Chapter 4 #2
“Yeah, it’s been pretty amazing,” she said happily.
“There are always going to be some hiccups, but I feel like even those are going more smoothly. We had a little argument the other day over the dumbest thing, just like busy schedules and life stuff, but I feel like even that went better. We got annoyed, but then we faced that annoyance instead of letting it fester. It just feels… good,” she decided finally, as if there was no better descriptor than the simple word to explain how she felt.
Diana was thrilled for her friend, although she couldn’t help but feel the tiniest twinge of jealousy. What she wouldn’t do for that kind of relationship, where even the difficult parts were sort of wonderful.
It was a short drive to Anchor Bistro, which proved fortunate, as the parking lot was already starting to look crowded with cars. The pair hurried inside, grateful that they were able to snag a table before the room filled up.
June was sitting over near the stage, in a cluster of some of the usual singers and performers for the open mic night. Diana and Cadence shot her a quick wave, but didn’t make a move to interrupt the group’s pre-performance ritual.
“Good evening! What can I get for y’all?”
A young waitress with a faint Southern twang approached their table, her name tag proclaiming her Deborah. Given the increasingly busy nature of the bistro, Cadence and Diana kept their orders simple: strawberry peach lemonade for them both, as well as an order of mozzarella sticks to share.
The room was abuzz with excitement over the upcoming entertainment, which was quickly becoming a staple among locals.
The beach brought in countless tourists for the summer, and while that was great for the town, especially business owners like Diana, it was nice to have a place to hang out where you could trust that you’d find Magnolia Shore residents more than people on vacation.
It was therefore notable when someone that they didn’t recognize entered the establishment.
“Ooh, who is that?” Cadence asked, nudging her friend and pointing over to the door, where a man who looked to be about Diana’s age, perhaps a bit older had just come in and was looking around as if assessing the scene. “He’s handsome.”
“You are married, madam,” Diana teased her friend. Privately though, she agreed with her friend’s assessment. The newcomer was tall, with dark hair that was going to silver around his temples. He had an attractive face too, but the part that Diana found most appealing was that he looked friendly.
The good looking ones are always tourists, she thought with an internal laugh, although she did wonder how a tourist had ended up at the event. Were they about to be overrun by beachgoers? She hoped not.
The announcer called a start to the performances, which drew Diana’s attention away from the handsome man. The first in the lineup was an older gentleman named George, who frequently played beautiful, crooning songs on his acoustic guitar. June was slated to go second.
People continued to fill into the bistro as George played. By the time he was done, the place was well and truly crowded, and the polite applause was loud just because of how many people there were.
When June started to sing, however, the place went wild.
“Oh my goodness, she’s incredible,” Deborah said absently as she passed by their table, her eyes on where June was belting out an old country hit. She deposited a basket of appetizers on Diana and Cadence’s table and was gone in a flash, whisked away into the crowd.
Which meant, unfortunately, that she was out of reach before the women realized that they had not just been given their mozzarella sticks, but rather a basket of jalapeno poppers.
“Wait, no!” Cadence cried when Diana reached for one without thinking. “That’s not ours.”
Diana, who was sensitive to spicy foods, gave her friend a grateful look.
“Phew, okay. But if this is jalapeno, where are our appetizers?”
“Let me ask.” Cadence raised a hand and then got all the way to her feet, trying to signal to their waitress that they needed some help. But Deborah was torn between watching June and weaving her way through the restaurant’s many customers, and didn’t turn in their direction at all.
“Excuse me.”
The handsome man’s voice wasn’t quiet, and that was good, as he never would have been heard over the sounds of June singing plus the din of cheers and encouragement if he had been. But he was extremely polite as he approached their table, a basket of appetizers in his hands.
“I noticed that you were trying to signal the waiter too, and I thought that maybe… did you get jalapeno poppers, by any chance?”
“We did!” Cadence exclaimed. “Mozzarella sticks?”
“Yeah.” The man rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I admit that one is missing, because I didn’t realize they’d been swapped until I bit into one.”
Cadence laughed. “No problem at all.”
Diana remained quiet, distracted by the fact that this newcomer was even more attractive up close. He had gentle laugh lines at the corners of his eyes that suggested that he smiled a lot, and his eyes were a warm hazel.
She was trying to gather her thoughts, mentally chastising herself for not even managing “Hi, I’m Diana,” when the waiter finally headed in their direction.
Except this turned out to be ill-fated too, for as she approached, one of the patrons danced into her path, which caused her to stumble and jostle the table…
Which sent Diana’s absolutely delicious strawberry peach lemonade tumbling over, a puddle of sticky sweetness quickly spreading. Diana pushed hastily to her feet, knocking over her chair, as she tried to avoid getting splashed. Cadence cried out in alarm.
But it was only the handsome man who had the presence of mind to scoop up the two baskets of food before they could get destroyed.
“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” Deborah exclaimed. “Oh gosh, oh gosh. Okay, let me get you some more drinks on the house. I’ll be right back!”
The patron who had started the domino effect of this chaos danced blithely on, too engaged in June’s performance to even notice the chaos he had wrought.
Diana turned and realized that she was now even closer to the newcomer. She felt her cheeks burning. Even though none of this had been her fault, she felt the hot frisson of embarrassment at looking so clumsy in front of such a handsome man.
Don’t be silly, Diana, she told herself. You’re not a teenager with a first crush. These things happen.
The man must have been able to detect her worries, since he gave her an encouraging smile.
