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“Did you grow up using chopsticks or something?” I ask. The rest of us can fumble our way through eating a meal with them, but Sebastian controls them like he’s been using them his whole life.
“There was this sushi place that opened in the town where I grew up when I was in middle school. Me and my best friend went there all the time. I got the hang of them there.”
“Sophisticated motherfucker,” I jest.
Sebastian’s a worldly guy, even though he’s never actually traveled outside the country. Aside from being into artsy shit, he reads all the time, and is always learning about different cultures. Brainiac even speaks French.
Mercifully, I hear a hotel-style service bell ringing from the order counter. This isn’t a table-service kind of place. Kazu takes your order, shouts it to his cooks, then rings a bell for you to pick it up when it’s ready.
I give Kazu a friendly nod as I pick up my bowl. I don’t think I’m imagining that he dips his own head about half a centimeter in response. But I might be.
The other guys may have had a head start on me, but I finish my food at the same time as them. I’m so starved that I inhale it like air.
I’ve just finished slurping down the last of the broth and letting out a satisfied sigh when Hudson, who’s sitting next to me, nudges me in the side and nods towards the order counter. “Check it out, he whispers.”
I turn my head to look towards Kazu’s regular place behind the wooden counter to see he’s got a visitor.
A very special visitor.
It’s Cindy. The owner of Last Word, the three-story bookstore-slash-coffee shop in Cedar Shade.
Kazu and Cindy obviously have a thing for each other. They’re always finding excuses to visit each other’s shops. They talk to each other often, every time with this mix of eagerness and shyness that makes them seem like teenagers who have a crush on each other and don’t quite know what to do about it.
It’s like watching a romcom from a distance. Me, Hudson, and Summer are totally invested in this budding relationship.
I wish one of them would just hurry up and ask the other out already. I like a slow burn as much as the next guy, but it’s not like these two are getting any younger.
I strain my ears to try and hear their conversation, at the same time not trying to be too obvious about what I’m doing. I can tell Hudson’s doing the same thing.
It’s hard to hear the whole conversation, but it sounds like Cindy’s giving Kazu a book that they’d talked about in some previous conversation. Now my busybody instincts are itching to know what the book is.
I’ll have to make a point to stop by here again in the next couple days to see if I can catch Kazu reading it behind the counter.
“Talk about opposites attract,” I say to Hudson after Cindy leaves.
“Speaking of opposites, Summer mentioned that Olivia was asking about you the other day,” Hudson says, casual as can be.
A jolt of excitement races up my spine. I sit up straighter, my brow leaping towards my hairline as I lean towards Hudson with interest. “Really?”
“No.”
My chest deflates. I sink against the backrest, drilling Hudson with an irked glare as he chuckles.
“Asshole,” I grumble.
I’m still down bad for that girl. The fight we had in my car sure as shit hasn’t changed that.
Before we argued, I got a taste of what it would be like to hang out with Olivia without her hostility towards me dialed up.
A taste of what it would be like to just drive around with her in my passenger seat, talking about anything and everything and nothing.
It tasted sweet. And that’s sure as hell not all that I want to taste when it comes to Olivia Lockley.
7
OLIVIA
“Thanks so much, Olivia. I think I’ve got this.” Belinda, one of the students I tutor, speaks confidently, wearing a wide grin.
