Page 52 of Suits and Spark Plugs

He’d opened his mouth with a smile, but my words stopped whatever he was going to say and wiped the smile off his face. Silence dropped for a beat before he coughed slightly and said, “I, uh, well, I’ve missed you and hoped you wouldn’t mind if we rode together.”

I didn’t immediately know how to respond, and my hesitation was obvious. I felt a little bruised and unsure, and didn’t think the ride back home after my breakup speech would be a good one. Which meant I maybe fibbed, a tiny bit.

“Actually, I have other places to be after we eat, so I’m going to need to drive myself.”

I watched as his expression transform the rest of the way from happy to wary and guarded. “Okay. Where did you want to eat again?”

I gave him directions, for the second time, to a Chinese restaurant on the edge of town. It was dumpy but good, and I didn’t want to have this whole thing go down at my place of employment.

When I arrived Blaine was already there, waiting inside at a tiny table and looking comical in the shabby old place. The tinkling sound of silverware was comfortingly familiar, and the sing-song voices of servers going about their duties calmed my pounding heart. I could smell the sweet and tangy scents specific to Asian cuisine as I walked to where he sat. His expression was closed as he glanced around him.

“How have you been?” I asked as I shrugged out of my coat and joined him. I wasn’t sure how else to open up conversation.

“Lonely,” he replied. “I miss you.” My doubtful thoughts must have crossed my face because he hurried to say, “We don’t need to talk about anything. We can simply enjoy each other’s company like we did before I opened my big mouth.”

A softening began in the nostalgic places of my heart. We’d had some really good times. I wanted to go back too, but was there any point in that when we couldn’t take back what we’d discovered about each other?

“I do miss the fun we had,” I admitted.

“I should have kept quiet.”

“No.” I shook my head, causing one of my dark curls to fall in front of my right eye. I pushed it back into place and offered him a smile. “You should be honest with me. The problem isn’t how you feel, it’s that we don’t agree on a lot of it.”

“Couples argue. That was nothing more than our first fight, and it’s behind us now,” he persuaded.

“For me it was more than that,” I replied quietly.

He reached over for my hand. His hands were smooth and warm against my cold fingers. “Let’s just order and eat. No heavy topics.”

“Blaine, I...”

“Food first. Then we can talk. Please?”

I caved and the next few minutes were taken up perusing the menu and ordering our food. Vegetable chow mein for me and orange pork for him.

“Do you want to hear the funniest thing?” he asked after our waiter walked away.

“Sure.” I figured we may as well eat before the big talk. We both needed lunch. Plus, avoidance was comfortable for the moment.

He jumped into a tale about a customer who wanted to open a grooming store for exotic pets and the advertising nightmare they’d been fighting. It was amusing, light-hearted, and all the things I’d come to enjoy about Blaine. It helped my stomach unclench enough that by the time our food arrived I was able to get some down.

Until he said, “Sometimes I truly believe that if people would just listen to me, things would go a lot better.”

My stomach constricted again. “This is your customer. Don’t you want to make them happy?”

He gave me a quick look and his expression turned serious. “Yes, I do. However, I have more wisdom and experience. They need to listen and allow me to guide them along to a place where we’ll both get what we’re after.”

I understood the concept that as a hired professional his knowledge should be respected. However, I also understood that we weren’t only talking about business anymore. “True, but shouldn’t it be about some compromise from both of you? They should also be allowed to follow their gut a little. This is their heart they’ve poured into something.”

“Babe, the more I see, the more I think that people generally don’t have any idea of what they really need. If I can look from the outside and see the best direction to take, don’t you think I should express my thoughts and hope they listen?”

He looked at me with an intent expression, his hands gripping his chopsticks as he met my eyes. The steaming platters of food were forgotten, and it felt like the restaurant shrank to just our table.

I swallowed a sticky chunk of broccoli and cleared my throat as I set down my fork. Chopsticks had never worked for me. “It depends on the situation. People need to be allowed the freedom to make their own choices and suffer the consequences.”

“Even if it proves disastrous?” he asked.

“What do you mean by disastrous?”

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