“Did it get you?” he asked. “The drink, I mean.”
Diana checked. Her jeans were, thankfully, still dry. “All good.”
“Great.” He looked at the baskets in his hand, then put the right one on the table. “Wouldn’t want to mix these up again. Anyway, I’ll just be…”
He trailed off as he turned around. Diana followed his gaze and realized that the place where he’d been seated had, in the last few chaotic minutes, been snapped up by someone else.
“Oh,” he said.
“Come join us,” Cadence said at once. She had a gleam in her eye that Diana didn’t trust. “We have space.” She gestured to the chair next to Diana.
“Oh, um, if you’re sure?” the man looked at Diana, who made herself smile.
Obviously, offering him the seat was the decent thing to do. And she was a friendly, nice person! She was not someone who was bothered over a handsome man. Nope. Not her. Not at all.
“Of course,” she said. “Join us.”
“I’m Cadence Meadows,” Cadence said, giving him a wave that caused the light to glint off her wedding ring.
Subtle, Diana thought with an inward chuckle. So that was what this was. Her friend was trying to play matchmaker.
“I’m Anthony Whitaker,” the newcomer returned.
“Diana Madsen,” Diana added.
“So, Anthony.” Cadence propped her hand on her chin as June wrapped up her song and took a bow. “What brings you to town? On vacation?”
“Oh, no.” He shook his head. Diana liked the little threads of silver in his hair, she decided. They made him look distinguished. “My daughter and I have just moved here, actually.”
Despite herself, and no doubt encouraged by Cadence’s stunt with her own ring, Diana glanced down at the man’s hand. No ring. So divorced, then, perhaps widowed.
Not that she had designs on this man, handsome or not.
“Oh yeah? Our friend June, who just finished singing, she has a son, and my husband and I have a daughter. They’re six. How old is yours?”
“Ten,” Anthony said. “Her name is Eloise. She’s actually having a sleepover tonight, so I’m trying to be sociable and meet people.” He gave a tiny, self-conscious chuckle. “And I guess I did, so thank you both.”
There was a tiny lull, and Cadence kicked Diana under the table, then gave her a look that urged her to speak.
Ow, Diana thought.
Out loud though, she said, “So what made you choose Magnolia Shore? Do you have family in the area? Or did you come for work?”
There weren’t a ton of big companies in the area, the kind that a person might relocate in order to work for, but there were a few.
He shook his head. “Nah, we just needed a change. We were living in Cleveland before this. I’m actually an accountant, but I do freelance work, not with an agency. So I can work anywhere. Would you believe that we ended up in Magnolia Shore because I found it on a list of nice places to live?”
He said this last bit with a sheepish look.
“Actually, we would totally believe it,” Diana said. Something about his bashfulness made her own worries about embarrassing herself abate. “Our friend Eleanor did the exact same thing.”
“No way!” Anthony laughed. “Maybe we should write a nice email to the author. They give good recommendations.”
“Yeah, and you’re in luck too,” Cadence chimed in, “because, as far as I know, we don’t have an accountant in town. And one thing about this town is that everybody is really loyal to staying local, so you should be able to get business. Diana here owns a small business herself, actually.”
“Oh yeah? What kind?”
For the next twenty minutes or so, Diana found herself getting lost in conversation with Anthony. He was remarkably easy to talk to. After a few minutes, sensing herself extraneous, Cadence slipped out of the booth to go talk to June, who welcomed her over at the performer’s table.
“I do not know how you can eat those things,” Diana said with a shudder as she watched Anthony take a bit of a jalapeno popper. “How is your mouth not on fire?”
“It’s not that bad!” he protested. “There’s cream cheese inside and breading on the outside. It’s barely even spicy at all, when you consider all that.”
Diana gave him an intensely skeptical look. “I feel like it is actually still very spicy,” she said.
“Try one,” he urged, holding out one of the last remaining poppers. “You’ll see.”
“Ugh,” she said. “I am torn between loving a challenge and wanting to be able to taste things the rest of this week.”
“It’s not that bad!” he repeated. “Seriously.”
Her desire to be brave won out. With tentative fingers, she took the breaded pepper from him, and nibbled the tip.
Immediately, she started to cough, and her eyes started to water.
“Betrayer!” she accused, even as she laughed through her pain. “This is very much that bad!”
“Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry,” Anthony said, although he too, was laughing. He pushed a glass of water in her direction. “Here, drink this. It’s not as helpful as milk or bread might be…”
She gulped the water and when, indeed, it did not help very much, she turned to the last, lonely mozzarella stick and shoved it into her mouth.
Ah. That was so much better.
“Milk and bread,” she said with a laugh when she could feel her tongue again.
“Genius,” he praised.
There was a beat of silence after that, not an uncomfortable one, but one that hinted at promise. Chemistry, Diana thought pleasantly. There was a nice vibe between them that would best be called chemistry.
Just then, however, the emcee called an end to the open mic night, and the two broke their eye contact to politely clap for all the performers. Not long after that, Cadence returned to their table.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Diana, you’re my ride,” she said.
“Oh, and it’s getting pretty late, I guess,” Anthony said, looking at his watch in surprise. “Past my bedtime for sure.”
Diana was surprised to notice that she felt a pang of disappointment that their conversation was coming to an end.
“It was really nice to meet you,” she said truthfully.
“Yeah, you too,” Anthony said.
As she and Cadence headed out the door, giving June a quick wave over their shoulder, Diana couldn’t help but hope that she would see him again… and soon.