Page 47 of Cocky Tech God
I followed behind her, wanting so much to pull her into me and hug her for a while. In front of everyone. But I refrained because I was still operating under the rules. For now.
We found a seat under a lighted portion of the patio and sat. The waitress came by wanting our drink order.
Lucia met my eyes. I lifted my brow. “What do you want?”
She bit her bottom lip in contemplation. “I kind of want something sweet and decadent.”
“Oh, I want to hear this.” I chuckled. Wasn’t an amaretto sour sweet and decadent enough?
“I know what I want.” She looked up to the waitress. “I’ll have one of those creamy, fattening piña coladas. And he’ll have one too.”
Lucia’s brown eyes sparkled and dared me to say no. This must have been my penance for listening to her conversation.
“Fine,” I said to the waitress. “What the lady wants, the lady gets.”
“Can I also have an order of fish fritters?”
The waitress nodded and walked away.
“Piña colada? I don’t know what’s worse, that or amaretto sour.”
“Well, you’re going to drink it and love it.”
“Will I be forgiven then?”
Our eyes met. We didn’t say anything for too many beats, but I could see I was almost already forgiven. I could also see that I didn’t know how I was supposed to keep my feelings to myself for another moment.
“I can forgive you, Hansen. I can’t blame you for what’s happened to LMS.”
“What has happened?” Shit. I leaned back. Maybe that was too much, too soon.
“Well, how much did you hear, again?” She leaned back, too, her arms crossing over her chest.
“Just that you had a breach, and that LMS is in the red.” I lifted my hand. “That’s it. I swear.”
“I don’t really want to talk about it.” She didn’t look at me. “I’ve spent hours looking over my code, and I just really can’t think about it for another hour. So literally talk about anything else right now.”
I’d have to tread lightly. Lucia was speaking to me, but she had boundaries, and they were in neon lights around her. I didn’t want to cross them and risk this truce we’d found.
The waitress came back with our drinks and Lucia’s fritters that smelled appetizing. I popped one in my mouth and savored the seasoning.
“I’ve had a lot of fish fritters, and I have to say those are some of the best.”
“Oh yeah? In New York?” She ate one as well.
“No, here and on other islands in the Caribbean.” Anais and I island hopped the Caribbean many times during our short life together. “I’ve been coming here a while.”
“Really?” She looked up with interest. “I’ve never been to the Caribbean before, which is funny considering my dad is from Cuba. But I didn’t grow up with him. So…”
I paused. I hadn’t really talked about that part of my life to anyone in a long time. For years, I’d buried it in a treasure chest inside me that I’d open when I was alone and needed to remember that love was a real thing, and once was all I’d needed. Or at least I thought so. Now I had some doubts creeping in.
“Yes. I’ve been coming here since I was a younger man.” After Anais and I married, Grand Cayman became my second home.
“Younger man?” She laughed. “You’re not exactly a grandpa, Hansen.”
“True.” I touched the frosted, tall piña colada glass. The damn thing had a huge pineapple slice and a whole palm tree hanging off the rim.
“Did you go alone or…?”