“There isn’t a right way, Lotus. You’re just supposed to enjoy them.”
“It would be impossible not to,” she admitted, still laughing. “I love them. You’ll have to keep me away from this place or I’ll spend my entire time eating. I think I might even give up the idea of becoming partners with you and just work here.”
He caught her face in his hands and leaned into her to flick his tongue along her lower lip. Sure enough, there was a coating of powdered sugar. He took a sip of hot coffee. “That does taste good,” he agreed, pulling back because he was too tempted to actually kiss her. He didn’t kiss women. “But it can’t interfere with our partnership. Finish telling me about your theory. Dr. Bouet and his panic button.”
“Oh, that. You have excellent hearing. You knew they would come to the aid of their poor helpless doctor. All you had to do was mellow him out so he’d be quiet, and you could hear wherever they got in. In this case, you said five of them came. That’s a lot. You had to have figured out where they were slipping in.”
“Up on the third story. The roof. I can pinpoint nearly the exact spot. I’ll be able to close it off and we’ll be entirely secure.”
She burst into laughter again. That sound found its way inside of him and he found himself smiling. Picking up a beignet, he took aim at her mouth. He really tried to be gentle, and he had a good ear, so he was mostly able to get her to take a bite without making too big of a mess. Beignets were messy. That was part of the appeal. He ran the pads of his fingers over the full curves of her lips. “You have powder all over your lips.”
“I do?” She picked up her coffee cup and took a drink. “Did you know there was a time that white lipstick was the ‘in’ thing? The fashion people called it the frosted look.”
“Maybe they got the idea from coming to the Café Du Monde,” he ventured. “It’s been around long enough.”
“You do have a famous perfume company here in New Orleans. Why not start a lipstick company based on beignets? You could call the lipstick Ice. It would be all the rage if you could get a really famous model to be the face of your company.”
He licked his finger, swiped it across her lips and then put it in his mouth to suck the powder from it. “You taste like beignets and café au lait.”
“In other words, yummy.”
“I am not going to say ‘yummy,’ Lotus. That is asking way too much of an alpha leopard.” He drank his coffee slowly, his legs sprawled lazily out in front of him, trusting her to tell him if he was getting in anyone’s way.
“I did win the bet. I think using ‘yummy’ is a good start to making up for the all the times you snarled at me.”
“Are you eating more beignets? You sound like you’re eating and talking at the same time. I believe you ate your entire order already.”
“Your very yummy beignets are getting cold. I can’t see wasting them.” She managed to sound pious.
“I shared one with you.”
“You shared a bite with me. That’s not the same thing. And it was a small bite. I gave you an entire beignet. I was generous.”
“You made certain to get powdered sugar all over my shirt. That was your goal.” He took another sip of coffee. He’d missed the coffee at the Café Du Monde. He’d missed coming here in the middle of the night and listening to the Mississippi River. If he ever lost Meiling, he would forever miss her teasing and laughter.
“What do you think about taking the job, Meiling? Being my partner?”
“You’re making me crazy, Gedeon. I told you we should wait until you can see before we decide. You could easily change your mind.”
“I won’t change my mind and you know it. We’ve talked about what the job entails. What kind of money you would make. The freedom it would give you. The protection you’d have. The carpenters are already working on your private suite. There are so many pluses to you taking the partnership. The only con I see is working with me. Is that the problem? You don’t want to work with me but you’re afraid to tell me?”
There was a long silence. He could tell she was drinking her café au lait and pushing the beignet around on the plate. Hard knots formed in his belly, but he remained silent. Silence revealed so much more if you could just survive it.
“I like you, Gedeon. Too much. I don’t stay around people, especially people I like. Not that there’s been very many. It’s too risky. I don’t know how to be with people. Even Libby. I loved her and I know she loved me, but I didn’t live with her, not after we were kids. It’s just better if I don’t get too involved with anyone.”