiet part of the day and she spent her time doodling on a napkin.
She was lost in her own thoughts as she kept drawing.
There were dozens of napkins scattered around as she picked up a new one to draw on.
After coming downstairs a few hours ago and eating breakfast and drinking copious amount of coffee she felt compelled to stay.
“By the looks of things my cash flow today is going to look bad,” Elijah said from behind her. “And I’ll need to buy some more napkins.”
Lilly spun around on the stool and nearly fell off as she overbalanced at the sound of his voice.
He caught her before she fell and placed her back on the chair.
His hands lingered a little too long on her waist. She wriggled to get him to drop his hands, they were at work and she didn’t want to draw any attention.
“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s a habit that I come in here once a day, now that I don’t have work to escape from I am at a loss at what I can do,” Lilly said.
“It’s ok, I was teasing, but by looking at these drawings you may be the answer to my current nightmare,” Elijah said.
“Oh?” she said. “How can I help?”
“It doesn’t matter, I’ll have to figure this out myself,” Elijah said.
“Just tell me Elijah, you’re not on your own, let me help if I can,” Lilly argued.
“Let me think it through and I’ll let you know later on, what are your plans tonight?” Elijah asked.
She didn’t want to tell him she had no plans.
She led a solitary life and up until she’d met Elijah she thought it was enough.
The truth was, she felt instantly lonely, the moment she left his company.
Elijah had a large circle of friends, a family he spent a lot of time with and a social life within his work.
All she had was her job and her art and that was it.
Her brother only wanted to see her when he needed something and at the moment her parents weren’t even speaking to her.
She felt lost and alone and didn’t know how she was going to get around this problem.
Looking over her shoulder she looked up at Elijah.
“I don’t have much planned, are you working here tonight?”
“Yes, it’ll probably be busy and we’re still short staffed.”
“I could work if you want? I don’t mind doing a shift. I’d need to go home and change but would be happy to,” Lilly said.
“Really? Would you do that?” Elijah asked and beamed.
“Of course, what time would you want me here? Is 6pm too early?”
“That would be perfect but you don’t have to, I am sure we’ll cope,” Elijah said.
“I’ll be here. See you later on, I’m going to get.”
“I’ll see you at six,” Elijah said feeling disappointed she was leaving so soon.
Elijah wanted to talk more to Lilly but couldn’t think of a thing to say, he wasn’t ready to let her go. His mind went blank, and he blurted out the first thing he thought about.
“On second thoughts, I don’t need you tonight, I’ve just remembered we have a small private party and won’t need as many staff,” Elijah said. He watched the disappointment wash over her face. She really did want to work tonight, but he had a better idea.
“Will you come with me to dinner tonight?” Elijah said. “Since Olivia came into Jack’s life she insists on dinner every Thursday evening. Will you come with me? You’ve met her now and it will be just the four of us.”
“Ok, that sounds great, where shall I meet you and what time?” Lilly said, relieved that she didn’t have to work at Blue’s, she was still so tired.
“I’ll pick you up at seven. We can walk around to their place, you two don’t live that far away from each other,” Elijah offered.
“Great.”
She lifted herself off the stool and left Elijah to it.
Even though he would have to make do with not seeing her for the next few hours, he was content that she accepted his dinner date with no hesitation.
Jack and Olivia could be full on at the best of times but bringing a date with him would be headline news.
He would have to let them know that there would be one extra for dinner.
Elijah opted for text message and then he could avoid the grilling that would more than likely follow.