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“Okay. I’ll bite.”
The Dee smirk made an appearance. “She might like it if you stopped by.”
Dee didn’t miss a lot, and this was encouraging. All last week, Nicole had been around and in meetings with me, but she’d avoided much alone time for us, and this might be a chance to remedy that.
“You think so?” I asked innocently.
She nodded. “Taco Bandito opened up a place three blocks south. She likes the walk.”
“Thanks.” I waved as I turned and headed back out of the building.
As she’d said, the Taco Bandito sign appeared on the third block.
The hair gave her away. Nicole was seated, her back toward me, at one of the outside tables under an umbrella. She was hunched over, but as I got closer, I realized she had a notepad in front of her, but no food.
“Care for some company?” I asked as I came up to the table.
She looked up, startled.
“Dee recommended this place,” I added. A true enough statement.
She motioned to the chair opposite her. “Be my guest.”
“You’re not eating?”
She stood. “I was about to go in and order.”
I set my sunglasses down on the table to save the seat and followed her inside. “What’s good here?”
She moved up to the counter. “I like the chicken tacos, but everything I’ve tried is good.”
Between glances at her, I perused the choices, but in the end I followed her lead and ordered chicken tacos and a Coke.
She picked up the tray of chips with two salsas while our order was being prepared, and once we had our food, we returned to the table outside.
“Freshest chips in town,” she said as she selected one from the basket.
Fresh was right—the chip I picked up was still hot.
She dipped hers in the green salsa, while I eyed the red.
“You might prefer the green,” she said with a sly grin.
Salsa wasn’t meant to be green, so I scooped up a dollop of red with my chip. “Dee said you had something important for me.” I bit into the chip.
“I do,” she said, watching me intently.
As soon as I chewed the chip, her warning became clear. I quickly swallowed and sucked on my Coke. My sister’s three-alarm chili was hot, but on that scale, this salsa was ten-alarm torture.
“It pays to read.” She pointed to the writing on the paper liner of the tray the chips and salsa came on.A free burrito to any customer who can finish an entire dish of red salsa.
“Very funny,” I said as I sucked in more Coke and swished it around my mouth. “Wow, that’s hot.” My nose was starting to run. I pulled one of the napkins to dab at the sweat forming on my brow. I sipped more Coke.
She laughed. “Rapid decisions aren’t always the best.”
“I’m going to need another drink.” I took a mouthful of ice water and swished it around before swallowing.
She lifted her taco. “I made the same mistake the first time I was here.”
