“Well, uh, in my haste to leave Greg’s apartment, I kind of left my purse on his entry table. And this crumpled-up sad wad of cash is all that I had in my center console.” Nell looked back down at the laminated menu next to the specials. They both knew she didn’t have enough for more than a side. That was the whole reason Timmy had mentioned the Sweethearts Special in the first place when she’d asked to check their menu before being seated.

Because having the cops called for not being able to pay for her dinner? Well, that would just be the crap cherry on her shit sundae.

“Can I order a side of Mac n Cheese?” she asked when it was clear Timmy wasn’t going to make any more suggestions after being burned by her for the last one.

He opened his mouth with a look of intense reluctance. Thankfully, he never got the chance to officially turn her away. A new voice entered their bubble.

It was warm and smooth and attached to the man who had been sitting at the table nearest the host station.

“You know, I haven’t ordered yet. Maybe we could split the Sweethearts Special?” He gave her a wry smile. “I was going to eat alone, but it might be nice to have someone who’s not feeling the Valentine’s Day spirit to talk to.” He held up his hand. “Unless you don’t want to talk at all, which is fine. I brought a book I can read.”

Nell was good with details, even if she was bad at being “the one.” Her mother said it was what happened when a Type-A personality, Nell’s father, and a woman who had been in a decades-long love affair with organizational notebooks and binders, her mother, had five kids. One Bennett child was bound to excel at paying attention.

And that was how Nell was able to note the highlights of the man trying to get her cheap chicken tenders and mashed potatoes in a flash.

Arresting jawline. Arresting. Nell had read that description in a book once and now was seeing it out in the wild. The man could slice butter for grits with how defined it was, and the sharpness didn’t stop there. He had, dare she also think it, chiseled facial features. High cheekbones, a long nose, and lips that were surprisingly plump. They looked nice in their current half-smile state. His eyes looked nice, too. A bit cold with their light gray but nice.

His dark blond hair was cropped close to his head, but there was a little swoop to the side that made the arresting, chiseled, surprisingly plump-lipped man harder to figure out in terms of his age.

Not that, in any other terms, Nell was able to figure him out within the span of a well-meaning offer.