Chapter Nineteen
Dani
“Hey, Dani.”
Neela rounded the bar and filled the three-compartment sink used for glass washing, her long dark hair slicked back in a neat braid that made her thick brows stand out against her golden-brown skin.
“Hey. Sorry, I’ll get out of your way in a minute,” I said, gesturing to my laptop and event binder sprawled out across the bar in front of me. The servers would be here in twenty minutes to open the rest of the dining room, and I liked to be upstairs by then, but I’d hit a stride on the guest welcome packet design and wanted to see if I could get it done.
Neela waved me off. “Don’t worry about it. You’re fine.”
It was only this week I’d worked at the bar again instead of up in Jillian’s office. Something about the atmosphere drew me down here, particularly for my more creative tasks. Maybe it was the colorful paintings on the walls or being able to hear the bustle of prep work in the kitchen—another kind of creativity all its own—but being down here made it easier for me to plug into my artistic juices.
It was possible a small part of me also liked being nearer to Jase. For no other reason, of course, than I’d come to appreciate his professional opinion, and I’d missed it last week when he avoided me. I’d meant what I said when I told him we made a good team. I would hate to lose that over something that should never have been a possibility in the first place.
Just then, he strolled out of the kitchen on the way to the office, tossing me a nod as he passed. I nodded back.
It was our new dynamic. Or maybe our old one. He’d ask me to taste a new dish he was workshopping, and I’d ask for his opinion when I needed a second set of eyes on the symposium’s menu design. He gave me a heads-up when the cleaning crew would be in so they wouldn’t disturb me, and I let him know when I was leaving for the night so he could use Jillian’s office to run reports.
No hugs.
No talk of exes.
Simple.
Just like we’d agreed.
“Look who it is,” said Neela, shifting my attention to the front door and the guy who’d just walked in. “Where have you been, hot stuff?”
He was about my age and handsome in a movie star kind of way—lean but fit, short dirty-blond hair styled to look effortless, his strong jaw clean-shaven with the hint of a cleft in his chin. He’d be right at home on the cover of GQ .
He flashed Neela a dazzling smile, raising his hands as if in surrender, a bundle of dark fabric gripped in one hand. “I know, I know. It’s been a while. I’ve been meaning to stop in, but things at work have been all over the place.”
“I won’t hold it against you as long as you draw my niece another sketch the next time you eat here. She framed the last one you did on the back of your receipt.”
The guy’s face lit up with genuine delight. “Yeah? Done.”
Neela flicked her chin at whatever was in his hands. “Those for Aubrey?”
“Yeah. She in the back?”
Neela nodded. “I can take ’em to her if you want.”
He passed the bundle across the bar, and Neela disappeared with it into the kitchen. His gaze fell on me, blue eyes glancing at my laptop screen.
“That looks good,” he said, nodding at the welcome packet design. “It for the event this place is catering next month?”
I blinked in surprise. “Yeah, actually. How’d you know about that?”
“Aubrey told me.” He stepped closer, leaning his forearms against the back of the stool two seats down from mine. “You design this yourself?” he asked, studying the screen.
I nodded, scanning the design. It was basically finished, but something about it still felt off.
“You open to suggestions? Feel free to tell me to fuck off,” he added lightly. “You just look like you’re stuck, and I happen to be a graphic designer.”
My lips twitched. “Go for it.”
“It’s the title. It’s getting washed out by the border, which is throwing the rest of it off balance. Try making it a darker color.”
I did as he suggested, selecting the title and darkening it by a few shades. It did the trick. The whole design clicked into place.
“Huh.” I looked up at him. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” He shot me that dazzling smile of his, dimples on full display. If he wasn’t careful, he could hurt someone with it. “I’m Evan, by the way.” He extended his hand.
I shook it. “Dani.”
He nodded at my laptop. “If you’ve got any more designs you’re working on, I’m happy to help. Aubrey made it seem like this event is sort of a big deal, and I have fun doing this kind of stuff. Only if you want, though.”
“That’d…be great, actually.” I’d done enough design work for events over the years that I could hold my own, but I was all for having a professional’s input. Especially for this event that was a big deal, for me as much as HBC. Its success would be confirmation I belonged here—at this job, in this city, serving an actual purpose. Failure would prove I was never meant for any of it. I’d accept any help at my disposal to keep that from being true. “How long have you and Aubrey been together?” I asked.
Given the familiar way he’d talked about her, it hadn’t seemed like a ridiculous assumption. Not until his face contorted like I’d told him to pop into the bathroom and lick the urinal.
“God, no, we’re not together. We’re practically related at this point.” He cocked his head. “Well, we did get married in second grade, but my older brother divorced us a week later, so I’m not really sure that counts.”
“Let me guess, your brother’s a lawyer now?” I asked.
Evan scoffed, his mouth twisting. “Not even close.”
“If only,” Aubrey said, emerging from the kitchen and saving me from whatever I’d unknowingly stepped in. The front of her pants was soaked with some sort of orange liquid. “Then maybe I wouldn’t have gotten completely ripped off by that deal. I didn’t get any of your Halloween candy despite neither of us signing a prenup.”
“That was your own fault for trusting my brother to actually consider how his actions might affect others,” Evan replied.
“Yet he shared his Halloween candy with me.”
“Yeah, because he knew you were in love with him and felt bad about it.”
She shrugged a careless shoulder and headed for the stairs. “I still got candy out of it.”
“Hey, I brought you pants,” Evan called after her. “You want candy too?”
“If it’s chocolate, then yes.” She held up the bundle of fabric I now understood to be chef pants. “Thank you!” she hollered over her shoulder before disappearing up the stairs.
Evan shook his head and returned his focus to me. “If you want to see a sample of my work, I designed most of her tattoos.”
I’d seen them. The ones on her arms, anyway. She had others she’d told me about, but her chef clothes hid them. The ones on her arms, at least, were breathtaking.
“You’re hired.” I tilted my head. “I mean, I can’t pay you. But I’d welcome your input.”
“I have some time right now. We could get started?”
“Sure.” I dipped my chin to the stool beside me and slipped my laptop his way as he sat.
“Evan, hey.”
Jase stood at the end of the bar nearest us, probably on his way back to the kitchen.
“Hey, man,” Evan said. “How’s it been?”
Jase glanced from Evan to my laptop to me. “What are you…?”
“Evan volunteered to help me with some design stuff for the symposium,” I explained.
Jase’s brows drew together. “I thought you did most of that already?”
“There are a few things I haven’t gotten to yet. Plus, only the invites have been printed, so there’s still time to incorporate his suggestions for everything else.”
A muscle flexed in Jase’s jaw. He opened his mouth to say something, but Luis stuck his head out of the kitchen.
“Hey, Chef, your timer’s going off.”
Jase’s gaze locked with mine, holding it for a long moment before he broke contact and retreated to the back.
For a second, I thought I saw something like regret in his eyes, and my pulse kicked up at the possibility. I quickly shook it away. It had probably been nothing. And even if it had been something, regret wasn’t it. That would be the opposite of simple, and simple was what we were keeping things.