Page 36 of Fierce-Matt

“Bye,” she said and hung up before he could say anything else.

The text came in a minute later with the restaurant. A place he’d never been before nor heard of.

He opened the website and saw it was rustic and not in an updated precise way. It reminded him of a hole in the wall that very few knew about and only regulars visited.

He wasn’t trying to be snobby more than a thought that raced into his head at first sight.

She was testing him to see if he’d have a problem with it.

He was on to her.

“You made it,” she said when he pulled into the parking lot the same time as her at ten minutes before six.

“I did. Early and so are you.”

“I would have been earlier but got stuck behind someone going really slow.”

He grinned. “The same. I’m a lot of things but late isn’t one of them.”

“Me neither,” she said. “I’m early for everything, so even if I’m running late, the worst I’ll be is on time.”

“We’ve got that in common. Do you come here often?”

“Once or twice a month,” she said. “The food is awesome and it’s not overly busy.”

There were cars in the parking lot, but it was far from filled.

“I’ll take that as you want a nice quiet place to enjoy a meal with me.”

She stopped walking to turn and look at him. More like stare. She seemed unsure of things now.

“Sure, we’ll go with that.”

He threw her off. Good. He didn’t want to be the only one off balance and guarding himself tonight.

The last thing he wanted to do was mess anything up when he had so much to make up for.

“Anya. So glad you could stop in tonight.”

“I’ve been looking forward to it, Tina. I was dying for one of Josh’s massive burgers.”

“Table or booth?” Tina asked.

Anya looked at him. “We’ll take a booth,” she said.

No way he was answering. He said it was her night for decisions.

When they were seated, he asked, “Friends of yours?”

“They were my first sale when I became a realtor,” she said. “I met them here to go over what they were looking for in a home.No one else would come to them, rather wanting Tina and Josh to go into an office.”

“That was nice of you,” he said.

“I was starting out. You’ve got to hustle in this business. It’s not me. Or meant for me.”

He was going to let her guide the conversation. “What do you want to do? I know little about you after high school graduation.”

She snorted. “Your guess is as good as mine on what I want to do. I know, not like all the women you date. I bet they all had fancy jobs like you and higher education. I didn’t even finish community college.”