What Love Tastes Like

by Zuri Day

  57

  “Hey, Tiff, your dad’s out there.” Amber said this as she reached for two plates on the counter and then balanced two more in her right hand.

  “He is?” Tiffany was surprised her dad was still in town. She was even more surprised that he was back at the restaurant.

  “And he’s got company,” Amber added before pushing open the door with her backside and scurrying out.

  “You fix meal?” Chef Wang asked.

  “Uh, oh, sure.” Who did Dad bring with him? One of his business partners? Tiffany smiled. If her dad brought someone he did business with to the restaurant, then he was absolutely proud of what she’d served. But maybe it’s his latest love interest. Tiffany tried not to have this thought bring a downer to her afternoon. After all, her dad had a right to happiness, even though she didn’t believe he always made the best choices. “Maybe this one will be different.”

  “What?” Roger walked over to her station with a batch of sliced tomatoes, ready for sauce making.

  “My dad brought someone to the restaurant,” Tiffany replied. “I know that doesn’t sound like much, but considering the fights we’ve had about my career choice, believe me, it’s major!”

  Nick entered the restaurant and walked directly up to the table where Keith and Angelica dined. “Angelica! This is a surprise.” He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the cheek, before turning to Keith. “Nick Rollins,” he said, with hand outstretched.

  Nick’s abrupt appearance caught both diners off guard. Angelica had intended to make sure Nick was aware of her presence, but later, after she’d shocked Tiffany with the news that they might become family, and to let the cat out of the bag about her father’s great deal happening in China. Now she’d have to play her cards a little differently. Both she and Keith recovered at the same time.

  “Keith Bronson,” Keith said, standing slightly to shake Nick’s hand. “I see you know Angelica.”

  Nick smiled as he motioned for Angelica to make room for him in their booth. “Oh, yes. Me and Angelica go way back, don’t we, Angie?”

  Angie? Who is this fool talking to? I’ve never been called Angie in my entire life! Angelica was flustered. She knew Nick was playing a game and hated having to learn the rules on the fly. “It’s Angelica, and you know it,” she said finally, with just the right touch of huffiness. “And if you don’t mind, Nick, this is a private lunch.”

  “Keith Bronson,” Nick said, ignoring Angelica. “So the rumors I’ve heard are true.”

  “What rumors are those?”

  Conversation stopped for a moment while Amber took their appetizer orders. “The scallop dishes are superb,” Nick commented while they decided. “They are my favorite appetizers, and our sous chef makes some of the best dishes I’ve tasted in the world.”

  Keith looked at Nick a long moment before deciding on the scallop medley—a plating featuring the scallops cooked five different ways—and Angelica decided on a crab salad.

  “Amber, have one of the 1995 Rieslings brought out…the ones I have reserved for special guests.” Nick smiled and winked at Angelica, further flustering her.

  What are you up to, Nick Rollins?

  The wine was brought out in seconds and their small talk was once again interrupted while the sommelier opened the bottle and made sure it was to Nick’s liking. Nick waited until both Keith and Angelica had held up their glasses and knew that later, they would both wonder where the toast he offered came from: “To strange bedfellows.”

  Keith put down his glass without taking a drink. He looked at Nick. “What’s going on here?”

  “I’m sorry, man, please drink up.”

  Keith hesitated again before taking a sip of the wine. “You’ve heard rumors? What kinds of rumors?”

  “Angelica tells me that you’re vying for a certain new venture being developed for the…Asian market.”

  This time, Angelica could not hide her shock, nor could she mistake the anger that flashed across Keith’s face. “I did no such thing, Nick, and you know it!”

  “Man, don’t sweat it,” Nick continued, his voice low, conspiratorial. “I’m sure you know Angelica and I used to date and are still close.”

  Keith’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Angelica.

  “Oh, no, not in that way, man,” Nick said, with a laugh. “No, there’s only one woman who has my heart now, Keith. Most likely it is her expertise that you’re tasting today. She’s a fine sous chef and even finer human being. I’d love for you to meet her. Her name is Tiffany.”

