“Do you know what you’re doing?” Alyssa shouted up to me. She refused to climb up to the roof, because unlike the billboard, there was no railing of protection.
“Of course I know what I’m doing,” I shouted back.
“But how?”
I turned to her and gave her a sly smile. “I saw a documentary once on roofing.”
Her eyes bugged out and her hands waved back and forth. “Nope. Nope. Get down, Logan Francis Silverstone. Now! Watching a documentary does not make you a professional.”
“No, but the tool belt does!”
“Logan.”
“Alyssa.”
“Lo.”
“High.”
“Get down, now. Come get some water. Just… I’ll hire a person to check out the roof, okay? Then you won’t feel like you have to fix it.”
I chuckled and started climbing down the ladder. “Good. Because I had no clue what the heck I was doing.”
Once my feet hit the ground, she shoved me hard, and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t be an idiot like that ever again. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Pinky?” she asked.
I wrapped my pinky with hers, pulling her closer to me. My heart started racing from the small touch, and I studied her trembling lips as she stared at my mouth. “Pinky.”
We stood close to one another, somehow growing closer and closer as each moment passed. I felt her lips slightly touch mine, but we weren’t kissing. We were simply somehow turning two people into one, taking in each other’s breaths.
“Lo?” she whispered, her air brushing against my skin.
“Yes?”
“We should stop standing so close now.”
“Okay.”
She nodded once, and stepped back. “Okay.” She ran her fingers through her hair, and gave me a tight grin. “You should go get some water or something. You’ve been working like crazy. I’m just going to my bedroom to take a breath, or five for a minute.”
I agreed and headed to the kitchen for a glass of water. I wondered if she felt everything for me that I felt for her whenever she stood near me. I wondered if she had to fight off the feeling of longing as much as I had to.
As I opened her refrigerator, I paused, seeing all of the fresh foods she had. “Did you just go grocery shopping?” I hollered toward her bedroom.
“Yeah, I went yesterday.”
My mind started racing, looking at the vegetables and uncooked sausage. I opened her cabinets, searching. “Do you mind if I make something really quick?”
“No. Go for it. Anything is up for grabs.”
Awesome.
I started moving things around, grabbing pots and pans. Within minutes, chicken broth was heating on her stove, and I began chopping up mushrooms and fresh garlic.
“I gotta say, when you said you wanted to make something really quick, I thought you meant like a Hot Pocket.” Alyssa smiled.
“Sorry,” I breathed out, standing at her stove, browning the sausage in a pan. “Jacob offered me a job at his restaurant. But he’s forcing me to perfect three dishes before he gives me the job. And he’s being a total dick about it, turning down each thing I bring him. So I was going to test some of the food off on you if that’s okay.”
Her eyes widened with pleasure. “Oh my God, I haven’t had a Logan meal in forever. I will gladly be your guinea pig. What are we making?”
“Risotto,” I replied.
“Doesn’t that take a while?”
“Yup.”
She didn’t know that I was watching her from the corner of my eye, but she smiled. I smiled knowing she was smiling.
We spoke about random things as I stood by the stove, stirring the rice with the broth. “So you’re thinking about opening a piano bar?”
“Yeah, well, seriously thinking about it. Remember when we were kids and talked about it?”
“LoAly?”
“AlyLo,” she corrected with a smirk. “Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t name it that seeing how that was kind of our thing, but I don’t know. It’s just a dream. That’s all.”
“A good dream, which you should make a reality.”
She shrugged, folding her arms on the table, and resting her head on top of them. “Maybe. We’ll see. My friend Dan has shown me a few different properties that might work. I know it’s too soon to be looking at buildings and stuff, but it’s just fun. Seeing the places makes the dream seem a little closer.”
After the risotto was done, I put it on the plate and set it in front of Alyssa. She grinned from ear to ear, clapping her hands like crazy. “Oh my God, it’s happening! I know I missed you, Logan. But I think I missed your food even more.”
“Fair enough. Now here.” I handed her a spoon. “Eat up.”
She dug in quickly, and when it met her lips and she began chewing, she frowned.
“What? What is it??” I asked, my voice heightened.
“Nothing, it’s just not…amazing?”
“What? There’s nothing wrong with this dish.”
Her lips parted and she nodded. “Yes there is.”
“No. There isn’t. Look. The sausage is cooked flawlessly. The mushrooms roasted perfect. The perfect blend of seasonings, remarkable. This is a freaking perfect dish.”
She frowned and shrugged her shoulders. “I mean, it’s okay. For what it is.”
I huffed. For what it is? Alyssa had a lot of nerve. “There’s nothing wrong with this dish.”
“There is.”
“No, there isn’t.”
“It’s,” she bit her bottom lip, made a wavering back and forth gesture with her hands, and shrugged once more. “Bland.”
“Bland?!”
“Bland.”
“You just,” I took a deep inhale and exhaled hard. “Did you just call my food bland?”
“I did. Because it is.”
I placed my hands on the edge of the table and leaned into her, extremely annoyed. “I’ve been cooking since I was a kid. I’ve been cooking this dish for three years straight through culinary school. I could make this food in my goddamn sleep and it would taste like something I’d feed to the president. My food isn’t bland. My food is flavorful, and delicious. And you are just nuts!” I hollered.