A Fare To Remember_ Just Whistle_Driven - Vicki Lewis Thompson [6]
“Oh! Well, that’s a good idea.” He eyed the suitcase. “I guess.”
“It’ll be fine. I know the suitcase looks a little…”
“Compromised?”
“You could say that.” She wouldn’t mind being compromised by Zachary Evans. But she had to cool it. There were probably lots of guys like him walking around this city. He happened to be the first certified NYC hunk she’d seen, so she was probably overreacting. And she was starving, too, which didn’t help.
“You could ask them to tie something around it,” Zach said.
“I’ll do that.” She realized that the networking hadn’t begun yet, and maybe it was up to her to do something about it. “Mario mentioned that you had a contact in publishing.”
“I do. He’s an editor.”
“Really?” Hannah hadn’t expected to be this lucky. “For what house?”
“I can’t remember the name, but I have it at the office. I know they mostly do cookbooks and travel guides. Is that what you’re interested in?”
She was tempted to say yes, just to make the connection stronger, but she hadn’t come all this way to work on cookbooks and travel guides. “I have a degree in English literature. I’m hoping to edit fiction.”
“Oh.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Then Percy might not be the guy to help you.”
“I’d be glad to talk to him, even so.” Maybe she could learn to love cookbooks. No, probably not. She was a nuke-’em-and-scarf-’em-down kind of person. Her theory was if you took enough vitamins and ate tuna once in a while, you’d be okay.
“It could be a waste of time if you’re into fiction.” Zach checked his watch. “Look, I have to get to the office, but I can ask around. Someone else might have a better lead than I do.”
“I hate to put you to the trouble.” Actually, she didn’t. Anything that would keep that tenuous connection between them worked for her. But she had to give him a graceful way out if he wanted to let this go.
“No trouble.” He paused. “If you don’t have other plans, we could go to dinner tonight. I could tell you what I’ve found out.”
Other plans? She’d arrived in the city less than two hours ago! She knew no one! How could she possibly have other plans? But she hesitated, as if considering her packed schedule. “That might work.”
“Seven?”
“Seven would be okay.”
“I’ll ring your room.”
“Great. See you then.” She watched him walk out of the lobby and controlled the urge to jump up and down.
Her first night in New York and she had a date! Not only a date, but one with a guy who came recommended by her very friendly taxi driver. Even better, this highly recommended, date-worthy person looked like he’d stepped out of the pages of GQ. New York was going to be incredible.
MARIO RETURNED TO THE coffee stand feeling smug. Maybe he shouldn’t take credit, though, because he’d been wrong about not leading with the tuna. The tuna had made all the difference. He only hoped this Cupid operation wasn’t too late.
After finding a parking spot near Iris’s stand, he sauntered over, unable to hold back a smile of triumph. He waited until Iris had finished serving an espresso to a long-haired college student toting a heavy backpack.
She counted out change to the student. “Gracias, señor.” Then she turned to Mario, her dark eyebrows arched. “Well?”
“He’s calling her this morning.”
“Bueno!” Iris clapped her hands together. “That boy needs a sweetheart.”
“You’re telling me. He’s so focused on success after Adrienne worked him over that he’s ready to bulldoze some poor guy out of a corner office.”
“That’s bad.”
“It’s not so much him as that boss of his.” Mario took the small porcelain cup of espresso Iris handed him. “Thanks, Iris.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out some money, but she waved it away. “Hey.” He tried again to give her the money. “You can’t be serving me free coffee.”
“You can give free taxi rides but I can’t give free coffee?”
He met the challenge in her dark eyes. She had spirit, and he admired that. “Thank you.”
“Da nada. So Zach will take away someone’s job?”
“I don’t know about that, but he definitely has his eye