Page 31 of A Matter of Fact

“This is weird,” she said after he’d measured out the flour.

“What part?”

“That we’ve never hung out before. I don’t know anything about you.”

“There’s not much to know.” He sealed the flour bag and got them each a drink from the fridge.

“There has to be. There’s always so much more to people than a first impression.”

He wondered the truth of that. And again, his mind went to Rhys andthatfirst impression.

“I’m kind of about to start dating someone,” he said, mixing his dry ingredients together. “But I’m not sure if it’s a good idea.”

“What about it isn’t a good idea? Is he a creep?”

“No…not intentionally?” Beckett laughed awkwardly. “I honestly don’t know. I pretty much only have a first impression.”

“Where did you meet him?”

“Work.”

“As all good stories start.” Audra used the side of her nail to open her drink.

“Ran into him after and he took me out to lunch. We kissed.”

“That’s a very good start to the story.” She grinned at him over the rim of the can.

“We’re just different people,” he said, dumping everything into his stand mixer.

“There’s a reason they say opposites attract, Bex. Because they do.”

“We’re very opposite.” He flicked the mixer on and rested his forearm over the top of it while he waited for everything to combine evenly.

Audra had to be right. There was a basis for the saying, even if he didn’t know it to hold true anymore. There might have been a time or a place when it was true, or maybe a specific increment of oppositeness. But he and Rhys were on opposite ends of the globe.

“There’s no harm in trying,” she said when he turned off the mixer.

“Probably not.”

“What’s his name?” she asked.

“Rhys.”

“Where did you go on this first date?”

“Uhm…L’Ultima Cena,” he said.

Her eyes went wide as saucers and she choked on the bit of drink she had in her mouth. “He took you where?”

“L’Ultima Cena,” he repeated, scooping the cake mix into the round pans he’d already greased.

“Bexy, baby, that place has a six-month waiting list for reservations.”

“Oh, it was just for lunch,” he said.

“Anytime.” She leveled a sharp look at him. “It’s impossible to get into.”

“Well…he just called. Or rather, his driver called. And then.”