CHAPTER 31
Maya
THE FOLLOWING SATURDAY, A FULL WEEK AFTER WE reconciled, Sebastian and I met bright and early at the first stop of his Official VIP Girlfriend Tour—a full day of curated culinary experiences featuring his favorite food spots in the five boroughs and, of course, Sebastian himself as my private tour guide.
The tour kicked off with breakfast at a quaint, old-school diner in Queens. It had red leather booths, a working jukebox, and a small but friendly staff that showered us with VIP treatment the moment we walked in.
“Seriously. Does every person in every restaurant know you?” I asked after we placed our orders. I’d taken Sebastian’s advice and opted for a stack of the diner’s signature pancakes with extra whipped cream and strawberries on the side.
He grinned. “Only the ones who matter.”
I rolled my eyes. “I can’t believe I’m dating someone so arrogant.”
“Not arrogant, Sal. Confident.” His grin turned cocky. “That’s why you’re with me. You’d hate being with someone insecure.”
“Big talk for a guy who took a full week to plan one date,” I teased, but he was right.
I loved Sebastian’s self-assurance and the fact he had the skills to back it up.
I loved the heart beneath his cocksure persona, and the thoughtfulness behind his every gesture.
He’d told me once that I needed someone who could keep up with me; he did that and more.
He pushed me to be a better version of myself, and he gave meaning to my wins.
Without him, I’d be a general without a battlefield. A victor without an opponent.
That’d been true our entire lives. I should’ve known, from the moment I marked Sebastian Laurent as my number one rival, that I would end up falling for him. It’d been inevitable.
“What can I say? I wanted our first date to be perfect.” His smirk softened beneath a glimmer of tenderness. “I hope you like it.”
My heart rioted. “I love it.”
His answering smile curled through me like a warm ribbon of sunlight.
I thought we’d have a harder transition from being frenemies to dating, but the past week had been seamless.
I was freaked out about the mystery person who’d intercepted his letter and forged a response from me, but that’d happened over a decade ago.
I wasn’t in imminent danger from some letter-forging bandit.
Still, I secretly added uncovering their identity to my list of mysteries to solve, right under my Pittsburgh dilemma.
Sebastian and I had other things we needed to figure out, like when we were going to tell our friends and family about us and what I was going to do about my engagement deadline. Since Sebastian and I were officially dating, other options for suitors were off the table.
But were either of us ready to say for certain that we wanted to get engaged come November? Would my parents enforce that deadline if they knew I was in a serious relationship with Sebastian?
I didn’t have any answers at the moment, but we’d only been dating for a week. We’d deal with the future when it came. For now, I just wanted to enjoy our honeymoon phase—and the absolutely orgasmic pancakes that our server brought out.
“Oh my God.” My eyes widened after my first bite. I always thought influencers were exaggerating when they rolled their eyes and moaned after eating something—seriously, how many tomatoes tasted that good?—but if anything was moan-worthy, it was these pancakes. “These are amazing.”
They were light and fluffy with crispy edges, a rich, buttery texture, and the perfect balance of sweetness and tang. I wasn’t even a big pancake person, but I’d happily bury myself in their cloudlike deliciousness.
“They’re the best in the tri-state area,” Sebastian confirmed, smiling as he watched me devour the food. “I’d never steer you wrong.”
“How do you find out about these spots?” I asked. “You can’t be personally trying every restaurant yourself.” Given the rapid rate at which businesses opened and closed in New York, that would’ve been impossible.
“Word of mouth and lots of trial and error. But I explore more often than you think. Finding hidden gems is one of my favorite parts of the job.” Sebastian held a forkful of his eggs out to me. “Try this. Their eggs are almost as good as their pancakes.”
I leaned forward and wrapped my lips around the fork. The eggs were impossibly soft and savory, but I barely registered their taste as Sebastian’s gaze dipped to my mouth.
A subtle shift charged the air. My skin tightened, goosebumps rippling across the surface.
“What do you think?” he asked softly.
I chewed, slow and deliberate, never breaking eye contact. “You’re right,” I said after I swallowed. “Almost as good.”
A beat pulsed between us, thick and electric. His eyes flickered with heat before he pulled the fork back and set it on his plate, his movements tightly controlled.
There was nothing inherently sexual about this moment, yet desire bloomed low in my stomach nonetheless. I crossed my legs, the air a shade warmer than a minute ago.
Sebastian and I had agreed not to have sex again until after our first date, which meant we were clear for today. Right?
But if I thought he’d pick up on my vibes and scrap our remaining stops for a torrid afternoon in his bedroom, I was sorely disappointed. He held fast to our original itinerary, and after we finished breakfast, we walked off the food with a leisurely stroll through Corona Park.
After that, he took me to Brooklyn, where we popped into various specialty shops to say hi to the purveyors—a butcher who sold the best prime cuts in the city, a cheese monger with an encyclopedic knowledge of her wares, and the proprietor of a darling wine shop who introduced me to a gorgeous full-bodied red that was perfect for winter.
I loaded up on wine and cheese. The owners promised to ship them to me so we didn’t have to carry them around all day. I didn’t eat meat, but even I marveled at the beautiful marbled cuts at the butcher shop.
