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“Oh, thank you,” the woman said. “Actually, I was deciding between the kale and lemon pasta, or the Early Girl tomato and burrata pasta. Do you, um, have a recommendation?”

“I was deciding between both of those, too,” the man said.

Taylor beamed at them.

“Those are two of our best pastas, but the tomato one is reallyspecial; the tomatoes are so good this year. But if you’re interested in sharing, I’d say get both.”

They both hesitated.

“Um, I’d be happy to share?” the man said. “But if you don’t, we can just—”

“Oh no, that’s a great idea,” the woman said. “Thank you.”

“Is there an appetizer that you recommend as well?” the man asked her. “We’re both vegetarians, so nothing with meat.”

“I eat everything, but some of my favorite items on the menu here are vegetarian. Are you in more of a salad mood or a cheesy mood? No judgment either way.”

They both laughed a little, like she’d meant for them to do. She lingered at the table for a while, chatting with them about the menu and asking them a few questions about themselves. By the time she walked away, they were talking to each other, both wearing tentative smiles. There. That was her good deed for the night.

About an hour later, she stepped up to a table of two women who’d sat down a few moments before.

“Hi, I’m Taylor, I’ll be your server tonight, and—Hey!” Erica grinned up at her. She was with a blond woman with soft, beachy waves in her hair and a pale pink cardigan over her shoulders.

“Hi, Tay, I was wondering when you’d notice us. What are you doing here? You remember my friend Sloane, right?”

So, this was the Sloane that Erica kept talking about. Taylor did vaguely remember her from Erica’s housewarming party. Vaguely.

“Hi, Taylor, good to see you,” Sloane said. “I didn’t realize you worked here.”

Was that judgment there from Sloane? Like wow, she didn’t realize that Taylor worked at arestaurant, she thought they were on the same social level.

Okay, she didn’t have to be so defensive, Sloane was probably a perfectly nice rich lady.

“Hi, Sloane, nice to meet you again,” she said. “I’m just filling in. I used to work here, and occasionally I’ll get an SOS from my old boss when she’s in a crisis. Do you two want drinks to start? Any questions?”

“Just sparkling water for me,” Erica said. “But we definitely want to start with the tomato and cucumber salad, can you put that in for us? I’m famished.”

Taylor raised her eyebrows.

“You? Famished? No, really?” She grinned at the look on Erica’s face. “Yeah, don’t worry, coming right up. Sloane, anything to drink for you?”

Sloane smiled a bland smile at her. No wonder she hadn’t remembered meeting Sloane, she was so…colorless.

Was she being unfair?

“Just sparkling water for me, too, thanks,” Sloane said.

“Great, I’ll bring the big bottle.”

Taylor flashed a smile at both of them and went back to the bar to put in their drink order, and then to the kitchen to put in the salad, and an extra order of bread for Erica. She flew around the restaurant delivering drinks and salads and charcuterie platters and pasta, all the while trying to shake off the weird, uncomfortable feeling it had given her to see Erica and Sloane together.

Why did this bother her? It wasn’t like Erica didn’t have other friends, they both did, lots of them. Erica had even gottenmarriedthe year before, and Taylor had never had an issue about that. She liked Sam, she was happy for Erica, she was happy for both of them. Was it just that she found Sloane boring, someone not worthy of being friends with Erica? Was she worried that Erica wouldturn into someone like Sloane? No, that was impossible. It was a little weird to her that Erica was suddenly so buddy-buddy with someone Taylor thought she barely knew, but Sloane was probably giving her advice about babies or childbirth or how to get your toddler into the top preschool. It was fine. And when Erica and Sloane left, she gave them both hugs goodbye. See? Fine.

Later that night, she dropped the check off at the table with the shy couple, and they both thanked her for her help and told her they loved their meals. And when they walked out the door together, she saw their hands brush against each other’s in a way that she was certain was not accidental. That was a job well done. She couldn’t wait to tell Avery about this.

It was wild to think about how much Avery’s flirting had improved over the past month, and just how much she’d relaxed during that time. After seeing how tense and nervous she’d seemed walking into the book event, Taylor had worried about the success of this little how-to-flirt project. But Avery had grown by leaps and bounds in the past few weeks. Taylor hadn’t needed to tell her to flirt with everyone at trivia this week, she’d done it without being ordered to. Avery had even flirted with her a little, although that may have been accidental.

Oh, this gave her an excellent idea for what their next flirting date should be. Taylor laughed to herself. This should be fun.