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He snickered. “It’s what you were always going to get. But you can blame me now, that’s fine. I can take it.”
“All right, Mr. Sassy. What are you getting?”
“You have to ask? Chicken fajitas. They’re amazing and you get to put them together so you have a perfect bite every time. Not like a soft taco where the ingredients aren’t placed just so.”
I wanted to roll my eyes, but I’d seen Austin eat fajitas before, and he did, in fact, take the time to minutely spread the pieces out so they were evenly distributed. “Fine. Get DIY soft tacos. I wish they were honest and named them that.”
“Anyway.” Austin set the menus on the edge of the table and glanced out into the restaurant. “Noah knows an architect. I guess they grew up together. He sent me her contact details and I’m going to reach out about the youth center this afternoon.”
“That’s quick work. Have you even made an offer on the property yet?” Maybe it didn’t matter. The building needs were going to be the same, regardless of where he ended up building. Except, if he did find another location, it might have a building that was functional enough that it was worth modifying instead of demolishing.
“I wanted to go walk through it one more time. The listing agent said I could come by this evening. Want to tag along?”
I did. But I also had a lot of grading I hadn’t finished because of the dinner last night. After we left the church, we’d gone walking along the water near home. Past the Torpedo Factory and into Founders Park.
It had been close to midnight when he dropped me off at my apartment.
“Can I say maybe? If I focus, I can probably get my grading done this afternoon. Then I’d be free to join you. Depending, I guess, on what time you were thinking.”
Austin took out his phone. “We hadn’t come up with a firm time yet. I don’t want it to be too dark though. Maybe five? But you’d still have some time after the walkthrough for more grading. I can’t imagine we’d be there more than an hour. And I won’t push for dinner.”
Was it bad that I was disappointed by that? I chewed my lip but was saved from having to answer immediately by the server finally getting to us. We placed both our drink and food orders and she melted away after dropping a basket of chips and a little bowl of salsa on the table.
“Is it me, or did she seem unprepared for us to be ready to go?”
I shook my head. “It was not you. Maybe she’s having a bad day.”
“Could be. Doesn’t mean I’m excited that she’s the one who’s supposed to be feeding us. Especially now that I know you need to get in and out with a little more speed than usual.”
I sighed. “I’m not trying to rush us.”
“I know.” He squeezed my hand before reaching for a chip. “I just really want you to come tonight.”
“Okay. Five works. And what if you brought your grading—because I know you have some—and afterward I could put together something simple and we could work at my place for a little?” We’d done that before. A lot. Until it had gotten too hard for me and I’d started pulling away and spending time with Megan instead. It seemed like a good time to bring back our homework dates.
He grinned. “Sounds good.”
“Can I ask why you want to go see it again? You know you don’t want the building. But don’t you also already know you want the lot?”
Austin shrugged. “I guess I’m nervous. It’s a bunch of money. And the youth center means a lot to me. I want it to be perfect.”
“You know it won’t be, though, right? There’s going to be at least ten things that you get close to perfect but not quite all the way. That’s how life works. Sometimes you have to accept good enough.”
“Wow. That’s…a philosophy.” He frowned. “And not one I ever would have imagined you having.”
“I can be pragmatic.” Just because I tended to be on the cheerful, optimistic side of things didn’t mean I couldn’t recognize that life rarely turned out the way we wanted it to. Plans or not, things went wrong. “I’m just saying, you have to prepared for things to go badly. Then you adjust and adapt.”
“All right. That’s true, and I do that. But it sounded like you were saying perfection wasn’t possible no matter what.”
“Well. I mean let’s be real. It isn’t. Only Jesus is perfect. The rest of us? We can do the best we can, and do that adjusting and adapting as needed. But it’s not a great plan to expect perfection. Out of anything.”
“Not even math homework?”
I groaned. “That’s completely different. I expect programs that run and so okay, fine, perfection is possible in some cases.”
He grinned. “See? So there’s a possibility.”
“Fine. We’ll aim for perfection with the new building.” I wasn’t sure about the likelihood, but I’d keep my questions to myself. He was nervous, and I wasn’t used to seeing Austin that way.
