Chapter 17
B enny and I were mid-conversation when our waitress and three other servers descended upon our table with a bevy of dishes placed on trays.
“Incoming,” Benny said, her eyes lighting up, as we both watched fifteen small plates cover our table, the servers using Tetris-like skill to fit them all on.
We were seated in the middle of the small dining area and everyone else in the room quieted down to a hush as they watched us.
I felt the strangest sensation of pure delight crawl its way up my body and once it reached my mouth, I broke into a smile so big my cheeks pushed my eyes into a squint.
“There! That’s a real smile,” Benny cried, pointing at me over the table. “That one reached your eyes.”
Before I could respond, we heard a deep voice behind the servers. “You know,” he said, “I always wondered when someone was going to order everything on the menu at once, but it hadn’t happened until now. I had to come out and say hello.”
When the servers finally departed, there stood a man in chef whites, giving us both a friendly smile, hands behind his back.
It was dim in the restaurant and he for sure hadn’t seen us yet, but my mouth dropped open, and I let out a little surprised gasp.
I would recognize the figment of all my teenage fantasies from anywhere.
He was somehow even more beautiful than I remembered.
“Alex?” I said. “Alex Perry?”
His hands dropped and his face lost its smile as he stepped forward, scanning. Once he stepped into the light, and recognized us, his green eyes went wide.
“Benny and Charlie Quinn? No fucking way,” he said, steadying himself on the back of the empty chair between Benny and me. He pulled it out and sat down, shaking his head in disbelief.
He looked excessively gorgeous and I could feel the nerve endings on my skin flame to attention like he was holding a magnet and I was tipping toward him involuntarily.
His dark brown hair was grown out, slightly curled, and it offset the unique moss color of his eyes.
He had a five-o’clock shadow, and his body had filled out, his height no longer making him lanky, but instead— fuck , he was a grown man now.
I did a hard swallow, rendered almost wordless.
My heart was yammering in my chest so hard I thought for sure he’d hear it.
When I looked to Benny, she had her hands under her chin, elbows on the table, watching us both with pure mischief in her eyes. She knew damn well I’d spent most of my teenage years violently crushing on Alex Perry.
“You’re the executive chef here?” I asked, eyes wide, voice hoarse. “I didn’t even know you were back in LA.”
“And here I thought you were in the Bay Area,” he replied.
“I ran into your mom’s old boyfriend Lukas and he said you were at some big job in San Francisco and never came home.
You’re not on social media, either.” My body nearly shook with pleasure.
He’d asked about me? He’d looked for me? Alex Perry remembered me?
“I came to visit a few days ago,” I said to him. “I’m here for the month. I’m kind of doing this whole say-yes-to-life experiment. Hence, ordering everything on the menu.”
I could feel Benny practically bouncing with energy beside him.
“And the hair,” Alex said, tipping his head up toward me. “You look good blonde. But you know, you’re you. You always looked good.”
“Did I?” I asked without thinking, so caught off guard that Alex Perry was sitting next to me right now I didn’t have my usual defenses up.
Alex laughed, then his voice deepened as he said like a matter of fact, “You were my unrequited teenage crush. I was, um...” he gave me a shy smile, looked up at me through darkened lashes “... pretty damn obsessed with you, Quinn.”
My whole entire face erupted into a blush and I was grateful for dim lighting and makeup. I coughed, not knowing how to respond to that.
“Funny,” Benny said, cutting in. “Not so unrequited actually. You were also Charlie’s crush.”
“Benny,” I whispered hard, throwing her an I’m-going-to-kill-you look.
“Hey, we’re all adults here,” Benny said, grinning. “It’s ancient history.” Then she shrugged and added, looking between Alex and me pointedly, “Or... is it?”
“Benny, weren’t you saying you needed to use the restroom?” I retorted.
“No—” she started, then nodded curtly, finally understanding my subtext. “Yeah, you’re right. I need the restroom.”
