The Risk of Falling

Chapter Five: The Lunch Date

I’d been repeatedly asking myself what the hell I was doing in the last ten minutes since I got into Luke Hedenby’s town car.

I still wasn’t sure. 

I had stopped by my desk to grab my purse the same time Jillian messaged me, prompting me about our usual lunch routine.

Jillian Dane: What do you mean you’re going out for lunch with Mr. H?

Maxine Moss: Informal engagement interview. I just happen to be available for lunch when he needed to do it.

Jillian Dane: Hmm.. Wasn’t born yesterday. Anything I should know?

Maxine Moss: If there is, I don’t know it myself. I’m sure it’s nothing.

Jillian Dane: You’re obviously not getting fired if he’s taking you out for lunch. Is he into you? He’s kind of a player, you know?

Maxine Moss: His rep shouldn’t be relevant to me. And we shouldn’t discuss him like this. What if IT tracks this chat?

Jillian Dane: I am IT. Duh. OK, go. We’ll talk later. Order the priciest dish. =P

Jillian’s probing made me change my mind right then and there and I started telling myself I was only going out to meet him at his car to tell him that this wasn’t a good idea. The moment he smiled at me though when I slipped into the backseat next to him, I faltered.

Yes.

Maxine-Made-Of-Stone-Moss faltered in the very attractive face of a decidedly heart-stopping grin from an unrepentant ladies’ man.

This should’ve really warned me.

The fact that I was stepping over my usual boundaries—the same ones that saved me every time in my entire twenty-three years of my life—should’ve clued me in. 

“So we can go to Pepe’s for lunch,” he said as his driver, whom he introduced as Terrence, took a sharp right turn that had me bumping against Luke. He instinctively put a hand on the small of my back to steady me, his hand’s imprint burning a patch straight down to my skin. Luke didn’t seem to notice as he lifted his hands away as soon as I was upright. 

“They make the best fresh pizza in town and then we can grab some eclairs for Peggy,” he added.

I could only nod. “That sounds good.”

“Terrence loves their sausage and mushroom calzone, don’t you, Terr?” he asked his driver who nodded vigorously before glancing over his shoulder at us. 

“The. Best. Ever. Hands down,” the young man said before turning back to the road. 

I smiled and glanced at Luke who was grinning as well. “I’ll make sure to order that now.”

“I always order two so you can split the second with me if you like, Ms. Moss,” the driver continued. “You might want to try the puttanesca, too. That’s Luke’s favorite.”

“Don’t worry, I already ordered a bunch of different things for us,” Luke said as we pulled up in front of a sophisticated restaurant with red and gold-striped awnings, a front patio already packed with lunches and the name Pepe’s embossed in black and gold script above the door. 

He stepped out of the car and walked over to my side to open the door for me even though I was already about to let myself out on my own. 

“Here’s so you don’t feel so self-conscious about your outfit,” Luke said as he slipped off his suit’s dark gray jacket and draped it over my shoulders.