“Got to go. Nice to meet you, Mr. Varasso.”
I hurried away, collecting a large round serving tray and filling it with food and drinks. I nearly sprinted in my eagerness to put some distance between myself and Intense Suit Guy, needing to regain my equilibrium.
I delivered the meal, thinking I’d feel better now that I wasn’t so near to him, but I didn’t. I continued to feel unnerved by his presence even from across the room. Going to the center of the restaurant, I straightened the globe, rosemary and geranium, needing something to keep my hands busy.
“Who’s the hottie?” Laura appeared by my side, her features assessing Marco Varasso as if he was her favorite dessert.
I leaned in and whispered, “Get this… He’s the new owner.”
“New owner? What the hell?”
“I know.”
“Ian sold it out from under us?”
Technically, the bistro wasn’t ours to sell it out from under from, but I knew what she meant. She and Chloe were my best friends and had worked here almost as long as I had. All three of us had years invested here. Our regulars knew each of us by name and requested us whenever they came in.
“Seems that way.”
Laura fumed for a few minutes, taking every free moment to watch Intense Suit Guy as he sat in what used to be Ian’s office and booted up his desktop.
“Chloe ditch us to go out with that girl who’s been hanging out lately?”
That was Laura, she tended to bounce from subject to subject any time she felt upset. The coping mechanism allowed her to process things. Focusing on Chloe’s bi-sexual social life gave her something to latch onto.
“Yeah. Think her name was Sarita.” And I’d been grateful to take the extra shift.
“What is Hot New Owner’s name?” Laura then asked me, in her Ping-Pong manner of making conversation. But her question gave me pause. Yes, the guy was hot, but the descriptor didn’t do him justice. It seemed inadequate and too benign. I’d sensed something in him during our abrupt first meeting, something not quite menacing, but still dark.
“Marco Varasso.”
“The last name sounds familiar to me. Where have I heard that before?” she asked. I had no idea, though now that she mentioned it, I felt like I’d heard of that surname, too. “This doesn’t bode well for us, does it? Maybe I should check around to see if anyone else is hiring.”
“You think he’s going to let us go?” I asked her.
“I have a bad feeling.”
The thing about Laura’s bad feelings were that they were hit or miss. She liked to think she was a bit psychic because her mom read palms and tarot cards, but the truth was, her guesses were right no more often than anyone else’s. I didn’t say any of this, though.
Laura clung to her pessimism like a safety blanket. Expecting the worst all the time seemed to give her a sense of comfort when those awful things didn’t actually come to fruition. To each their own, I guess. Personally, I tried to look on the bright side, even when there didn’t end up being one. Life was hard enough without actively seeking out reasons to make it worse.
“Suppose that makes him off limits,” she went on, zeroing in on me. “At least for me. You, though. Damn.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Kelly, when you two were having your little confab, he acted as if you were the only person in the room.”
“So?” He had been uber attentive, but maybe that was his version of being polite. If a big jungle cat could do polite.
“So, he seems interested in you, despite the whole dressing like a nun thing you’ve dedicated yourself to.”
Whether he was interested in me or not didn’t matter. Though I had no aspirations to joining a nunnery, I didn’t date random men, and I certainly wouldn’t date someone responsible for giving me a paycheck. If he decided not to fire me, at any rate.
When I’d first started working here, I’d had several men come on to me or ask me out, even though I never encouraged them. To help head them off, I began to go more and more conservative with my clothing. Now, I wore baggy t-shirts and knee-length shorts in the warm months and long, heavy sweaters over jeans or thick leggings in the cooler ones.
Laura and Chloe both knew about my parent’s situation. They knew I didn’t have time for a man in my life, even if I’d wanted one.
Which I didn’t.