  “You’re dating my daughter?”

  Tiffany stopped in her tracks, sheer will keeping her from dropping the appetizer plates she held in her hands. What was Nick doing having lunch with her father?

  There were a million thoughts running through Keith Bronson’s head, and right now he was trying to keep most of them from showing on his face. The man he was determined to take down by any means necessary for the Asian market was dating his daughter? And used to date Angelica? What kind of game is this woman trying to get over on me? Keith would have to wait for the answers.

  For now, he tried to erase the frown from his face as he motioned to his daughter. “Tiffany.”

  Tiffany! Nick’s face remained blank while his heart plummeted. Did she hear what I just said? And wait until she sees…

  “Angelica?” Tiffany asked, not trying to mask her surprise. Her hand slipped and the plate of scallops crashed to the table. Unfortunately, it clipped one of the water goblets on the way down. The glass fell directly into Angelica’s lap.

  “Ow!” Angelica tried to leap up from her seat but was wedged between the middle of the booth and the table.

  “I’m sorry,” Tiffany mumbled, still in shock from seeing not only her father and Nick sitting down together, but Angelica as well. Tiffany had no love for Angelica, and while dropping the plate was an accident, she would just as soon have thrown the glass of water in her face. What was she doing at Taste with Nick and her dad?

  “She ruined my outfit. Do you hear me, it’s absolutely ruined. This is Dolce and Gabbana, brand new. It cost over seven hundred dollars. Nick, I want you to do something about your employee, now!”

  “Calm down, Angelica,” Nick said sternly.

  “That’s my daughter you’re talking about,” Keith warned.

  Meanwhile, Amber had heard the commotion and came up next to Tiffany with towels to wipe up the water, and to soothe Angelica’s nerves. “We are so sorry, ma’am,” Amber said, moving the plates and wiping the liquid. Any other time, she would have made the offer on behalf of the hotel to handle any cleaning bill or other expense that resulted from the accident, but since one of the owners of said hotel was sitting at the table, she wisely thought to leave such gestures to Nick.

  “I’m sorry,” Tiffany said again, once Amber had cleared the table. “I’m just surprised to see you here…with my dad.” Tiffany looked at Nick but didn’t comment on his presence.

  “So, Tiffany, I take it you know Angelica?”

  Unfortunately, yes. “We’ve met.” Tiffany hoped her voice sounded neutral, though she was hardly trying to act as if she and Angelica were friends.

  Keith looked from Angelica to Nick to Tiffany. The tension was thicker than the black bean paste. For the first time since Steven had delivered the news and he’d left his office, Nick questioned his hasty decision to confront Keith and Angelica in the restaurant. How was he going to explain this to Tiffany, and how angry would she be once she was aware that he knew about her father’s connection to Angelica and the China venture?

  Before Nick could take control of the situation, Angelica spoke. “Keith, I want to leave, immediately. I’m soaked, and upset and…I just want to get out of here.”

  Keith started to object, and then decided that leaving was the best thing. He needed answers, and he needed to sort out just what was going on between Nick and Angelica, and what that had to do with Angelica’s fast track into his life. Granted, he’d welcom
ed her with open arms once she entered, but now he had to ask—why was she there?

  He stood abruptly from the table and reached for his wallet.

  “Please,” Nick said, staying his hand. “The wine and your next meal are on me. Angelica, send the cleaning bill for your pantsuit to the hotel. We’ll gladly cover it. Keith, I think we need to talk. If you have any free time while in LA, please give me a call.” Nick reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a business card.

  Keith took the card. “I’m not sure there’s anything you and I need to discuss.” He gave Tiffany a long, hard look, and then followed a huffing, puffing, and dripping Angelica out of the restaurant.

