Her eyes meet mine, and they are different, darker than I remember.

“It was strict.”

My mother has a way of describing things that even at her most lucid is a tad over the top. It’s the reason I have a name like Catia instead of Ellen or Kate or Anne. The sky is dazzling or it is devastating, but it’s never just blue. Her answer about the Catholic school is too succinct. I am just about to lean forward and ask for more when the server appears. She is saved by my po’boy.

“Can I get you anything else?” he asks us both, but he is looking only at me.

“Catia will have some beignets. Won’t you, Cat? But don’t bring those till later, when we’re finished, please.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

My mother smiles up at him. “My aren’t you a cute thing?” she says, reaching out and giving his apron a tug.

He laughs uncomfortably.

“Catia’s new here—to New Orleans, not Louisiana. She’s Louisiana stock through and through. How about you? Are you from here?” Her eyes skim over him in a way that makes us both blush.

It takes everything I have not to crawl under the table.

“Oh, yes, ma’am. Born and raised.” He tries to shift the focus to me. “You should let me show you around sometime, Catia.”

“It’s Cat,” I correct him, glaring at my mother. “And I’m not really ‘Louisiana stock.’” I make air quotes around the last two words and literally cringe at myself. I don’t know how to flirt. Mary, on the other hand, is obviously a natural.

He flashes an amused grin. “I’m Daniel.”

“Good to meet you, Daniel,” I say. My mother jabs her pointy boot into my shin under the table. Her eyes widen like flowers opening in the sun.

“We only got in last night,” my mom cuts in. “Cat’s grandmother died. Cat found the body. Well, you don’t want to know all the gory details, but you get the picture.”

Daniel is nodding at my mom to be polite, but I can tell he’s struggling to follow her. I’m impressed at how calm he seems. She’s usually unnerved most people by now. I feel sorry for him. I realize that if I don’t say something, she’ll just keep talking. I have to save us both.

“Are you guys hiring perchance?” I blurt.

“Uhhh…”

I instantly regret it. It’s a tiny café. They can’t need more than a few people on staff. My mother has come on to him and rambled like a madwoman, and now I’ve asked for a job. It’s horrible realizing that I am the one who’s rendered him speechless, not Mary. “Forget it.”

“Nah,” he says casually, his smile bunching on one side of his face. “I’ll check.”