Cruel Heart

PART 10

"So that's why I've never heard of this place," Mia mumbled softly as they took their seats.

Twyla's was a pop up restaurant that moved locations every week. Currently it sat along the Hudson, bordering a mile long wave of emptied seacans.

Fairy lights hung low, the soft yellow glow bleeding along the wooden slats of the floor.

It was beautiful.

"How did you even find out about this place?" Mia asked. Her eyes darted from the bouquets of pale blue lillies that peppered every table.

Harlan smiled. "I know the owner," he explained.

Mia frowned. As breathtaking as it was, it was utterly empty. Not another living soul occupied the space save for the waiter that had greeted them up at the front.

"It's pretty empty," she noted out loud.

Harlan chuckled. "Probably because I booked the whole restaurant," he admitted casually.

Mia blinked once. Had she heard that right?

"You..." Mia shook her head. "You booked the whole restaurant?" she echoed in shock, stunned. "Like the whole thing?"

Harlan's eyes sparked as he nodded. His lips pulled upwards in a grin that Mia could have stared at forever. Something about him always had her falling; consumed in even the smallest of details about him.

"You're totally insane," she teased with a giggle.

Harlan laughed. A raspy chorus of sound that clanged throughout the empty restuarant and down Mia's arms.

"Get used to it, Fray," he said with a wink as the waiter came up to their table.

"Good evening," the man greeted with a smile. He wasn't dressed like any waiter she'd ever seen before. There was no tacky uniform with a name tag taking up half of his chest. No monochrome outfit with a nondescript theme.

Instead, the guy was dressed in black from head to toe. His right arm was layered in tattoos, the ink so old it bled into one swath of black and grey.

"My name is Lyle and I will be your server for tonight," Lyle continued. He was older, with a head of graying hair that matched his full beard. "Have we decided on drinks?" he asked.

Mia flicked her eyes down at the small paper menu. "I'll just have a water, please," she said. Getting drunk probably wasn't the best idea. When Mia drank, she had a tendency to not stop until she blacked out.

Like that one time at her Dad's wedding. It ended with her waking up in a puddle of vomit and Gigi telling her she'd fallen face first into the cake.

Or when she first met Harlan, spilling every half-formed thought that popped into her brain.

So...yeah. It was probably for the best that she stuck with the water for tonight.

"I'll have a water as well, please," Harlan said before Lyle took off, disappearing behind the wooden partition that separated the tables.

"Did you grow up here?" Harlan asked.

Mia nodded. "Yeah. Well, uh, technically," she corrected. "I lived in Colorado for the first few years of my life. We moved to the city when I was seven."

"And who is we?" he asked before she could change the subject. She really didn't feel like going into her life. She wanted to be here, right now, with Harlan.

Just the two of them. No Gigi and Lake. No crazy supermodel exes.

Just Harlan and Mia.

Mia ran her fingers along the edge of the menu. "My Dad and siblings."