Page 25 of A Taste For Trouble
“Hop in,” I ordered.
“I’ve reserved a table at Paul’s at The Orangery,” said Trevor, checking his phone for the reservation.
Rose froze in her seat and gave me an odd look before she nodded slowly. Fuck! I remembered the darn article in The Weekly Whisper.
“Cancel the reservation,” I said gruffly, and Trevor shot me a look of surprise that I ignored. “Where would you like to eat, Rose?”
She looked relieved, and I knew I had done the right thing. Rose did not want to go to the restaurant where I had taken my last date, and I didn’t blame her. I wouldn’t want to take her to the places she went with Joe, either. This…whatever was between us…might be for show. But it was also ours. And I didn’t want it tainted by the past, either for her or for me.
“Can we go to The Cosy Spoon?” she asked hesitantly, referring to the town’s famous diner. “I’d love a fat, juicy burger.”
The Spoon was one of my favourite places to eat, even though I had been to some of the best Michelin-starred restaurants in the world. And I was glad Rosie liked it just as much.
Trevor cancelled our reservations at Paul’s, and I drove Rose to the diner. We parked outside the place, and I knew that as soon as we walked in there, the town’s grapevine was going to be activated. The Cosy Spoon belonged to one of Gran’s oldest friends, Agatha Pritchett, and Miss Aggie was also on the town council, which meant she was part of Gran’s matchmaking project. I hoped she wouldn’t embarrass us too much with her heavy hints.
The diner was crowded and we were lucky to find an empty booth. To my relief, it wasn’t Aggie who greeted us, but her grandson, Adam, whom I hadn’t seen in years. He was a Michelin-starred chef in Boston and was making all of us real proud out there.
“Nice to see you, man,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder happily. “I didn’t know you were back in town.”
“I’m not sure how long I’m staying, but it’s good to be back,” he replied with a smile. “Nice to see you too, Rosie.”
Rose smiled at him sweetly, and I wanted to snarl at Adam to back the fuck off. I thought he was a friend, but friends didn’t flirt with your girlfriends, fake or otherwise.
‘What can I get you guys today?” he asked, and Rose bit her lower lip as she studied the menu.
“I’ll have the cheeseburger with the house dressing, with onion rings, and a Diet Coke, please,” she said eventually.
“A sound choice,” said Adam, with another mega-watt smile at her, which, in my opinion, was completely unnecessary.
“I’ll have the same, with fries and a sparkling water, instead of a Diet Coke.”
He gave me a knowing look as he took our order, the rat bastard, and I was still scowling as we settled into the booth.
“What’s wrong?” asked Rose, and I shook my head because it wasn’t her problem that I didn’t like her smiling at other guys.
“Nothing. I guess I’m just hungry,” I said, and changed the subject.
Our burgers arrived soon after, and I was delighted to see she wasn’t one of those women who picked at their food like it was their worst enemy. And what was even better, she split half her onion rings with me and took half my fries. She moaned as she dug into her burger happily, her eyes closed in bliss as she chewed the first mouthful.
“This has to be the best cheeseburger in the whole world,” she said happily, as she wiped her fingers clean and reached for her Diet Coke.
Just then, Miss Aggie came out of her office at the far end of the diner and spotted us. Her eyebrows jumped in delight as she started towards us. This was the real test, I realised. If we couldfool Miss Aggie, we could convince the whole town we were dating. So I took Rose’s hand and dropped a gentle kiss on the back of it.
Her fingers trembled in my hand, and she tried to pull her hand out of mine.
“Miss Aggie is on her way to our table,” I murmured, and she froze like a deer in the headlights.
“What do I do?” she hissed.
“Just play along with me,” I replied, dipping a fry in ketchup and holding it to her lips. They parted reluctantly, and she bit into the fry.
“Very cheesy,” she said, as she chewed.
“The fry?” I asked in surprise because we had asked for regular fries, not cheesy ones.
“No, you,” she said, with a grin, and I laughed in surprise. It was a rusty sound because I didn’t remember when I had last laughed out loud. Just then, Miss Aggie pulled up at our table and beamed at the two of us.
“Now, isn’t this a delightful surprise?” she said loudly, and Rose’s fingers jumped in my hand. I gave them a quick squeeze before I rose to greet Miss Aggie with a kiss on the cheek.
