“I didn’t ask for food.”
“You said you skipped lunch.”
“I did.”
“Then please. Let me fix this.”
I lifted my eyes.
“Would you be trying this hard to fix it if Steven hadn’t walked in?”
Christopher stiffened.
Steven said nothing.
That silence forced Christopher to answer for himself.
“I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way.”
“No,” I said.
His eyebrows pulled together.
“But the bigger problem is that you believed you had the right to think of me that way.”
He let out a breath.
“Look, I’m running a business. You don’t understand how difficult that is.”
“I understand expenses.”
He stared at me.
“My Social Security payment disappears into bills rather quickly every month.”
I gestured toward the coffee.
“That is why I ordered one drink instead of a thirty-dollar lunch.”
Christopher rubbed his forehead.
“People come in here, buy one thing, and stay for hours. Tables are limited. Rent keeps increasing. Payroll keeps increasing.”