Lunch was a casual affair at a tiny restaurant that looked like it’d been transported straight from Bangkok. It was cash only and big enough for maybe ten people at a time, but the green curry literally changed my life.
Because I loved sweets so much, Sebastian added three spots to our dessert crawl: a gourmet ice cream shop where we split a strawberry and sweet cream swirl with house-made graham crunch, a family-owned Asian bakery for a heavenly slice of pandan chiffon cake, and finally, a French chocolatier for an assortment of truffles.
By the time we were done, I was practically waddling down the street.
“No more. I don’t think I can walk.” I sank onto a nearby bench with a groan. “I’m stuffed.”
Sebastian laughed. He sat next to me, his knee touching mine. “I expected more from you, Sal. We haven’t even had dinner yet.”
I leveled him with a mock glare. “Aren’t you supposed to be nicer to me now that we’re dating?”
It felt strange to utter that word aloud, but it was an accurate descriptor. I was dating Sebastian Laurent—and I was having an incredible time.
He’d planned the perfect first date. I loved food, but I’d endured enough boring, stuffy dinners to last me a lifetime.
Today’s tour combined my culinary cravings with just the right amount of activity.
It was way easier to relax when we were out and about instead of crammed into some formal table with overly solicitous servers hovering around us.
“Do you want me to be nicer to you?” he asked, sounding amused.
“God, no. Have a backbone,” I said, earning myself another laugh. “Except for the instances when you should be nice to me. I expect you to know the difference by reading my mind.”
I was joking, but my heart skipped a beat when Sebastian tucked my chin between his fingers.
“Hmm.” His eyes glittered with mischief. “Would this count as one of those instances?”
“Maybe,” I breathed.
He leaned forward. My eyes fluttered shut, and—
“Maya, is that you?”
I jerked back so fast I almost fell off the bench. Sebastian pulled away more gracefully, but his shoulders bunched with tension as my aunt approached us, her grocery bags in hand.
“Hi, Meera Aunty,” I said, trying to quell my rising panic. “What, um, are you doing here?”
She raised her eyebrows. “I live around here.”
Shit. I’d forgotten that she lived in Brooklyn. That, plus the fact she was in her mid-fifties and unmarried, had made her somewhat of a pariah in my family. I’d asked my mother to come with me to Greenpoint once, and she’d acted like I told her to abandon civilization and live in a cave instead.
“What are you doing here?” My aunt glanced at Sebastian, a speculative gleam lighting up her eyes. “With Sebastian Laurent, no less.”
Double shit. My pulse pounded. Sebastian and I weren’t trying to keep our new status a secret, per se, but if my aunt spilled the news to my mother before I did, all hell would break loose.
“Work research.” Sebastian saved me from answering. “There are some great food shops here that we’re considering as vendors for the launch event in June.”
“Our companies are collaborating on a frozen foods line,” I added in case Meera Aunty didn’t know what he was talking about. She wasn’t really involved or interested in the business.
“Yes, I know,” she said. “I read the news and the family group chat.” She clucked her tongue. “I heard about Priya’s engagement. I can’t believe it. I always thought she’d elope or join a cult, whichever happened first.”
I forced a laugh. “No, no cult unless you consider Pilates a cult. Which some people do, I guess.”
My aunt peered down at me. She was just shy of five feet, but she had a way of looking at me that made me feel about two inches tall. “What about you? Any marital prospects? Your deadline will be here before you know it.”
Did everyone know my business? I’d muted the Singh Squad, our extended family group chat, but maybe I needed to check it more often. God knew what they were saying about me in there.
“Oh, you know,” I mumbled, trying my best not to look at Sebastian. If I did, my aunt would surely pick up on our romantic vibes. It was like an aunty superpower. That was assuming she hadn’t caught us almost kissing earlier, though if she had, she would’ve mentioned it by now. “We’ll see.”
“Clock’s ticking,” she warned. For someone who was famously single, she seemed perfectly content to pester me about marriage as much as my other, married family members.
Thankfully, she didn’t stay much longer. After a few more pointed questions and vague answers on my part, she left.
“That was close,” I said after she disappeared down the block. I slumped against the bench, my adrenaline pounding.
“Do you think she’ll tell your mom she saw us?” Sebastian asked. He sounded worried.
“Maybe. I don’t know. They don’t talk much, but…
” I grimaced. I really didn’t want my family to know about us yet.
I wasn’t ashamed of Sebastian—far from it—but the last thing we needed was my mother bombarding him with engagement ring options and wedding plans before we even hit our one-month anniversary.
The pressure alone was enough to kill most new relationships.
I’d already told Sebastian all this, which was why he gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.
“It’ll be fine,” he said. “It won’t be the end of the world if your parents find out early. We’ll deal with it if it comes up.”
“You’re right.” I attempted to find the silver lining. “But please tell me we’re going somewhere less crowded for dinner. With our luck, we’ll run into Neha, and you know she’ll blab.”
“Don’t worry.” The mischief reentered his eyes. “Dinner is a much more private spot.”