The Meeting Point by Olivia Lara
Seventy-One
I get to Café Azure a little before lunch, and the moment I see Celine, I can tell she’s wound up and can barely contain her nerves. And it’s not the customers or anything to do with the café. I know she’s looking forward to her date with Aaron, but she’s also afraid of how things might turn out. Plus, it’s been a while since they’ve spent any time together. I would be a total wreck.
“Everything will be fine tonight,” I reassure her. “You’ll see. It’s going to work out.”
“I hope it is,” she says and finally smiles.
I’m so excited for her. I hope they get past what happened and work everything out.
Lunchtime comes and goes and despite a super busy time that forces her to run around tirelessly for hours, she can’t wipe that smile off her face.
“I didn’t tell Ethan yet about my date,” she says, looking at the door as he comes in.
“Why?” I ask, talking to her but watching him.
“He and Aaron are friends and I don’t want to make it weird between them,” she says. “You know I haven’t properly dated in two years? I tried but they were all epic fails.” She scrunches up her nose. “Online dating,” she says and laughs, embarrassed.
“I’ve never tried it,” I say.
“You aren’t missing much; it might make good material for a book. An absurd comedy.”
Celine tells me she wants to leave the café early to get ready. I don’t blame her; I would do the same. If I knew, for instance, that I was about to meet Max, I think I’d take two full days to make sure every little detail was perfect.
“You can leave whenever you want. I’ll take care of everything,” I say, just as Ethan is coming over to get something to eat.
His phone rings, he answers, but I can’t tell much of what the conversation is about or who it’s with. I hear a name—Melissa—and then he’s all smiles and looking obviously excited.
“Good news?” asks Celine when he hangs up.
He smiles from ear to ear but doesn’t answer. A strange kind of smile. Mischievous.
“Come on. Tell us.”
He puts on an innocent face. “Not yet, but we’ll talk about it more tonight.”
Celine looks down. “I won’t be home tonight, sorry,” she says.
He glances my way and I make a face, as in: ‘Remember? We talked about it? THE date!’
“That’s fine, it’s cool. Tomorrow night then or the day after. No big deal.”
“Are you sure?” she asks.
“He’s sure. Besides, I’m home, if he can settle for the less interesting half of our duo.”
He laughs. “I’ll sacrifice myself.”
Celine’s face lights up. “I owe you for the next two decades,” she says into my ear.
I want to tell her Ethan knows and she shouldn’t hide it from him. Not only that he knows, but he made it possible. I want to, but this seems like a thing best handled between them.
Celine leaves in the afternoon and Ethan stops writing and helps me with the orders. He’s the one making most of the food and the drinks while I run the front of the house.
I make a good team with Celine and, as it turns out, an equally good team with Ethan.
“I think we’re doing OK,” he says proudly as the dinner service is almost over.
“We got lucky nobody asked for anything complicated,” I say.
He raises an eyebrow. “Where’s the faith? I’ve watched Celine, my mom, and my grandma for years in the kitchen. I can hold my ground.”
He seems very comfortable at Café Azure and perhaps it’s because he’s been around it for so long. His grandparents, then his parents. It’s in his blood.
“I’m enjoying this,” he says, looking at me. The kind of look he gives me from time to time. I’m never sure if he’s just incredibly charming because that’s who he is, or if these looks are reserved for me and they mean something he doesn’t want to or can’t say with words.
“I’m glad you are,” I say.
“Do you like it? Working here?”
“More than I thought I would.” There’s a pit in my stomach as I say it.
“Celine is great. She has so much patience, I sometimes question if we’re truly related.”
“You two are more alike than you think.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he says with a smile.
It was meant to be one. “It’ll be strange once it’s over. I’ll miss all of this a lot,” I say.
I wish I could say exactly what I think, but I can’t.
“So you have a plan then?”
“Not yet. But I have to come up with one; can’t stay in your house forever.”
“Hmm,” he says, and I don’t know if he’s relieved I said it first and he doesn’t have to kick me out—eventually. It’s hard to read his reactions. “Why can’t you?”
I shrug. Why can’t I? Well, because this was meant to be for a week; then it turned into two. But in a few days, things will be different. Ethan will leave, Max will hopefully come into the picture, and life—as I know it now—will change.
“You can stay as long as you want,” says Ethan.
“Thank you, that’s nice of you to say.”
He smiles and again, I don’t know what that smile means.