Chapter 27: Olive
My day drags by. I try not to watch Brooks out the window, but I can’t help myself. I’m not as sneaky as I should be, and Lilah catches me more than once. She came in this afternoon after another long night at the bar. I’m always happy to have her here. It feels less like work and more like hanging out, even if I still have a ton to finish.
I’m shaping tart shells and most definitely not checking out Brooks’ tight butt as he talks to one of his guys. Over and over, my mind replays the way he pulled me into his lap and made me come in the front seat of his truck last night. I’m so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t even realize Lilah had sidled up next to me.
“Whatcha lookin’ at?” She nudges me in the side with her elbow, and I let out a surprised shriek.
“Nothing,” I reply, guiltily. Terrible recovery.
“Oh really? So you were mangling the innocent tart shell for no reason?” Lilah laughs.
Looking down at my hands I realize I’ve been pressing the same piece of dough down into the tart shell and it is, in fact, completely trashed. “Oh. I’m a little out of it.”
“Mm-hm. ‘Out of it’ is one way to put it.” She makes sarcastic air quotes. “You’ve been staring at Mr. Contractor like you want to eat him all day.”
I ignore my sister and toss the ruined tart shell in the trash, moving on to a new one. I can, quite literally, shape tart shells with my eyes closed. I haven’t had to redo a tart shell in years, but today I am hopeless.
“You know, a little birdie told me you were having drinks with Brooks last night.”
“What?” I gasp. “Who told you that? We weren’t having drinks. He showed up at the bar after Chelsea had to cancel. Some dip was hitting on me and Brooks just charged in and demanded I leave with him. I don’t even know how he knew I was there…” It just occurred to me that I never asked how he found me.
Lilah is trying to keep a straight face, but she’s doing a terrible job suppressing her self-satisfied smirk. “So you left with him? Where exactly did you go?”
My mouth hangs open. “It was you! You told him where I was?”
Lilah puts on an indignant face. “I most certainly did not!” I know my sister. She most certainly did. And I know just how to make her admit it. I cross my arms and stare at her stone faced, completely silent. She lasts all of twenty seconds before she cracks. “But I might have mentioned where you were going to Luis. Loudly.”
“Judas,” I mutter.
She has the decency to look guilty as she picks up a piece of dough and starts shaping tarts with me. “You didn’t answer me. Where did you and Brooks go after Chelsea’s fender bender?”
I almost drop the tart ring on the floor, suspicions swirling.
“Holy shit. How much of yesterday did you plan?! Did you get Chelsea and Sally both in on it?”
Lilah holds up her hands and giggles nervously. “It’s not like I had some master scheme or anything! Sally wasn’t in on it. That was just super good luck. She texted me after she sent you to the spa. She was worried about you. And after I talked to Brooks yesterday, well, he was desperate to talk to you. I knew where you were going to be… and once I told Chelsea what was going on, she was happy to excuse herself and let Brooks take his shot.”
I can’t believe this. I should be livid… but given the way it worked out, how can I be? Maybe I needed a little push in the right direction. Of course my sister went a little nuts, but whatever.
“Did Chelsea even get rear-ended?”
“Nope. She was actually at the coffee shop two doors down from the restaurant in case it all blew up and you were upset.”
I blanch. “The coffee shop next to the alley?”
Lilah gives me a weird look, taking a second to think about the layout of the streets. “Yeah, I guess it is next to an alley, why?”
I do not recover well. “Um, it’s nothing. We just kind of made out in the alley.” I mumble and blush, remembering the extremely filthy things we did in Brooks’ truck. I hope to god Chelsea kept her butt in the coffee shop.
Lilah laughs, patting my red cheek. “That’s a lot of blushing for 'just kinda made out.’” She wiggles her fingers in air quotes as she teases me. “Luis says his truck was here overnight. Tell me you didn’t bring him back here to just ‘kinda make out.’”
“There are an egregious amount of air quotes being used in this conversation,” I point out.
“Don’t change the subject! I’ll just keep going with the ‘air quotes’ until you fill me in.”
“God, you’re so annoying,” I say and smack her hands out of the air. “Finish these tarts with me. I did bring him back to the apartment. We did a little more than making out but I’m not giving you specific details so get your mind out of the gutter.”
“Hussy!” She cackles. “You bumped uglies!”