Tommy Sallow is onto better and brighter things. After working a small hometown beat in upstate New York, he's finally in sunny California. As expected, it's the same shit in a different town. Except, you know, now he's near the ocean and miserable...
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"Alright, let's do this, Sallow."
Lacy pops the trunk, revealing the haul we just picked up from Alcott's Catering. A couple trays of lemon-garlic chicken, a healthy sized order of those delicious potatoes they always serve at weddings, some kind of creamy green bean concoction, and a big ass bag of dinner rolls.
Oh, and some macaroni and cheese because no celebration dinner is complete without it. And that's what we're doing tonight, celebrating Trevor and his staff for having their clinical trial accepted.
Everything looks amazing and smells even better but I still can't believe we didn't even try to prepare any part of this meal ourselves.
"We're a couple of frauds," I express bitterly, reaching for one of the boxes. "We shouldn't have ordered out. I'm sure we could have pulled something together and given everyone a real, home-cooked meal."
Lacy's hand flies up to stop me. "Before you go any further down that rabbit hole of guilt, let me point a few things out," she says, popping her index finger up in front of my face as she begins the tally. "Number one, I'm not a cook and neither are you. I'm learning but I can't test my mediocre skills on a large group and disappoint them..." She trails off and her eyes widen just a touch as she mutters under her breath, "Or risk giving everyone food poisoning... these are my potential future in-laws, after all."
Shaking off her little bout of worry, she sends another finger up to mark the next reason that will justify our laziness. "Number two, supporting local business is really important, Tommy. I mean, isn't this catering place run by your partner's family?"
"Yeah," I shrug, feeling like that fact is slightly irrelevant but also remembering that Jimmy went out of his way to relay a heartfelt thank you from his parents so our support didn't go unnoticed and that does feel nice. "Still though, if we weren't going to cook, we should have just taken everyone out."
"Hosting a dinner party is way more personal and meaningful."
"When you actually cook, it is."
Lacy laughs. "I'm not arguing about this. If anything, we've opened up more time to socialize tonight and that should excite you, especially since Amber will be here."
When she says Amber's name, her voice drops into the teasing imitation of a fifth grade schoolgirl, chiding me about my crush. And as much as I want to hate it, I can't help smiling, enjoying the now familiar flutter in my chest at the thought of seeing her. The gorgeous woman who's been on my mind even more non-stop than usual since the day she let me pull the delicate pieces of her back together on the sand. If I thought she already invaded my mind, it had nothing on what happened after she let me hold her.
Something changed that day. I don't just think about her in the usual ways anymore. It's not only the anticipation of Sundays on the beach, walking in her presence and enjoying our time together. I'm starting to wonder what kinds of things she gets into on all the other days of the week, how her work days go, what she eats for lunch.
