An Acquired Taste by Avery Kane

Author:Avery Kane [Kane, Avery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KissingShark Publications
Published: 2024-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

15

FIFTEEN

Normally, I was the one who made people uncomfortable. I thrived on being that person, on being so blunt that I could make people blush and want to find a hole to crawl into so they could hide … or die. Today, however, Jesse was the one making me uncomfortable.

The problem was I didn’t know if he realized it.

We had very little time to finesse a menu, thanks to our outing the previous evening, and I really needed to stop going out every night to drown my sorrows. That wasn’t going to help the way I was feeling—forgetting for a night wasn’t the same as forgetting forever—and the last thing I wanted to do was develop a problem. I liked going out as much as the next person, but once or twice a week was normally my limit. I needed to go back to that and stop being a complete and total mess.

That was easier said than done. I was determined to make it happen, though.

Unfortunately, constant proximity to Jesse made me feel like a bit of a goof. I didn’t want to act like a moron—I could flirt with the best of them most days—but he made me feel as if my tongue was too big for my mouth and my heart might pound out of my chest.

Yeah, what’s up with that?

Because he was an amazing cook—I really had lucked out when stumbling on him as a partner—he came up with what he considered a simple menu. It was fancy chicken salad and homemade plantains. They turned out great and, to my surprise, were popular. Of course, I wasn’t sitting in my truck eating hot dogs to distract people, either. We were both serving the same thing.

“That turned out pretty well,” I noted when the time came to close.

The time was shortly before five o’clock, and even though the hangover had remained at bay, thanks to Pansy’s miraculous potion, weariness was starting to catch up with me.

“Next time, we need to stick to the plan.” Jesse was firm. “We need to have two different menu items so we can start gauging interest. We were in a pickle today, though.”

Speaking of pickles, I grabbed one from the container on the cooler and bit into it as I leaned my elbows on the counter and glanced over at his truck. “You did really well,” I said finally. “I wasn’t sure you could pull it off because you’re one of those guys who needs to plan absolutely everything, but you did a good job.”

“Thanks.” Jesse’s discomfort was palpable as he shifted from one foot to the other. “It wasn’t all that hard. I mean, I thought it would be, but it wasn’t.”

“Why did you think it would be?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I think I make things out to be bigger in my head than they are in reality.”

I could see that. “I tend to minimize them. It’s like… if I can make something smaller than it really is, less important, maybe it will turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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