Page 62 of One Night with Cinderella

Almost as good as Gabe.

Was he with someone new? Or was the restaurant his one true love?

“Well, you have a week to decide,” Phoebe suggested from behind her.

Monica remained silent. Her thoughts were filled with visions of walking up on Gabe holding and kissing and giving attention to another woman the way he used to do with her. The jealousy she felt at just the idea of that was telling.

Her love for him lingered.

“What if his true intent was an invite to reconcile?” Phoebe asked.

Monica’s heartbeat seemed to echo loudly inside her even as she shook her head in denial of the thought. “Hurt me once, shame on you. Hurt me twice?” she asked, using her own play on words of the popular saying. “Shame on me.”

At the gentle nudge against her arm, she was surprised to find her aunt standing beside her with a fresh cocktail in each hand. She took one with a nod of thanks. “You make a really good drink, Auntie,” she said after a long and satisfying sip.

“I was a bartender in this little dive in Cuba for two years when I was deeply in passion with Armando,” Phoebe said as she lightly stroked her neck and smiled at some memory before sipping her drink, giving a soft little grunt from the back of her throat.

“Armando, huh?” Monica asked, curious about the life her aunt had lived that had included a stay in Cuba.

“Yes, and Frank, and Marcus, and Harry. Just to name a few,” she said, her smile widening with each name. “I’ve had some great passions in my life. And I gave as good as I got.”

“What about love?” she asked the older woman she was quickly learning to adore.

“Love? Sometimes,” Phoebe said with a little shrug. “But even when the love fades the memories remain, and that, my niece, makes it all worthwhile.”

With Gabe there had been more good than bad. So much more. Plenty of passion, laughs and deep conversations. Travels. Adventures. Discoveries. And the sex. Their physical connection. She shook her head in wonder at the thought of the heated moments they’d shared. The things they did to each other.

But...

“I’m too hurt to enjoy the memories,” she admitted.

“Of course, you are...now,” Phoebe assured her. “That’s the good thing about memories, because they don’t go anywhere. They’ll wait for when you’re ready to savor them, and they’ll sneak up on you when you least expect it.”

Don’t I know it.

“To the memories,” Phoebe said raising her glass with her eyes filled with twinkle.

Monica gave her a reluctant smile, anxious for the days her recollections didn’t mock her so much. “To the memories,” she agreed as they touched glasses.

Ding.

Gabe sprinkled thinly sliced green onions on the short ribs braised in red wine atop thick grits made savory with French Brillat-Savarin cheese and freshly made garlic butter. He stepped back to view his handiwork as he tossed his hand towel over his left shoulder and set his hands on his hips. “Run the dish,” he said with a nod, signaling the plated meal was ready to be served.

It was the last dish of the first night of his restaurant’s grand opening.

“Excellent job, Chef.”

Gabe smiled as he extended a hand to Lorenzo, who had humbly served as his sous chef for one more night. Together they had effortlessly served those private guests he’d invited to celebrate with him. Tomorrow he would be on his own. GABRIEL was open. “Thank you, Chef.”

“It’s nice to see you smile, amigo,” Lorenzo said as he walked over to the leather-covered double doors to remove his apron and free his shiny ebony waist-length hair.

This time the grin was forced. “I’m okay, Zo,” he lied, moving to the wash sink to clean and dry his hands before replacing the dark brown, monogrammed chef’s coat he wore with a clean one.

“You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep,” Lorenzo said, pulling on a dark blue linen jacket that matched his dark denim jeans and deep blue silk shirt.

His friend had said the Navajo saying to him many times over the last two months. “I am moving on,” he insisted.

“You’re going through the motions,” Lorenzo insisted. “Living without living.”

---