Honey, Honey by Rebel Carter

Chapter Six

HONEY

“So we are getting the pork belly, right? If we aren’t, then I’m going fucking home and I don’t care if I have to swim home in the storm outside. I’m doing it.” Tiffany crossed her arms and stared at me with a look that told me she meant it. Storm or no storm, she was out if I didn’t say yes we were getting the delicious fatty pork.

“You’re in luck,” I told her, picking up my spoon and digging into the egg Gyeranjjim, “because I insist on the pork belly. And if we don’t get at least two bottles of Makgeolli, then I’ll swim home in this monsoon.”

Tiffany’s eyebrows quirked, and she grinned. “Oh, I like it! Upping the ante and in only the best way.”

“You know it,” I told her, eating a spoonful of steaming egg with a moan of pleasure. “God, I’m starving. I could probably eat three of these,” I said, gesturing at the steaming metal pot the egg dish was served in.

“That's because you don’t eat anything, ever.”

“I eat,” I told her, shaking my head.

“Yeah, okay, cool story.”

I rolled my eyes at her and picked up the menu in front of me. The server was walking our way and I didn’t intend to waste a damn minute getting my fill of delicious Korean food and wine. We ordered and in no time had an assortment of banchan, a bottle of chilled rice wine sitting in front of us with pork belly sizzling on the grill at our table.

Life was good. This was exactly what I’d needed after the day I’d had. Today had felt...draining. The week had been lonelier than usual, which put me on edge. I was able to mostly keep myself occupied, my mind flitting from this project or that, the app on my phone pinging away with available shifts in the city. It was enough to distract me, but it had felt empty. Not even the book I had been reading did much to curb where my mind seemed determined to go, which was in the direction of one person.

Well, one man to be fucking exact.

Lawson Sokolov.

I licked my lips and raised the ceramic cup my makgeolli was in and took a hasty sip. I didn’t need to be thinking of that man. Not now, not when I had decided that I was going to be paying the Cairn a visit. What I needed to do was focus on tonight and on enjoying Tiffany’s company.

“I love all these side dishes,” Tiffany sighed, stuffing her mouth with tofu and grinning at me. “Hey, I’m really happy you came to dinner with me. I’ve been wanting to hang out. You know how hard it is to make friends as an adult.”

I laughed. “It’s fucking terrible. So awkward.”

“Beyond awkward! How do you make it not weird that you like another adult and want to spend time with them? It was so much easier back in school, you know?”

“I get it.” I nodded along as if I understood, even if I didn’t. Making friends had never come naturally to me. I was always a beat out of step with everyone else. On the outskirts of everything even when I was in the thick of it. I’d never been able to make the transition to putting down roots and making genuine connections when I was sure I was going to be moving on whenever a new wind blew my mother a different direction. The awkwardness of school hadn’t lessened when I’d left home, it had only seemed to amplify, with me questioning each and every one of my decisions.

Making friends hadn’t ever been easy. It was painful for me, even when I wanted it to happen. I smiled at Tiffany pouring her a drink. Needless to say, I really fucking wanted it to happen with Tiffany. She was good people. I needed more good in my life.

“Okay, so what do we have to do to make you sign on to be full time at the shop?”

I blinked in surprise at her. “A Different Brew?” I asked.

“No, the donut shop. Of course, A Different Brew. I want you working with me regularly, woman. How do I make that happen?”

“Are you offering me a job?”

Tiffany raised her cup and took a deep drink, rolling her eyes at me as she did. “Duh,” she said when she slammed the cup down and gestured at the makgeolli bottle. “Another, please.”

I nodded at her and poured more in her cup. “Listen, I don’t know…you might only like me in small doses, you ever thought of that?” I asked, while I flipped the meat on the grill.

“Oh, please, I know I love you already. I want to see your amazing face all the time, and besides you know how to man a Korean barbeque grill, which makes you a top quality woman in my book.”

