SOMETHING WAS OFF between Charli and Jack. Gianna had noticed this earlier that evening when she stopped by their table to say hello, and it was even more apparent now, as she spied on them from the window in the kitchen door.
She knew she shouldn’t be staring. She had better things to do, for starters. It had just begun to snow, so she should have been looking into road conditions and thinking about closing early. Charli and Jack also appeared to be having a very private conversation. Though they had chosen to have this private conversation in a very public place so wasn’t it at least partly their fault if people eavesdropped? (She was using this logic to justify what she knew was not socially acceptable behavior.)
Gianna had been thrilled when she first saw the couple walk through the door that night. She could usually always count on them to boost her spirits about love and her spirits had needed some serious boosting after the date she’d gone on the night before. (So terrible!) She’d been so hopeful about it too, which made the disappointment all that worse.
“You and Ron will be a perfect match!” Suzie Miller had assured her. Suzie was one of Gianna’s most beloved customers. She came in every Friday afternoon for a slice of the Triple Chocolate Oblivion and enjoyed it while reading a romance novel.
The romance novels were what had initially sparked their conversations about love. Suzie had found love twenty-seven years ago with her late-husband, Noah, and in his absence preferred to read about love instead of looking for it again with someone else. And Gianna kept her filled in on her romantic escapades. (Recently all disasters.)
Then, one Friday two weeks ago, Suzie informed Gianna that her attractive, responsible, delightful son, Ron, was newly single and would love to take her out. “He’ll take you somewhere nice and pick up the tab—don’t you worry,” she said. Gianna had shared with her how men these days often wanted to go Dutch on first dates. “Ron has manners,” Suzie told her. “And a great job.”
During the date, Gianna heard all about his great job (Vice President for E-Commerce at Columbia Sportswear). And his college water polo glory days (undefeated in regular season both his junior and senior years at Cal Berkeley). And his obsession with sailing. “Are you interested in sailing?” he had asked. It was the first question he had directed at her all evening. “Because I couldn’t date someone who wasn’t interested in sailing.” (Gianna was interested. Though she was pretty sure she’d jump off a boat if she ended up trapped on one with this guy.) She even knew his blood pressure! She still wasn’t sure why that came up in the conversation. Maybe because he’d ordered a steak? She’d stopped listening at that point and had begun to practice mindful eating because the scallops and lobster risotto she’d ordered had been quite delicious, and she knew she would never eat this meal again—at least not here. She couldn’t come back without remembering this awful date. It was a shame how many lovely restaurants had been ruined for Gianna by horrible dates.
But the worst part about the whole thing was that she might lose Suzie as a customer. Surely Suzie would want to know why Gianna wasn’t interested in Ron. And Gianna could only sugarcoat, “Your son is entirely self-absorbed!” so much.
Note to self: never let a customer set me up on a blind date again.
A touching moment between Charli and Jack had been just what Gianna needed. Only it seemed there was nothing touching happening between them tonight. They were arguing. And they never argued.
Now their waiter, Mel, was leaving their table and walking toward Gianna. Maybe she would have the inside scoop.
“Get this,” Mel said. Mel was studying to be an actress and spoke with dramatic effect even when there was nothing dramatic about a situation, though this time, Gianna thought her tone might be warranted. “Charli and Jack want to talk to you about making a reservation for a date in five years.”
“Why on earth would they want to do that?” Gianna asked. Who knew if she would even be in business in five years. It certainly seemed she would, given how well things were going, but there was no way of knowing for sure in her line of work.
“That’s all they told me,” Mel said with a shrug of her shoulders, leaving Gianna no choice but to go find out for herself.
“You know,” she said, pulling up a chair when she got to their table. “I just had a customer in here telling his buddies about a trip to Belize he’s planning on taking in ten years. Maybe you three should chat.”
They each gave her a faint smile. “Look, we know it’s an unusual request,” Charli said. “But we can explain.”
“Please,” Gianna said. “You’ve got me very curious.” She listened intently as Charli filled her in on the pact she and Jack were thinking of making. The whole time she couldn’t help but think how crazy it was. All her life she’d been looking for true love. Charli and Jack had found it in each other and were considering letting it go and running the risk of losing it forever. Did they not realize how lucky they were? Although maybe they were thinking the same thing about her. Though she didn’t have a guy, she did have her dream job. If she had to make a choice between this job and her dream guy, she guessed she could understand how that would complicate things.
“We aren’t sure if it will come to this,” Charli finished up saying. “We just want to check if it would be an option to reserve our favorite table that far in advance.”
“You know you can count on me to help you out,” Gianna said. “Assuming I’m still in business, of course I will hold your table for you. I really hope to see you both there.”