When she turned around, he was watching her. He looked like some sort of specialist. A person who knew what he wanted when he saw it and didn’t fuss or fumble over the decision to get it. He seemed hard though, almost reserved, yet his eyes told a thousand tales. He was hiding something. But what? Was it her fear and distrust, or perhaps her gut, which never steered her wrong, forewarning her?
“So, Antoinette, how long have you been working here?”
“Oh, forever. How about you? What do you do?”
“I work for a business in Manhattan. They buy and sell things, fix up broken companies, things like that. I’m working my way up, slowly but steadily.”
“Sounds interesting. So what are you doing in SoHo?”
“Talking to you.”
She smiled.
The man sure did know how to get her excited. She nibbled her bottom lip and his eyes watched her. The man was so interested. It made her feel excited and a bit worried. She didn’t know him at all.
“I mean, did you have a business meeting or something?”
“Yes, just around the corner at Bradford and Elwood. That’s one heck of an office building.”
“Yes, there are a lot of big shots coming in and out of there. I heard the building is owned by two billionaires,” she stated, and he looked back up at her as he swallowed his first sip of coffee hard.
He cleared his throat. “So what do you do when you’re not working here?”
She hesitated a moment and knew she would need to fib a littl
e in order to be safe with her secret of owning Bliss. “Oh, it feels like I work here all the time. I’m trying to save money, so I work a lot.” Not a total lie.
“You mean for college?” he asked, looking at her over the rim of the red mug as he took another sip of coffee.
“College? No, I finished college two years ago. It wasn’t for me.”
He smiled wide. “You finished college. What was your major?”
“Restaurant management, with a minor in business and accounting.”
“So you want to own your own place someday?” he asked as he looked at her as if he were the one interrogating. She needed to steer the questions back at him and find out what this man was after.
“Yeah, maybe I’ll meet a billionaire and he’ll buy me a place of my own.”
Emerson nearly choked on his coffee.
“Hey, I was just kidding. I have a lot of money saved. I don’t need someone to buy anything for me. I like working here. The pay is good, the hours are steady, and I’ve learned a lot.” She wiped down the counter out of nervous habit.
“That’s great. So do you know the recipe for the brownie bites?” he asked, as he leaned forward.
“Maybe I do. Why?”
“Well, I was thinking that perhaps we could bake them up together. You know, a date or something?”
She felt the instant panicky feeling. She stepped back a little from him and the bar.
“I don’t really know you, Emerson. You seem nice, but I really don’t date people I don’t know.”
“Then get to know him,” Tina said as she passed by and gave Toni a smack to her ass. Toni swatted at Tina’s hand but missed. Emerson chuckled.
“Take your friend’s advice. I promise I won’t bite. It could be fun.”
“I don’t know.”