Chapter 6
Victor
Hi Lucy! This is Victor. Your mom shared your number with me. I wanted to sort out some details for our date this Friday. Looking forward to meeting, I’ve heard so many great things about you.
Ihad a date. I tried to stalk this guy online, as any modern woman would, but to no avail. My mother was too busy to get back to me and had given me so few details to go off. I was going on this date sight unseen.
The evening of the date I tried on multiple different outfits while Gracie lounged on my bed offering opinions from under my fluffy, yellow duvet. Olivia was packing her own wardrobe and popping in and out of my room to see my progress.
“I think the first outfit was the best one, except with the black shoes instead of the white,” Olivia decided for all three of us as I stood in front of my full-length mirror, a little out of breath from all the changing and anticipation.
I wore cropped, black wide-leg jeans, black strappy sandals, and a white bandeau top. “Hair?” I asked.
“I like it down like this.” Gracie gestured to the mess of untamed red curls falling over my back.
“There needs to be some order,” I said, grabbing at a handful of my hair.
“I agree with Gracie. Your messy curls arekind of hot,” Olivia said, then promptly marched off down the hallway. Stevie was hopping over the different piles of clothes dropped across my bedroom floor.
I blew a red curl out of my face. This messy hair and my messy self were going to meet Victor. “Who knows,” I said to Gracie. “Maybe I’m going to see the love of my life tonight?”
Iarrived at the restaurant a little early due to jitters with the whole years- since-my-last-date thing. Also, thanks to jitters, I sat in my car for a while taking a few breaths and messing with my hair until it was a few minutes past our meeting time. Finally, I left my yellow Bug.
I knew the hostess, Riley, from high school and she wiggled her shoulders excitedly as she told me my date was already waiting for me at a booth. “Right this way,” she said, her brown bob bouncing along with her. Riley’s enthusiasm made me wonder if people in town noticed I hadn’t been on a date in years. That feeling had to be in my imagination, right?
I followed her through the restaurant until my gaze landed on a familiar face waiting alone at a table.
I recognized the thick dark hair and the big, brown, puppy-dog eyes. It all clicked as I arrived at the table and Riley left us to get settled.
“So…you’re Victor.” I shook my head in disbelief. His name tag had said Victor Hernandez, hadn’t it? I knew the Hernandezes—of course, my mom was right. Everyone knew the Hernandez family.
“And you’re Lucy.” Victor laughed heartily. “I actually kind of wondered if it’d be the same angry little redhead that stormed into my boss’ office.”
“I just keep running into people I know but don’t actually know.” I plopped down beside Annoying Adam’s assistant. “Well, hi.”
“Hi.” He was grinning. His teeth were shiny and perfect. “Adam is going to love to hear about this.”
“He might fire you for dating the enemy,” I squinted gamely.
“I think you’re less his enemy than he is yours,” he said carefully. “I think the fury is a little one-sided. For Adam, it’s not fury he’s feeling, but more like irritation. Like when a fly keeps buzzing around your head.”
“Well, maybe he would be more furious if I had stolen the summer job he’d loved since he was a kid,” I said, trying to sound calm and collected, not as indignant as I felt being compared to a fly.
“To be fair, you were trying to steal his job. His job includes running the summer festival. It’s just the guy before him offloaded that particular duty to you?—”
“My grandma?—”
“And before you, he offloaded it onto your grandma.” Victor chuckled like he found the whole thing amusing.
The waitress showed up and took our order. He got the beef ravioli and I got the capellini tomato basil.
I thanked the waitress as she walked away then turned back to Victor, unable to focus on anything during this date but Adam. “He thinks I’m trying to steal his job?”
“Sure. It’s a two-way street. You both think you’re the one who should be running the festival when technicalities lie in his favor. Sure, you have an emotional history with the festival that I respect, and he respects, too, by the way, but technically it’s supposed to be his job.” He was buttering a roll as he said this. “And if Adam is anything, he’s the guy who follows the rules. Even if it makes beautiful women who are used to getting what they want very angry.”
I rolled past the compliment. “Sure, the paperwork probably says it’s supposed to be him. But doesn’t he have the power to change what the paperwork says?”
Victor considered this. “Maybe.”
“That’s my point. He could change things up and include me.” I hadn’t touched the appetizer. My hands were too busy emphasizing my points.
“I don’t think he was ever against including you. He was against handing the whole festival over to you.”