  58

  Nick breathed a sigh of relief. Tiffany’s car was in their driveway. She’d gone back into the kitchen as soon as her father left, without a word to him, and when he called down to the kitchen, she was adamant about not discussing what had happened while at work. As angry as she’d seemed when she left the table, he’d not been at all sure that he would find her here. Within minutes, he was walking through his dark, quiet mansion. He walked straight to the master suite and called out softly. “Tiffany?”

  He stepped inside and allowed his eyes to adjust to the darkness. Is she sleeping? Should I turn the light on and wake her up? For a man often said to have nerves of steel while making multimillion-dollar decisions, Nick felt more than a little uneasy. He’d second-guessed his earlier decision during his entire drive home. Especially after he’d called her cell and she hadn’t answered. Should I have told her what I knew about her father being my stiffest competition on a deal that mattered most? Nick had wanted to spare her from what could have become a confrontational situation. He’d hoped to have some type of resolution to the matter and then tell her everything. But Tiffany was a grown woman. Belatedly, Nick realized he maybe should have allowed Tiffany to make that decision for herself.

  “Nick.” Tiffany called to him from the hallway.

  Nick spun around and walked out of the bedroom. “Baby,” he said, his arms outstretched.

  “Uh-uh. I don’t feel like hugging right now. I feel like listening—to the reason why you were with my dad and Angelica, of all people, today at the restaurant. And why you didn’t think the fact that you know my father is something you should tell me!”

  “That’s exactly what I want to do, and why I was looking for you. Can we sit down?” Nick asked, pointing toward the master suite.

  “In the great room,” Tiffany countered. She didn’t want to discuss this in the same room where they’d made passionate love the night before.

  Tiffany sat at the end of the long couch. She crossed her arms. And waited.

  “I was trying to protect you,” Nick began. “I ran into Keith yesterday, at the hotel. Or rather, he ran into me.”

  “You saw my dad yesterday, too?”

  “I didn’t know he was your father, not then.” Nick explained the brief, mysterious encounter when Keith had bumped into him. “He knew who I was. But when I asked who he was, he hurried out the lobby. I went to the restaurant and asked Amber if she knew who the gentleman was who’d just eaten there. She told me it was your dad.”

  “And you didn’t come to me then because…”

  Nick sighed. “Because she told me his name.” Nick understood Tiffany’s confused expression and hurried on. “Tiffany, Keith’s firm is vying for the China nightclub project. His is the group I’ve been competing with to get this deal. I’d never met him, so didn’t know what he looked like. I’d seen file photos of him, had an idea. But he brushed by me so quickly that it didn’t register…until I talked to Amber.” He was quiet a moment, allowing the enormity of what he’d just said to sink into Tiffany’s understanding. “I went back to the office, made some calls. And the more I learned, the more certain incidents of the past few months made sense. Especially where Angelica was concerned.”

  “That was going to be my next question. Why was she there?”

  Nick’s stare met Tiffany’s. “She and Keith are dating.”

  “What?” Tiffany lost her calm demeanor and jumped off the couch. “You have got to be kidding me! Tell me you’re lying.”

  “I wish I were.”

  Tiffany began pacing the large expanse of the room. “What in the hell is she doing with my father? And why didn’t I know about it?”

  “Angelica didn’t want you to know, Tiffany. She didn’t tell your father that she knew you. You can trust me on that. Angelica knew about this project. I first heard wind of it when she and I were dating, engaged, actually. I knew then that this venture could be a career-defining moment for me, and I shared this excitement with her. So, my guess is that following our breakup, she found out who the opposing players were. This wouldn’t necessarily be hard. Angelica and I dated for four years. She met several of the high-powered men I do business with. She then got to Keith—I’m not sure whether at this point she knew he was your father—but she latched on to him as her next sponsor. Angelica only dates men who are wealthy and can keep her in the lifestyle to which she’s grown accustomed. She’s also vindictive. So it probably didn’t hurt that your father was trying to get a deal that meant so much to me.”

