Chapter 1 - The Stain
The red wine hit my white shirt before Lauren Kessler even bothered to stand up.
One second I was holding a tray of sparkling water. The next, half a glass of cabernet was running down my chest, and the woman who had made my high school years miserable was laughing into her phone.
"Hold still, Maya. You're going to ruin the picture."
For fifteen years, I had imagined meeting Lauren again. I never pictured a wet shirt, forty people watching, and a tray shaking in my hands.
"It's just a joke," she said. "Don't be so dramatic."
I recognized that smile. At seventeen, Lauren had poured milk into my backpack. At graduation, she convinced half our class to ignore me. Now she sat at the Juniper Table in Philadelphia, acting as if time had stopped.
"Would you like another glass of water?" I asked.
Her friends went quiet. Lauren blinked, disappointed that I hadn't given her a bigger reaction.
"You still work in restaurants?" She looked at my shirt. "I guess that makes sense."
I glanced toward the service station. Becca, our floor manager, was already coming with towels. At the next table, an elderly couple had stopped eating. I didn't want my staff dragged into a scene, so I put the tray down carefully.
"You spilled a drink on me," I said. "Please don't do it again."
"Or what? You'll call your boss?" Lauren lifted her phone. "This is going online. People love a little restaurant drama."
My own phone vibrated in my apron pocket. It was a message from my husband, Jonah.
Outside now. Meeting a prospective vendor in five.
I looked at the place card beside Lauren's expensive handbag. Beneath her name was a second reservation, written in tidy black ink.
JONAH COLLINS.
May you like
Lauren smiled at the card as if it were a winning lottery ticket. She had no idea the man she was waiting to impress had slept beside me the night before.
And before I could decide how to tell her, the front door opened.
