Muddled Through by Barbara Ross

Author:Barbara Ross [Ross, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2022-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Back to Crowley’s. If I’d had my wits about me I would have suggested going off the peninsula to a town with more open restaurants—Damariscotta to the north, or Wiscasset to the south. But that idea carried its own freight, like the possibility of a long, awkward car ride together. What if we had a miserable time and were trapped in the car on the way home? Crowley’s was open; it was close. I could see why Ben had assumed we’d go there.

At least I had time to pull myself together a little. I changed into nice slacks, flats, and a blouse I would have worn to work in the days before my daily uniform had become flannel overshirts. I brushed my hair and my teeth and put on a little lipstick. I didn’t want to overdo it. This was a casual, last-minute invitation to dinner by someone I’d met only the day before. I wanted to look pulled together. As much for Chris as for Ben, I had to admit.

I left the house at eight. I didn’t want to be the first one to get to Crowley’s. Nothing would look more pathetic than hanging around waiting for someone. I didn’t know if Ben was the type to be early, late, or right on time. As luck would have it, he arrived the same moment I did. He wore a long-sleeved, button-down shirt under a maroon sweater. I was glad he had another sweater with him, since I’d probably been a party to destroying the one he’d worn the day before.

Prepared this time, I greeted Chris as I came through the door. “Hi.” It would have been weird to walk right by him.

“Hey, Julia.” He gave me a grin, an open look of curiosity on his face.

“Um . . . Chris, this is Ben.” I could feel the blush returning. Darn. “Ben, Chris.”

“Hey.” Ben smiled.

“Hey.” Chris gave a curt nod.

I hustled Ben over to the host station. “Can we sit in the other room?” Crowley’s occupied a cavernous former dockside warehouse. It would be packed in the summer, but we should be able to sit where we pleased tonight, and I didn’t want to feel or see Chris watching me during this whole . . . whatever it was.

“The other room is closed. No wait staff assigned there tonight.” The hostess was a high school girl I recognized from my niece Page’s swim team.

“Then can we sit as far back in this room as possible?”

She took two dinner menus and two drink menus off the stand and cradled them in one arm. “Sure.”

At the table in the farthest corner, I took the seat facing the wall and let Ben climb into the banquette. I wasn’t going to spend my night listening to Ben while staring at Chris.

The conversation didn’t flow quite as easily as it had the day before. Ben squinted at the drinks menu. Though Crowley’s looked like a place where a wise person would order beer, in the last few years Sam Rockmaker had gotten quite creative with his cocktail offerings.

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