Alex pointed toward a door and said, “To the left, all the way back.”
Benny whispered to me as she walked by, all smug, “You believe in the Universe yet?”
Even though I shot her a look, I couldn’t deny this was quite a coincidence. I hadn’t seen Alex since he abruptly moved away our senior year.
Once Benny was gone, Alex leaned in closer toward me. “You had a crush on me, Quinn?”
I tried to look away, but his eyes were caught on mine. “Don’t mess with me, Perry. You knew.”
“I never knew for sure,” he said. “I don’t know if you know this about yourself, but you’re very hard to read. And I was shy back then.”
“And now?” I asked.
“Not nearly as shy,” he whispered, leaning even closer to me. “So, what’s this say-yes-to-life thing? I could have some fun with that...”
Warmth flooded me and something long dormant flipped on with unmistakable intensity.
“See, if you had flirted with me like this in high school...”
“I’ve grown up since then.”
“Yeah,” I said, sighing. “I can tell.”
“We came close that one night,” Alex said, and his eyes pointedly dropped to my lips.
“I remember.”
“I never forgot,” he said, raggedly, dragging his gaze back up to my eyes.
“I thought I imagined it, honestly,” I said, pulling back.
Because the truth was, I did think Alex was into me back then.
At least, I hoped he was. But then he left LA and it wasn’t until months later I found out it was because his mom had unexpectedly and tragically passed away from an aggressive cancer.
God , life was heartbreaking. I never tried to find him.
It was a moment in time at that party when I thought we almost kissed, but I didn’t have any claim to him.
I couldn’t even believe he could talk about that time of his life without it shattering him, but he seemed bright and excited to see me.
“Yeah, I thought I imagined it, too,” he said, low. “It was the worst timing. How I left. When I left.” He stroked his face with his long tapered fingers and I watched the movement like it was erotic.
“I should have tried to get in touch,” I said. “I’m so sorry, Alex.”
“How could you have gotten in touch? Nobody had phones back then. I was unreachable, trust me. I wanted to be unreachable. But I thought about you.”
When his eyes found mine again, they were laced with vulnerability. It made me take a breath in just to steady my heart.
“Did you ever think about me?” he asked.
The heat between us was so high already I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Nothing else existed in this restaurant—just him and me, like years hadn’t passed between us.
“Of course,” I told him.
“Here’s an idea,” he said. “Pick up where we left off? You said you’re here a month? My last day at Wavy is on Sunday and then I’m taking a new job in Chicago in a month. Hang out? I can say yes to things, too.”
I was about to answer that I didn’t think it was a good idea to get entangled only to have it end in a month, but a woman in a black chef uniform came to the table and whispered in his ear. He nodded and said to her, “I’m coming.”
He turned back to me. “I need to go, and your food is getting cold.” He pulled a pen from his pocket and grabbed the napkin under my sparkling water glass.
“Write your number down.” He handed me the pen and his eyes trained on mine again.
“Please.” His voice was a pleading whisper and I couldn’t say no, even if my gut was telling me this was not a good idea.
I wrote my number down, and when he picked up the napkin, he folded it up and pressed it into his inside pocket with a pat of his hand like it really meant something to him.
“I’ll text you,” he said, smiling and standing up. “Charlie Quinn. Wow.”
Right as he was leaving, Benny joined the table and said, “Bye, Alex. Good to see you.”
“Bye, Benny,” he said behind his shoulder. “You, too.”
Benny placed her black napkin on her lap, speared a perfectly roasted wedge of a potato covered in a spicy pesto.
She looked up at me, popped it in her mouth, and said, “So, you still don’t believe in signs?
Of all the restaurants in all of LA, we walk into the only one where Alex Perry works and lo and behold, he came out from the kitchen just to find us here.
You asked for a sign. This is a pretty big one, don’t you think? How else do you explain it?”
“Coincidence?” I said, even though I didn’t fully believe that.
She shook her head. “Oh, you’re impossible, Char Char.”