29 Dates by Melissa de la Cruz

Author:Melissa de la Cruz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Published: 2018-10-19T14:41:11+00:00

* * *

They ended up at Tito’s Kitchen. Tito’s was tucked between a sushi restaurant and a UPS shipping store. All of the best restaurants Jisu had been to since she’d arrived were located in the most inconspicuous spots. This was a good sign. The awning was simple, with TITO’S KITCHEN written in all caps in bright blue and red against a white backdrop. A golden yellow sun was painted between the words Tito’s and Kitchen. A green neon light that spelled OPEN glowed in the window. Both sides of a long, verbose menu were taped below the neon sign.

“You ever hear about this place?” Austin asked.

“I haven’t. Is that bad?” One of these days, Austin was going to ask her about a local restaurant, the latest indie movie or a B-list American pop star, and she was going to know what he was talking about. But today was not that day. She hadn’t caught up on any of Austin’s pop-culture assignments.

“I mean, it’s only the first restaurant on the list I gave you of places to eat,” he teased. Austin could list every restaurant in the Bay Area and ramble on about each one. Jisu would listen to all of it.

“If you ever hear anyone talk shit about Tito’s, you need to tell me so I can set them straight,” he said as he opened the restaurant door for her. Like a real gentleman. “My uncles run this restaurant. It’s literally their kitchen.”

The smell of garlic and pork hit Jisu as soon as she stepped in. They had arrived just as the dinner rush was ending. Only a handful of patrons were scattered throughout the room, most of them lingering over their last bites and asking for the check. A stout middle-aged man dressed in a button-down shirt, jacket and slacks leaned against the kitchen counter in the back and chatted away with the chef. The chef was taller and his long hair was tied back into a ponytail. They looked alike. You could tell by the way the chef moved around the kitchen that he was younger. The bell tied to the entrance door rang as Austin stepped inside behind Jisu. It was like a Pavlovian effect, the way the older man immediately straightened up and turned around to greet them. A look of recognition flashed in his eyes and he threw his hands up.

“Look who it is!”

“Hey, Tito Ron.” Austin gave the man a hug. He looked to the chef in the kitchen. “Hi, Tito Jhun!”

“And who is this young lady?” Tito Ron asked.

“This is my friend Jisu. We just got back from teaching kids how to skate at the rink for a birthday party,” Austin said.

Friend.

“Jhun!” Ron yelled. “You can whip something up for these two, yeah?”

“You got it, kuya!” Jhun shouted back.

“You guys came at the right time.” Ron seated Jisu and Austin at a table by the kitchen. He pulled up a chair and sat next to Austin. “Tito Jhun and I were thinking about doing some karaoke in the back room after closing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.