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“Great name.”

“Thanks. My brother doesn’t think so.”

“Screw him. Tell you what.” Jamie placed a hand on her hip. “Since we’re both struggling with our poor decisions, your two coffees are on the house.”

“Oh no.” The girl gasped. “Did you buy one, too? The pet fair in the West Village, right? They’re so fucking persuasive.”

“No. But there is a kind of parallel.”

“Score. I’ll take two larges, then.”

Leo, who was weekend subbing for Bart, who had his sister’s dance recital that morning, filled the order with a question mark practically painted on his handsome face. When the girl left with coffees in hand, he turned to her. “What’d ya do?” he asked in an even voice. It was his gift, acting like he didn’t care much to get people to feel like the stakes were low. She was on to him.

“Nothing important.”

“Know you pretty well.” He sat on the back counter and regarded her thoughtfully with folded arms, a scientist deciding if his chemicals were mixing correctly. “Can’t remember seeing you so jittery on a Saturday morning.”

“Stop assessing.”

“Fine.” He turned around casually and went to work restocking the sugar dusters.

“I do have news, though. We got the awesome storefront in Hell’s Kitchen I was telling you about. I want you to come over there with me some afternoon and make sure my light renovation plans will provide the function we’re used to. See if I’m missing anything.”

“That’s awesome. You got it.” He flipped back around. Jamie felt like things were unfinished. Clarissa would have dragged it out of her. Why were men so easy to move on from a conversation?

“It was Leighton Morrow,” she whispered. She did still have a bar with several customers nearby. Two in the midst of a very rowdy chess game in the lounge area.

He turned around, victorious grin on his face. “You get it, boss? Last night?”

She nodded. “Apparently, I lost my logic. I get dressed up, fed a little wine, and I go back on the most important promise I’ve made to myself.”

He bagged an order of doughnuts and placed them in the warmer. “But how’d it go? You have fun?”

“Yes, it was mind-blowing and awesome, but there are larger complications. She’s my business partner and a damned liar. She’s not someone I want my heart mixed up with.”

“Enjoy it for what it was, at least. A nice way to end your Friday.”

“Don’t let me off the hook.”

He shrugged. “Life is here to live, James. You can’t police yourself into playing it so safe you suffocate. We all screw up. We move forward. You will, too.”

“It sounds good in theory. Feels a little terrifying when the aftermath is literally upon you.”

“Like she was.” He offered a steady wink and went back to the sugars.

“You’re lucky we don’t have an HR department.”

“I’m also lucky I don’t have an iguana from the West Village.”

“Aren’t we all, though?”

“Besides, I wasn’t talking to Jamie my boss, I was talking to my friend.”

For some reason, every time she realized she had one of those, she went warm and grateful. It’s not that she’d been unpopular as a kid or dealt with any kind of true trauma, but sometimes she had to remind herself that people she respected could anddidgenuinely care for her.Why do I assume it’s a one-way street?She impulsively hugged Leo’s bicep and didn’t let go.

“What’s that for? You’re mauling me.”

“For, I don’t know, life and stuff.”