I laughed and set the tongs down. “Doesn’t take a lot then.”

“Honey, stop that.” There was a tone in her voice that made me look at her. When I met her eyes I saw that Tiffany was staring intently at me. Her cup raised halfway to her lips, she gestured with it towards me. “You always do that.”

“Do what?”

“You make it sound like being your friend is a chore, and it’s not. You’re the best.”

“You hardly know me,” I pointed out.

“I know enough. Also, Gus is on board because we are so tired of being understaffed and you know you want to get off that stinking app.” She waved a hand at me and I leaned back in my seat, sipping my drink.

“I like BaristApp.”

She scoffed and took another sip of her drink. “What? No one likes that app.”

I tapped a finger against my chest. “That’s not true, Tiff. I like the app, and I’m sitting right here to prove it.”

She put down her cup and picked up her bowl of rice, spooning kimchi and fish cake onto it. “Okay, but maybe you just like it because you have a billionaire boyfriend,” she said, and then held up a chopstick, “oh, wait, not boyfriend but fiancé, my bad.”

My cheeks heated at the mention of my make believe fiancé. “I don’t know what Lawson has to do with it.”

“He has everything to do with it. You don’t need to work with a man like that calling you his girl.” She winked at me when I tried to protest. “No shame in the game, Honey. I’m glad you got someone like that pulling for you. New York isn’t a kind place. You need someone with a little power in your corner, you know?”

I closed my mouth, eyes dropping back to the sizzling grill in front of me. “Yeah, I know,” I said, because what she was saying was 100% gospel. The city would chew you up and spit you out if you didn’t have some steel to you, but New York was also a 24/7 grind that wore a girl down. It helped to have support, especially if that support was Lawson Sokolov. I could see why Tiffany thought I was set, and sitting here looking at her with her big smile and earnest eyes, I wished not for the first time that what she was saying was the truth.

God how I wished Lawson Sokolov was well and truly mine. Of course, he wasn’t and never would be, but that didn’t mean I could tell Tiffany that. Not when she thought it was the truth, and not when we were on our way to becoming friends. How quick would that end tonight? I could just see her look of surprise and then bewilderment. She’d leave. I knew it. If I could take back every lie about the man…I shook my head and quickly speared a pickled radish. I couldn’t even finish the thought, because it wouldn’t be true.

When a man like Lawson Sokolov claimed you, if even for the moment, you grabbed hold of it with both hands. There was no morning, day or night that I would not do what I had done. There was no world where I didn’t lie about being Lawson’s.

“So like I was saying, when you want to kick the app to the side and settle down...you know our shop is right down the road from your man’s work. You two could come into work together and be cute before he scoots off to his big building.” She grinned at me triumphantly while I pretended to consider her words. If we were a real couple and not just a lie, she would have a great selling point.

I pulled our meat off the grill and began dishing it out to her, cutting it quickly with scissors before sliding some onto her plate. “I’ll think about it, okay? Can’t spring it on a girl on our first friend date and think I’m going to agree. I’m hard to get, Tiff.” My words were light and I knew they would come across as a joke. It would be enough for me to change the topic of conversation and enjoy the rest of the night with Tiffany.

“Okay, all right,” she said, throwing up her hands and pouring sesame oil into a dish beside her meat. “But don’t think this will be the last time I bring this up. I want you working with me, Honey.”

I hummed and took a bite of my food. It was good food and I savored it while I poured myself and Tiffany another drink. I downed my wine quickly and refilled my glass, which earned me an excited clap from Tiffany.

“Wait for me! Wait for me,” she laughed, quickly throwing back her wine and pouring us another round. “If we are getting a little drunk, I’m game.”

“Then we are getting a little drunk.”

“Oh, what a perfect night.” Tiffany was smiling at me. The wine had begun to go to my head which was my signal to not only drink some water from the carafe beside us, but to also down more of my food. It was going to be a long night, even if it was going to be a good one.