Page 23 of An Irish Summer

And those were boxes Icouldcheck. Hell, I was in Ireland planning bachelorette parties in a city I barely knew. That had to count for something.

“Did you always know you wanted to be a chef?” I asked. I’d been curious about Flo’s story since I met her in the hallway, and now seemed as good a time as any to ask.

“Of course not,” she said. “I had no idea what I wanted to do. We just cooked all the time at home in Italy, and then when I got here and they needed a cook I was decent at it, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

“Wasn’t that scary?” I asked. “Just deciding to stay? Changing your life like that?”

“Not as scary as it would have been going home,” she said. “My head would have exploded if I stayed in my family’s house. Too many opinions.”

“Is the Wanderer any different?” I asked. She hooted the kind of laugh that startled everyone in earshot, and I couldn’t help but join her.

“You’re catching on quick,” she said. “At least there’s freedom at the Wanderer. No bossy dads or judgmental aunts to be found.”

“Only needy guests and nosy coworkers,” I said.

“Speaking of,” she said, and I knew exactly where she was going, “how was your day out in the country with Collin?”

I tried to keep my expression neutral and described our platonic, not romantic, day of hiking and picnicking. I left out any mention of flirty glances or touching knees and kept it to seeing the lakes and driving down the freeway and learning a bit of Irish history.

Flo hummed, tapping her fingers against her full lips, squinting her eyes. “Sounds like a date to me,” she said eventually, to which I rolled my eyes.

“We’re just friends.”

“Yeah, yeah. When’s the next one?” she asked.

“Tomorrow, I’m guessing. According to the schedule posted in the staff room, that’s the next time we both have a day off.”

“Look at you, checking the schedule,” she said, raising her eyebrows.

“Just trying to plan ahead,” I said. “I need to know when I can dedicate time to applying for jobs since I keep getting pulled to do other things every time I try.” I nudged her so she would know I was joking, mostly.

“Well, you can confirm with him tonight,” she said.

“What’s tonight?” My only plans for tonight were to revisit the posting and be asleep before ten o’clock.

“Staff bonding,” she said. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”

I had absolutely forgotten.

Lars mentioned something the other day about the staff getting together tonight for drinks and bar games, but I was so invested in responding to an email from Ada about an apartment I couldn’t afford that I hadn’t really heard a word he said.

“Right, bonding,” I said, hardly able to hide that this was mostly new information to me.

“You totally forgot.”

“Shut up.”

“I can handle it from here,” she said, nodding toward the door. “Your shift is just about over and Wednesdays are quiet, so you have some time to get ready.”

“This is something I need to get ready for?”

“You know what I mean.” She practically shooed me out of the room, and I raised my hands in surrender. I needed to wash my hair anyway, and I was dying to get out of the work polo.

The staff wing was quiet, so I undressed in my room and wrapped myself in a towel to head into the bathroom instead of going in my clothes.

I should have known the silence was too good to be true.

As soon as I turned away from my closed door, I bumped smack into Collin. Also in a towel.

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