the bar, his eyes found me. “Hey, Jurnee. I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
“Nice to see you too.” I sipped my cocktail. “What are you doing here?”
“They have an amazing beef stroganoff. What about you? What are you doing here?” Anderson lifted his hand to the hostess and asked if she could get him a table. “Give me just a minute.”
“I have a date. Remember?” Shifting in my chair to see a couple walk through the entrance.
He looked at his large shiny watch. “Oh, that’s right.”
“Yeah.”
“Would you like to join me until your date arrives?”
“Um. Well, sure.” I gathered my hair and allowed it to fall down my back.
“Great.” Anderson turned to the hostess and informed her it would be two for dinner. She smiled at him as she grabbed the menus. “Right this way, Mr. Douglas.”
They pulled the table out as Anderson and I sat in the booth. Slowly, the waiter appeared and pushed the table in. “Good evening, and welcome to the Russian Tea Room. Mr. Douglas, it’s great to have you back.”
“Thank you.” Anderson watched me while the waiter stood waiting patiently.
“What can I get you to start? Ms., would you like another Cosmonaut?”
I had been nursing this one since I’d arrived forty-three minutes ago. The cocktails were twenty-seven dollars each, and I couldn’t afford to drink more than one.
“Please add her first cocktail to my bill and bring her another. I’ll take an Ivan The Terrible since we’re doing cocktails. Also, can we get a Khinkali to start?”
“Certainly, Sir. Right away.”
“Thank you for the drink. Are you a regular here?”
“If I’m in the mood for Stroganoff or Vodka, this is the only place to get it.”
“They all know you.”
“My family has been coming here forever. They know all of us,” He scanned the menu. “How much time do you have before your date?”
Gulping the last of my Cosmonaut, I ripped the Band-Aid of shame off. “It was supposed to be at seven.”
He dramatically straightened out his arm to make the shirt come up enough to check his watch. I interrupted before he could say it.
“Yeah. I’ve been stood up again.”
“Maybe something came up. Life happens.”
“I’m pretty sure he just plain stood me up. There seems to be a trend.”
“His loss. Have dinner with me. The food here is incredible.”
I stared at him, waiting for the snarky comment that always hit after he said or did something nice. He was quiet. He was watching me. If I knew him better, I would have said he wanted to say something but was unsure.
“Thank you.” I sighed. “Honestly, I picked this place to meet. I didn’t realize it was so expensive. I hope that’s not why he didn’t show.”
“Look, let’s stop talking about the jerk that stood you up. Dinner is on me, now tell me about home. Where are you from, and why come to New York to open a string of coffee shops?”
“Ha. I came to New York to get one coffee shop opened. The chain of coffee shops is still hard to wrap my head around.”
“Fair.” The waiter placed the cocktails on the table, and Anderson acknowledged him with a head nod. “Please continue.”
What should I tell him? Just talk to him.
“I was born and raised in Lansing, Michigan. It’s the capital of Michigan.”
“I knew that. I’m pretty good with the capitals.”
Duh. Of course you’re good with capitals. What exactly are you not good at?
“I graduated from Michigan State University. Let’s see, I am a major MSU sports fan and have season tickets. I have no idea what to tell you. My life is pretty boring.”
“I highly doubt anything is boring about you. Tell me this. Why are you on a dating site for a city you are in for…”
“Four weeks.”
“Yeah.”
I thought for a moment. Is this the time to be honest? What the hell. “I need the practice.”
He was taken aback. “Practice? What does that mean?”
Rubbing my thumb over my first nail, I formulated a response that didn’t make me sound as pathetic as I actually am.
“I haven’t had very good luck in the dating area. The couple of guys I was dating basically ghosted me or decided that I wasn’t worth their time.”
“What do you mean by ‘decided you weren’t worth it’?”
“Well, with my ex, when it came time to introduce me to his friends or family, he would make excuses. When I confronted him about not sharing his life with me, he told me I wasn’t really ‘girlfriend’ material.” Anderson arched an