The other man finally took the money and slipped it in his pocket. “Thank you, sir.”
“Thank you.”
The server went back behind the heavy curtain that kept the light out of the dining room, and Evan headed for the stairs. After he talked to Kayla, he was going to give Luke a piece of his mind.
“You’re done already?” Kayla looked up as he entered her office.
“You didn’t hear?” he asked, dropping into a chair.
She arched a brow at him. “Hear what?”
“Oh, just my date caused a scene and shouted her way out of the dining room, knocking her drink over in the process.”
Kayla’s mouth fell opened and he smiled at being able to stun her into silence, something that didn’t happen often.
“Also, don’t be mad. I tipped my server for dealing with that disaster and kind of used who I was to make him take it.”
She laughed. “I’m not mad. I might be if you weren’t you, but the staff knows you.” She shut her laptop and focused on him. “What the hell happened?”
He explained the very short date to her, and she focused on every word. He loved that about her. Kayla was a busy woman, but she always paid attention to whoever she was talking to, rarely multitasking her way through conversations. It made him, and probably everyone else she talked to, feel important to her.
Before he’d gone in with her on this restaurant, he had considered asking her out. He hadn’t as he didn’t mix business and pleasure, and the idea of this restaurant was too good to turn down.
Then he’d gotten to know her and everything had changed. He regretted never asking her out and seeing what could have been between them, but she didn’t seem interested. It was a shame. He imagined whatever might happen between them would be explosive, in a good way.
“Hello?” Kayla waved her hand at him.
He realized he had zoned out. “Sorry, lost in my thoughts for a minute.”
“Penny for them?”
“Just thinking of the many things I’m going to do to Luke.” It was better than telling her the truth.
“Leave him be. I think he thought this was going to go better than it did,” she told him. “He wasn’t laughing when he called or anything and was very specific in his information.”
He thought it over and shook his head. “Doesn’t matter what he might have thought. I know Luke, and this was never going to go well.”
“Nothing is going to go well if you go into it thinking that,” she reminded him.
He scratched his cheek and considered how the next one might go. At least the worst one was out of the way. “Who’s next?”
“I’ll set it up later, and you’ll get a notification in the app. Don’t be dramatic.”
“I’m not being dramatic. That was miserable. Ask your staff about it later.”
“Be that as it may, you have to be more positive going in.”
“I tried. I really did. I couldn’t have even guessed this would happen.”
She shook her head at him. “I’m really sorry it didn’t go well.” She opened her laptop up again and typed a few things. “It looks like the manager has already banned her from the system, so at least no one else will go through it.”
“Glad I could help with that,” he said sarcastically. “I’m going to head home. I’ll talk to you later.”
“It will get better, Evan.”
“Mm-hmm.”
He let himself out and made his way home, calling Luke several times. To no one’s surprise, he didn’t answer. At least it was over. He’d have to trust Kayla that it would get better.