Tasteless (24 page)
Authors: India Lee
“Why?” Gemma asked.
“Just… everything that happened when I left this restaurant. And being nervous about running into my dad here…”
“Why would your dad be here?” Damian asked.
“I heard he’s been trying to find a new buyer for the place since the Richmond-Gregory plan fell out…”
“Well, he was,” Mira shrugged.
“But I don’t think he is anymore.”
Rye glanced quickly between Mira and Hudson who were now laughing.
“Have we actually ever been properly introduced?” Hudson asked, holding his hand out to Rye. “I know we’ve crossed paths a dozen times and we know each other through the papers, but we’ve never
actually
been introduced.”
“How rude of me,” Gemma said, wiping some chocolate crumbs from her
lips. “Aunt Mira, Hudson – this is Rye Somerville, she’s a good friend of mine and Sam Laurent’s girlfriend.” Rye smiled as Mira and Hudson “oohed” and “aahed.” “And Rye, this is my aunt, Mira Hunter, and her husband, Hudson Gunn. They’re the owners of Somerville Diner.”
Rye’s eyes widened.
“What?” she gasped.
“Don’t worry,” Mira said.
“We’re pretty hands off when it comes to ownership. We like to hire in a manner that ensures we can trust her staff fully.”
“Yes,” Hudson smiled at his wife.
“Which is why I’m so thankful for our chef. He’s in the kitchen right now, you should go say hi.”
The table laughed as Rye scrambled to her feet, running towards the front door.
Before she could open it, she realized how rude she was not thanking everyone first and quickly stumbled back to hug each person individually before scrambling into the restaurant again.
Inside, it looked quite different from how she had left it.
The servers were no longer uniformed and the pristine white tables had been replaced with long communal ones.
“Welcome to Somerville Diner,” a hostess approached her, holding menus to her chest.
She looked strangely familiar despite the fact that Rye had never seen her before. “My name’s Maya, how many in your table?”
“I’m… just looking for Sam,” she said.
Maya blinked at her.
“Oh, geez, right,” Maya laughed.
“Sorry, you look different in person.”
“Bad different or good different?”
Rye frowned.
“Good different, of course,” Maya said.
“He’s in the kitchen, I’ll go get him. He wanted you to take a seat here first.” She pointed behind Rye at a corner booth that had been newly installed, despite not actually being new. Rye approached it, recognizing the tabletop that Sam had saved during the original diner’s demolition.
When she wouldn’t sit right away, Maya kind of forced her, reaching in to physically bend Rye into the booth.
She didn’t resist, despite finding it very odd, but she was too overwhelmed by all the pleasant surprises to care.
She watched as Maya skipped over to the kitchen.
Through the window on the door, she saw her excitedly waving her hands as she talked to someone out of view. Two heads of black and grey hair stuck themselves out. They belonged to a middle-aged man and a woman that she didn’t recognize despite looking familiar. The woman pushed past the door, running towards Rye full speed with her arms outstretched.
“
Ai
, Rye!” she cried.
“Uh…” Rye said as she braced herself for what she knew would be a hard embrace.
The kitchen door swung open again. This time, she recognized the face.
“Ma!” Sam yelled, scrambling to catch her before she could go tumbling into Rye.
He grabbed his mother by the shoulders, pulling her back gently before turning to Rye. He smiled immediately at the sight of her and she felt herself returning it. Sam’s mom smoothed her apron, collecting herself before she approached Rye again.
“Hello,” she said, trying to sound proper instead of the
happy bawling mess she was just seconds before. “My name is Yvette. I am Sam’s mother. But you may call me Mommy.”
“I don’t even call you Mommy,” Sam furrowed his brows at his mother.
Rye reached out to hug Yvette.
“It’s so nice to meet you,” Rye said, feeling warm in Yvette’s arms.
She had never even called her own mother “mommy” but she could see how it would be fitting with a woman like Yvette.
Yvette
returned to the kitchen, leaving Sam to be with Rye. They sat in their old-but-new booth, looking out the window as the sun began to set. Their tabletop soon filled with dozens of dishes, some that Rye recognized to be from her grandparents’ recipe book and some new ones that Sam explained were from his own family. Mira and Hudson filed in with Gemma and Damian and they were soon all tucked into the booth right beside Maya, Yvette, and Sam’s Uncle George.
As they ate, talking and laughing and sharing stories about one another, Rye felt confident that the happiness she felt at that moment would not be as brief as all those in the weeks preceding it. She leaned into Sam’s shoulder, taking in the image she sat within.
Though the restaurant itself looked different, the view out the windows was still the same.
A
nd though it wasn’t her family sitting around the table with her, she couldn’t help but feel like it might as well be.
* * * * *
The Hidden Gem Series
Hidden Gem #1
Hidden Gem #2: Diamond in the Rough
Hidden Gem #3: No Stone Unturned
Hidden Gem #4: Every Pearl Has its Oyster
Hidden Gem #5: Diamonds are Forever
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