Margot shook her head.
“No, nothing like that. It’s just . . . we’ve been together every night all week. It’s good to have breaks, right? I don’t want to get too . . .” She couldn’t say attached; Sydney would think she was already attached, which she wasn’t. “Too overexposed.”
Sydney raised her eyebrows as a salad of little gem lettuces and fresh peas landed in front of Margot.
“Overexposed? This isn’t business, Margot. What does that even mean?”
Margot turned her attention to her salad.
“You don’t have to parse all of my words. Can’t I just come to my friend’s restaurant to hang out with her? I don’t have to spend every night with Luke.”
Sydney didn’t say anything to that. Finally, Margot looked up from her salad—it was delicious; she should tell Charlie that—to find Sydney smiling at her.
“Thank you for coming to your friend’s restaurant to hang out with her,” Sydney said. “As you can see, Charlie has missed you.”
She glanced over Margot’s shoulder, and seconds later Margot had a plate of grilled calamari with lemon and artichokes in front of her.
“I missed Charlie, too,” Margot said.
Sydney looked closely at her.
“But things are good? With you two?”
Margot looked down at her plate.
“Yeah. Things are good.” She thought of the way Luke had kissed her that morning, over coffee in her kitchen. He’d taken the mug out of her hands and pulled her close and . . . She shook that off and looked at Sydney, who had an indulgent smile on her face.
“It’s not serious, of course,” she said quickly. She didn’t want Sydney thinking she was expecting anything out of this. “He’s a lot of fun, and he seems interested now, but I don’t know if I can trust him. I probably can’t.”
Sydney shrugged.
“Probably not. But do you like him?”
Margot sighed. Then nodded.
“Yeah. I like him a lot.”
Sydney looked over Margot’s shoulder again.
“Hold on, be right back.”
Sydney handled an issue at the front door, came back behind the bar to help the bartender pull together drinks for a big party, and then chatted with Margot for a few minutes before she had to rush off and deal with something else. That had never bothered Margot before, the way Sydney jumped around the restaurant the whole time she was there, but tonight it made her fidgety. Usually she would sit here and do some work on her phone, scroll social media, occasionally read a book, but tonight she hadn’t brought a book with her, and she’d banned herself from looking at her phone. Even though it felt like it was glowing there, in her bag. She knew if she pulled it out, she’d either see a text from Luke and she wouldn’t be able to help herself from texting back, or she wouldn’t see a text from Luke and she’d be disappointed.
She dug through her bag and found a magazine, left over from when a guest had left it at the tasting room weeks ago and she’d tossed it in her bag on the way out the door. She flipped through it, looking for something to entertain her, to keep her attention, to keep her from thinking about Luke and why she’d had this stupid idea to spend a night apart in the first place.
Sydney walked in her direction, and Margot looked up with relief.
“More bubbles?” she asked as she filled Margot’s glass.
Margot laughed.
“What if the answer was no? It is sometimes, you know.”
“I know,” Sydney said. “But those times you tell me when you sit down. ‘Only one glass, I have work to do tonight.’ Do you forget how well I know you?”
Margot sighed and picked up her glass.
“Occasionally, yes.”
Sydney looked over Margot’s shoulder again. More drama by the front door, probably.
“Fancy seeing you here tonight,” she said to someone, with a grin on her face.
Margot turned.
“Hi,” Luke said. “Is this seat taken?”
God, she was happy to see him.
“It is now,” she said. “What are you doing here?”
He sat down next to her, and she reached for his hand.
“I got a text from Avery to come here.”
Oh.
“Did you have plans with her tonight?”
He shook his head.
“No, I was just at home—I hadn’t heard from you, so I figured you were busy, and I got that text from Avery.” He looked around and let go of her hand. “Is she here? I got distracted when I saw you, but I guess I should find her.”