Page 29 of Third Time Lucky

ASHER

‘There you are, darling. I was starting to worry that you wouldn’t make it,’ Mitzi calls out from the kitchen island.

‘I’d have to have lost my mind to be a no-show to one of Asher’s dinners.’ Lucy’s voice is soft, luring me in with every word.

My eyes dart over, and the sight of her causes my grip on the wooden spoon to loosen. It falls from my hand with a clatter, landing in the sizzling pan below.

Sweet Jesus. She’s dressed in a form-fitting, high-waisted blue pencil skirt that stops just below her knees, a cropped white top revealing her toned midriff and white Converse shoes.

I can’t help but notice every curve of her body, and my thoughts come to a standstill.

Her hair is styled in loose waves like a mermaid, her eyeliner perfectly winged, and she’s wearing a bold shade of pink lipstick that is absolutely mind-melting.

A smile creeps up on her face as I admire her, and then she glances at the pan nearby, which – is now on fire. Shit.

I twist off the gas burner, grab the burning pan that just sprayed me with hot oil and race it to the sink – throwing a towel over it.

‘There’s a fire extinguisher under the sink!’ Mitzi exclaims, pointing wildly.

Without second thoughts, I fling open the cabinet door and snatch the extinguisher.

I quickly aim and release a single burst of thick smoke onto the furious flames.

The kitchen now is filled with smoke and the smell of charred onions.

The fire alarm blares, its urgent call piercing the air and surprising everyone.

I am so glad this place isn’t set with a sprinkler system.

I grab another dish towel and fan the offended alarm until it quiets. If only I could spontaneously combust right now and finish the performance.

I turn back to the two women a tad sheepishly to see their reactions – Lucy with a mischievous grin and Mitzi with a stunned expression. Well, this is embarrassing. A beautiful woman enters the room, and I nearly burn her fucking house down.

‘I’ll have to uh— start that one over,’ I say with a nervous laugh.

‘It happens to the best of us, dear boy,’ Mitzi says, now turning her attention back to the newspaper folded in half in front of her. ‘You should ask Lucy about the time she attempted a tuna melt in the toaster oven…’

Lucy cocks her head, looking at Mitzi with half a smile on her face.

‘I didn’t know you had to choose a “how toasted do you want this” setting. I also didn’t know it was already set to ten.’

I smirk, her sending one right back.

‘It stunk up the house for the entire day,’ Mitzi laughs. ‘We had to open all the downstairs windows.’

The two laugh, taking the attention off of me and giving me a chance to admire Lucy.

‘You, uh— you look nice,’ I say, my mind finally settling.

Her lashes flutter down, grazing her cheeks before returning to meet my gaze. ‘Just nice?’

‘More than nice.’

‘Thanks,’ she says with a proud smile.

‘Overlooking the fact that we almost just had to make an emergency call – you do look nice, dear,’ Mitzi coos. ‘What’s the occasion?’

She shrugs and sits down. ‘Just thought I’d dress up instead of down, that’s all – no need to scare Ash away every night. I didn’t realize he’d become a fire hazard at the sight of me,’ she teases, glancing at me with a crooked grin.

‘Sorry about that. I guess I got a bit distracted,’ I say with an apologetic smile, trying to regain some semblance of composure.

Mitzi lets out a light chuckle from behind her newspaper, clearly amused by the situation. ‘Oh, don’t worry, sweetheart. We’ve had worse disasters. Paul insisted he fry a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner a few years back. Remember that, darling?’

Lucy nods. ‘And that’s my dad’s “nearly burned down the house” story that influenced Mitzi’s decision to remodel the kitchen,’ Lucy says with pride. ‘Don’t worry, you’re only the third person to attempt burning down Mitzi’s house.’

She hops off her stool and joins me, opening the cupboard that stores the best pots and pans money can buy.

‘What can I help with?’ she asks, handing me another frying pan.

‘Nothing,’ I insist. ‘It’ll take me five minutes to get back to where I was. You sit.’

After pouring three glasses of wine and handing one to each of us, she follows the instruction.

‘You know,’ she says, sipping her wine. ‘I was thinking about your menu, and I have some ideas.’

‘Oh yeah?’ I ask, slightly terrified to look away from this pan. ‘Do I need to make an official appointment?’

She shakes her head. ‘I could just show you really quick,’ she shrugs.

‘No way. I’m hiring a professional to work for me and I’d rather witness your graphic design skills in action. Let me schedule an appointment formally.’

She presses her lips into a tight smile. ‘Alright, I’ll text you with the details.’

‘Perfect,’ I say.

At that moment, as she holds her phone in her hand, both of our devices chime with incoming texts. We share a laugh, knowing exactly what it is. Our goofball friends are taking this double-dating challenge to the extreme.

‘Do you want to read it or shall I?’ Lucy asks.

‘I’ve already had one near-distracted disaster, so you go ahead.’

She clears her throat, reading right from her phone. ‘Saturday night. 9p.m. 99W. Newberg. BYOC.’

I stare her way. Again, with the acronyms. ‘BYOC?’

‘Bring your own… cell phone? No. Obviously, we’re bringing those,’ Lucy says.

‘C,’ I say, flipping through words that begin with the letter. ‘Candy? Candles? Cake?’ I say, shaking my head.

‘Condoms?’ Mitzi throws in causing us both to freeze.

Lucy and I glance at one another, then at her.

‘You two act like I’ve never lived. Back in my day, birth control wasn’t as easy to get, so I bought condoms by the case sometimes. We had to march the streets to have it as easy as you kids do today.’

‘Well, we’re still marching those streets for the same reasons decades later. But, fun,’ Lucy says, scrunching her face. ‘A detail neither of us needed to know about your love life.’

Mitzi smirks, now intently staring at Google on her phone. ‘It’s a drive-in theater!’ she exclaims.

‘A drive-in theater…’ I repeat. ‘Bring your own – car?’ I question with a laugh. ‘They don’t want to share a vehicle with us?’

‘That seems like the right answer, knowing those two. You saw them at the dance, remember?’ Lucy says. ‘I don’t think we want to share a car with them.’

I laugh. She’s not wrong about that. So, not condoms, although knowing Aaron, he may have been silently insinuating that, too. My God, these two aren’t even a little bit subtle.

‘Sounds romantic,’ Mitzi says, her eyes glued to the paper before her, not even glancing in Lucy’s or my direction.

It does sound romantic, being in a car, alone, with Lucy, at night, for hours.

‘Are you OK with that?’ I cautiously ask, desperately hoping for a positive response.

She nods, a hint of excitement twinkling in her eyes. ‘It sounds like it could be fun.’

Whew. Seriously, my heart just took a relieving beat. We’ve been alone, but never for long. Maybe this will be the thing that breaks what feels like a curse? Surely, something’s got to give with all the passive flirting and silent conversations. Lucy’s right: this could be fun.