“Oh, I could tell he was against any and all involvement from me,” I said dramatically. Though I knew I was the one against any and all involvement of Adam. I could get laser-focused.
My sisters called it my “Lucy Vision” when I couldn’t see anything but what I wanted and how to get it. They’d snicker, “Oh no, she has her Lucy vision turned on,” when I did things like deciding we were going to throw our mom a huge 50th birthday party themed around the ’50s era, throwing myself—and them—into it. I even hired an Elvis impersonator, who Grandma wound up dating for a hot minute.
Or when I decided we were all going to learn Italian before we went on our Italian vacation, and I bought us a curriculum and hired a tutor, whom Gracie dated for a hot minute.
Or the summer I decided to sew all my own clothes. Also known in my family as my Seamless Summer.
Or when I decided I was going to take over Grandma’s summer festival after she passed, promising myself that I would do it with all my heart every year, like she had done before me.
“So, if I saw Adam tomorrow morning and said, ‘Hey, that Lucy girl would actually still like to volunteer’, you’d be up for that?” He cocked an eyebrow, his voice syrupy with disbelief.
“Certainly,” I said, devoid of any zeal. He didn’t seem convinced.
Our food arrived and we both excitedly dug in. We tried to learn more about each other, but the conversation kept looping back toward Annoying Adam.
It was me, but it was him, too. I think both of us couldn’t shake our first impressions or the obvious firestorm between me and his boss.
He was cute, sure, and friendly. But the fireworks just weren’t there. It didn’t help that he”d compared me to a fly at one point.
We finished our dinner quickly, strolling out of the restaurant in under an hour.
“So, uh, this isn’t going anywhere, huh?” he said as we stepped outside. I burst out laughing at his bluntness.
“I suppose not.” I winced apologetically.
“You got any sisters?” He opened his hands wide in question.
I broke into laughter again and held up two fingers as an answer when someone bumped into me. Victor’s expression went from playful to serious in seconds as I twisted my head to see who had just bumped into me.
Adam was the someone who had bumped into me and was now awkwardly standing in front of our giggly twosome. His assistant and the woman who’d been messing with his professional life…on an obvious date.
“Adam!” Victor said with a forced joviality. “Good evening.”
“Hi, there,” I said, not attempting to conceal the awkwardness in my tone. I also tried to ignore how much more my type he was than my own date, looking away from his sky-blue eyes.
“I didn’t know you two were…When did…Nice,” Adam stuttered.
“We were just leaving dinner.” Victor gestured behind us toward the brick Italian restaurant covered in vines.
“I was heading to pick up a takeout order.” Adam nodded toward the door. His cheeks were flushed when he looked from Victor to me. “How was your, uh, dinner?”
“Great,” I said, plastering on a big smile. “We had a great time. You’ve got a good one here.” I elbowed Victor playfully. Not sure what I was doing or why.
Adam eyed our physical closeness. His body was noticeably rigid and eyes narrowed. He didn’t like it.
Probably he was worried I’d get Victor on my side.
“Good for you,” he said, looking straight into my eyes, almost like a challenge. I looked right back. My stomach had that feeling when you looked down from a great height, a flutter that spread through my chest.
There was a moment of tense silence. I looked toward the parking lot for my car, getting ready to leave and rustling the keys already in my hand.
“Hey, you know what? Lucy here was telling me she’d still be down to volunteer,” Victor interrupted the quiet.
Adam stepped back in surprise. “Oh,” he said. There were quite a lot of things he could say to this. I knew because I’d be saying them if the roles were reversed. I waited to hear any of the jabs he could say. He swallowed then said roughly, “Offer still stands.”
“You know my number,” fell out of my mouth. Why did I say that?
It was like I glitched when I was around this man, like my control center went haywire.
He took in a quick breath. “That I do.” Then he looked between Victor and me. “I’ll let you two get back to your date, then.” His gaze was a question mark, giving us the opportunity to laugh and say, ‘Oh no, this isn’t a date.’
Instead, I said, “Thanks, enjoy your takeout.” I began walking in the opposite direction down the sidewalk, Victor at my side.
Victor had a wrinkle between his brow as he looked down at me with curiosity. Even he could feel the tension crackling between Adam and me.
I had to admit, as I stole a peek over my shoulder and my eyes locked with Adam’s, whatever it was between us, was explosive.