  Tiffany stopped pacing and walked to a table where several expensive pieces of crystal were displayed. She idly fingered the intricately carved pieces, thinking how something so valuable, so beautiful, could be shattered in an instant. Is this what will happen to what Nick and I share? Tiffany tried to keep out negative emotions and focus on what Nick had said. But there were still so many things she didn’t know, didn’t understand.

  She walked back over to the couch and sat down. “I still don’t get why you didn’t come to me after you found out Keith was my dad.”

  Now it was Nick’s turn to get up and pace. “Maybe I should have. But I was so shocked, and this all happened so fast. I know how you feel about your father, and how he’s always put business before you. There were nagging questions that I needed answered before I said anything to you.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like whether or not Keith knew about us, whether he was somehow using you to get closer to my businesses, to get information.”

  “Wait. You thought I might be working in cahoots with my father?”

  “No, baby, no,” Nick said as he walked over to the couch and sat next to Tiffany. She stiffened, but he persisted in taking her hand and looking her straight in the eye. “I trust you more than anyone else in the world, Tiffany. Don’t ever doubt that. But—and don’t take this personally, baby—but I don’t trust your father. Some people will do crazy things when the stakes get this high, and I couldn’t discount the fact that Angelica may have told your father about us, in some distorted way, to push Keith’s desire to win this project over me even higher. What if she’d told him I was using you, or that if he won this deal it would get you away from me? Women like Angelica are more conniving than you can believe.

  “I didn’t want to come to you until I had the facts straight, and until I had the chance to talk with Keith face-to-face, and man to man. I wanted him to understand this deal was not just about me…but about us.”

  Tiffany jerked away from Nick and stood. “Now who’s using me to get the deal? You think your dating me is going to mean a thing to Dad? Ha! I bet I’ll have the last laugh on that one. Because if you think my father is going to bypass big money just because I’m his daughter, then you’ve still got some homework to do. Keith Bronson is about one thing and one thing only—m-o-n-e-y. So if you thought I was going to be your ace in the hole, you’d better keep digging.” Tiffany wanted to run out of the room, but instead simply turned her back on the man she loved and stared out at the starry night. She didn’t want to believe that Nick would use her as a pawn in business, but all of the old voices—the ones from the years when she came in second with her father—were speaking to her now. She’d been so close to living the life of her dreams—having a cozy, funky restaurant and running it with the man she
loved. But now she had to question whether she even knew the man she’d been sleeping with off and on for the past eight months. Maybe who she thought he was, was too good to be true.

  “I didn’t tell him about us to affect the outcome of the business deal,” Nick said softly. “I told him because you’re his daughter, and I thought he should know.” He waited for a response, and when he didn’t get one, walked over to Tiffany and took her hand. “Come here.”

  “No!”

  “Please, Tiffany. Let’s talk this through.”

  After a long moment, Tiffany walked around Nick and sat on the couch. She sat on the edge of the cushion, her back ramrod straight, as if to take flight at any second.

  Nick joined Tiffany on the couch, and took her hand.

  Again, she snatched it back. “Look, can’t you just say what you have to say without touching me?”

  “No, I can’t.” He calmly took both of her hands in his. “Look at me, Tiffany.”

  Slowly, reluctantly, she complied.

  “Perhaps I should have handled this whole situation with your father differently. I can see how my actions could be interpreted as suspect from your perspective. I was trying to protect you, keep you out of the middle of what was going on, at least until I was sure exactly what that was.

  “When I first heard the name Keith Bronson, I had no idea he was your father. I only knew of his involvement with Angelica which, given our history, already had me quite concerned. Then last night, when you mentioned his name and ‘father’ in the same sentence, baby, that just took an already crazy situation to another level. I could only imagine what hearing about Keith and Angelica would do to you, so I decided to try and get more information, find out the exact nature of their relationship, learn Angelica’s angle in dating him relative to our mutual business interests, and, yes, to speak with your father about the China project. I’d hoped to tell you what was going on once things were resolved, one way or the other.”