Love in his Lie

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"Well, that was different," she said in between breaths as she struggled to regain control of her lungs. "Not how I expected today to go." She wiped her eyes before grabbing a new pair of gloves and returning to work on the sandwiches.

"I... I don't even know what happened." I mumbled the words while my hands busied themselves with clutching the napkin and running my thumb over the street number.

"You got invited to meet Justin's parents. That's what happened. Now, do you have that sourdough ready for me?"

"I... Yes, one moment." As I searched for a place to plant my paper treasure, I did a circle in the small space. I eventually tucked it beneath the register and, with that safe and away, I returned to the back prep station to finish slicing the bread.

"You don't think that's awfully fast?" I asked. "Why would he be so distant after that night and then suddenly I'm having dinner with his folks? I've never had dinner with anyone's folks..."

"Yeah, but you've technically been seeing this guy as long as you were with... George?"

"Henry..."

"It was a king's name. I was in the right vicinity. Anyway, you all have been doing this obnoxious flirtation thing for ages."

"Obnoxious," I said, the insult cracking my voice.

"Trust me, if you were looking from the outside in, it was a bit gag worthy. Anyway, it just wouldn't be surprising if you actually had a rather fabulous night at the bar and he just didn't know what to do with it. I mean, you had trouble asking him out because that's not exactly professional when he's a customer. But maybe he felt the same way. Maybe he didn't want to make things weird. So he sent his brother and sister in to do the dirty work. Pretty easy to play it off as an overeager little sister taking something the wrong way if it went south."

Mindy was right. We had spent the previous six months playfully dancing around each other. I might not have imagined all those smiles, flirtatious winks, and charming conversations. Maybe he was trying to figure out the best way to ask me out, just as much as I was. Maybe, just as I feared looking unprofessional, asking out a patron, he worried that a failed attempt at landing a date may have killed his chances of returning for his usual coffee and bear claw. Some of our customers were vehemently loyal and I know that was true for other cafes and bakeries in the city. It's hard to find a new one once customers become set in their ways.

"But, he just seemed so distant afterwards..."

"Maybe he was confused." I could practically hear the roll in her eyes and I frankly couldn't blame her for getting tired of listening to that broken record of low self-esteem. "Seriously. I think you need to drop the whole distracted thing," said Mindy with an authoritative tone, as if she — a happily single woman — was the expert on such matters. "He's got a job, one that doesn't seem to follow the nine-to-five schedule all the time. Things happen at work, they can be distracting. I'd think you'd understand."

"I do." I sighed and gathered up the sliced bread onto the parchment paper before rounding the corner into the front of house. However, my business partner was no longer piecing wheat, turkey, and the assorted vegetables together. Instead, she was lounging against the counter with her phone in one hand and my napkin in the other.

"What are you doing?" I dropped the bread down at her station before joining up beside her so I could sneak a peek at her phone.

"Pulling up the street view of his house," she muttered, her thumb working fast as she typed in the lengthy street name. "Just want to make sure you're not walking into a crack house."

"In Cherry Grove?" I asked with a stifled laugh. "I'm fairly certain HOA dictators run that neighborhood." Tired of waiting for our lagging Wi-Fi to pull up the map, I went over to the bread cabinet and retrieved a loaf of Italian to slice.

"Just because your parents' house was in an uptight neighborhood, doesn't mean every suburb is the same. My neighborhood, they couldn't care less, so long as you picked up after your dog. And that was only because everyone waited till grass was knee high to cut it so they couldn't see it coming before the shit hit the lawnmower blade."

I knew her neighborhood wasn't that bad since, unlike me, she actually lived close to campus during college and her family often invited me over for dinner on the weekends. Still, I laughed at her depiction as I sliced into the crispy crust of the Italian loaf.

"Finally... Wow, my parents wouldn't even know what to do with this kind of house."

Before I could put my knife down, Mindy had popped around the corner with her phone stretched out before her. On the screen was a slightly distorted view of a sprawling two-story colonial, with a wide porch and a three-car garage.

"You're an only child, while Justin's got a big family," I replied. "In fact, I think he's got another sibling besides the two teenagers that came in today. They need the space." Still, I marveled at the manicured lawn and all the vibrant red blooms sprinkled over the bushes that bordered the porch. Then there was the cobblestone driveway lined with little lanterns and the burgundy shutters hung against the milky white siding that complimented the navy blue door draped with a wreath of seasonal flowers. "I bet they make a great pot roast," I sighed.

"Does that mean you're going to go?" Mindy retrieved her phone before heading back around the corner to continue work on the sandwiches.

"I don't know that they'll be making pot roast."

"Maybe, but let's try to look at this logically."

"I don't think there's any way you could look at this absurd situation logically."

"Sure you can. Anything can be broken down logically if you just scrape away all the mess. So here's what we do. We look at it for what it is, an invitation to dinner. That is what it is, correct?"

"Yeah, I guess so." I slid the Italian slices onto my parchment and took it over to Mindy, who was now arranging wrapped sandwiches into the display case.

"Okay, then this really just comes down to what you want for dinner." She shut the refrigerated case's door, snapped up, and placed her gloved hands upon her hips. "Now you can take a chance for some pot roast in that shiny suburban home or you can know with 100% certainty that you'll be having leftover Chinese here tonight."

"I could order something else," I pointed out.

"No," she said with a dramatic growl and a quick stab of her finger. "Tonight's my night to make dinner and I would be insulted if you ordered something other than the lo mein I microwaved for you."

"But you won't be insulted if I leave you at the apartment to eat dinner alone?"

"I won't be so long as you bring me back some leftovers."