The waitress approached with a tray of desserts, nearly dropping it when she saw Becca’s face.

“Um, would you like to try any of our featured desserts? We, um, have the molten lava -“

Becca got up from the table and sprinted to the front door, bumping rudely into the waitress without excusing herself. The waitress scrambled to steady the tray, sighing comically when the contents didn’t fall to the floor.

“Sorry about that,” Jameson said with a crooked smile. “I’ll have the molten lava cake for one and the check, if you don’t mind.”

The waitress smiled uncertainly, revealing lipstick stains on her front teeth before scampering away again.

Jameson kind of felt sorry for dropping the bomb on Becca like that, but he figured honesty was the best policy right now. As he waited for the waitress to bring back his molten lava cake, he decided to call Prandi back. Maybe she’d hung up on him by accident, he reasoned.

The machine picked up on the first ring: Hi, I’ll be out of the country for the next month…