Page 62 of Pete and His Precious

“Yeah. I think it’s supposed to be another unseasonably warm fall day,” Pete says as he slides through the door sideways, making sure that he doesn’t hit Tammy’s head on anything.

“It’s funny how unseasonably warm in the summer is miserable, but unseasonably warm in the fall is perfect,” Leslie says, cheerfully, as she hurries to catch up, and falls into step beside me.

“It’s a good day for kissing,” I say. Nothing like being subtle. At my age, I don’t have time to be subtle. I’m also pretty sure that Tammy is going to get me after this. Because I hear a little stumble behind me, and I’m guessing that Pete almost drops her. I almost rub my hands together. After all the negativity that Tammy has brought into my life, I’m not sorry in the slightest about my comment, and I wish I could find something else to shock Pete with. Because I’d do it. Just because of how Tammy is going to feel about it.

“Yes. I always thought fall days were the best days for romance. And kissing definitely says romance,” Carrie says cheerfully beside me.

“Kissing was always my favorite activity,” Leslie says, and I think that actually might be true. She says it in a tone that makes me think it was, and I feel a little bit bad. She’s the most recently widowed among us, and she’s probably missing her husband. It’s tough that first year, and even though my marriage wasn’t thatgreat, I did miss my husband. But he never really kissed me so I didn’t miss that specifically. I missed that throughout my whole marriage. Widowhood was nothing new in that regard.

But I was faithful, so there’s that. I suppose, if anyone wants to know, marriage can be happy with no kissing, and it can even be happy when anyone outside looking in would say it should not be. It’s a matter of the mind. I think that’s where battles are fought and won. It’s true in my life anyway.

“I always thought kissing was kind of sloppy, and my husband had perpetual bad breath, so I hated it.” That’s Tammy. And I want to kick her other ankle, and give her an actual reason to be carried. What is she trying to do? Talk him out of getting married?

“But I think with the right person, kissing could be really nice,” Tammy says, and maybe I’m better at mental telepathy than I thought.

“I think so too,” Pete says, and I again get that desire to rub my hands together in glee. I really want him to think about kissing, and I want him to be thinking about it a lot, especially as we go into the diner.

The hostess offers to seat us, and I specifically ask to be seated in Zoe’s section. Pete’s cheeks seem to get a little red under his tan, but he doesn’t say anything. Maybe he wouldn’t be so bold, or maybe he’s just nervous about seeing her. That’s interesting. He seems kind of like a tough guy. Being that he’s a cop and everything, but the man can blush. I like him more than I thought I did. And that’s saying something, because I liked him an awful lot when I decided that he’d make the perfect match for Zoe.

We settled on the table and I remember an obvious topic of conversation.

“How’s Trixie?” I ask, as Tammy slides into the booth beside Carrie, and Pete sits on the end.

“He’s doing pretty good. He seems to have taken a shine to Zoe’s cat, Flipper. Or maybe it’s the cat who’s taken a shine to him.”

“That bird is a chick magnet,” Leslie says, and that time I allow myself to laugh.

“Maybe I should take some lessons from it,” Pete says, and we all laughed again.

The menus are not extensive, it’s just basically eggs anyway you can think of them, and pancakes.

Pancakes have too many carbs in them, so I’m going to get eggs. I know I shouldn’t have the sausage, but I’m going to order it anyway.

But that’s actually not what I say when Zoe comes over to our table.

“Goodness. The whole apartment building is here,” she says, her pad held up, her face smiling. Her eyes sweep the table, but I’m sure that we all noticed they stop on Pete.

“Hey,” he says, and now not only are his cheeks red, but the tips of his ears are too.

Zoe has some red cheeks of her own.

So like I said, I was going to order the eggs and toast, but instead of talking about food, I say, “It’s a good day for kissing.”

Chapter 22

Pete

I love the smell of the diner, the coffee, the bacon, double the bacon...did I mention the bacon?

But Zoe. There is a scent that’s all hers, and that I don’t seem to have any trouble picking up on. It’s subtle and sweet and makes the diner scent even better. While I wouldn’t pair vanilla and bacon, that’s kind of how it smells. Maybe maple syrup. I’m not sure. Maybe it’s a combination of both. Or maybe I’m just hungry. But seeing Zoe sends all of my senses into overdrive, and I feel like I could pick out any scent with ease.

Still, when Miss Phyllis says that it’s a good day for kissing, I forget all about the scents of the diner, and my eyes drop to Zoe’s lips.

It’s a very good day for kissing.

But, I’m not unaware that Zoe laughs nervously and she seems a little uncomfortable, but maybe that’s because she wasn’t listening to us talk on the way here.

Or maybe it’s just because I’m interested in kissing, but Zoe wants to be friends. She wants to focus on her career and is working on that.

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