Perfect Pairing Read Free Page B

now, we could schedule a meeting at your earliest convenience.”
    She glanced at Sully who gave her a you’re-asking-for-it look, which she promptly ignored. “Now’s good for me. I’ll bring your food out.”
    Hal waited wordlessly while Sully flipped the Hippy Dippy into a little cardboard food shell, then extended the container to her. Hal reached for it, but once her hand got close, Sully moved her hand back. They repeated the motion twice more before Hal finally snatched it away.
    â€œJust keeping you on your toes, Chef. I get the feeling you’re going to need the practice with that one.”
    Hal ignored the warning and hopped out the back door of her truck. She strode confidently to the picnic table the woman had chosen behind the line of trucks, shielding them from both the remaining revelers and the acoustic assault of the band still trying to wring every minute out of their last set before someone cut them off.
    â€œHere ya go.”
    â€œA personal delivery from Buffalo’s own Fryboi. I’m glad to see you haven’t forgotten your roots, and even happier you’re not a vengeful person.”
    â€œOh, don’t go that far until you’ve tried the sandwich. Maybe Sully spit in it.”
    â€œSomehow I doubt that. If she had, you would’ve warned me.”
    â€œYou’re right, and also Sully would never do that. You know, waste food.”
    The woman smiled, not a full smile, but the corners of her mouth curled up for a second. “Good to know the pecking order around here. Food first, then me.”
    â€œNo, don’t put it that way. There are many, many more things that come behind food before we get to you.”
    â€œAnd you’re honest, blunt even, but not mean. This could really work.”
    â€œI’m sorry. Are you talking to me, or the voices in your head? ’Cause you seem to have had something mapped out since you bowled your way to the front of my line tonight, but I still don’t even know who you are.”
    â€œRight, well first of all, what you’re referring to as a line was not a line, but aside from that I’m Quinn Banning. I work in the corporate side of Nickel City Bank, and also as a private real estate investor.”
    â€œWell hello, Quinn Banning, banker and line connoisseur. Maybe someday I’ll think it was nice to meet you, but right now I’m still not quite there.”
    â€œFair enough, but I don’t think you’ll have to wait too long. Give me three minutes to make a pitch and your gratitude for knowing me may just burst out of you like little rays of cheesy sunshine.”
    Hal sat on the bench facing out with her elbow resting on the table beside her. “When you phrase it like that, how can I tell you no?”
    â€œYou can’t tell me no, Hal.” Quinn flashed a smile that seemed more practiced and controlled than the earlier one, but still very effective. “May I call you ‘Hal,’ or do your prefer ‘Halle’? Or maybe ‘Fryboi’?”
    Honestly, a woman who looked like her could normally call her anything she wanted for a night, but something told her there was more to Quinn than her shapely legs and high cheekbones. “Hal’s good.”
    â€œAll right then, Hal.” She glanced at an elegant, silver watchgracing her right wrist. “Three minutes start now. Congratulations, you’re the next big thing. Your reputation precedes you, and the piece in Buffalo Spree only confirms what I’ve been hearing for the last month. You’re the ‘it’ girl, or boi, for Buffalo this summer.”
    â€œThanks,” Hal said, not totally sure any of that sounded like a genuine compliment.
    â€œThis isn’t the part of the conversation where you do grateful, because ‘it’ girls and poster bois come and go quickly in Buffalo, especially in summers that last about as long as the lifespan of a gadfly.