“You have to come to dinner with me. It’s my only night off,” he lied. “I can’t believe you’re here in New York. You should have called me.” He wondered if she had. Maybe Lori wasn’t passing along his messages.

Kelly patted her pockets. “You won’t believe this, but I left my phone in the rush to get us out. I haven’t been able to call anyone.”

“Total chaos,” Brenda agreed.

The limo must have gone around the block, because it was pulling up to the curb and Lori didn’t look happy when she jumped out. “What are you doing?”

Andrew noticed the look on Kelly’s face. Was she jealous? Just a teensy bit? “Kelly, meet Lori. She’s my friend’s fiancée. The one who’s opening a restaurant this weekend. He’s busy, so I’m taking her to dinner at 2520. It’s an amazing restaurant. You and Brenda should come with us.”

Kelly looked at Brenda and shrugged. “I don’t know?”

“On one condition,” Brenda said. “We don’t talk about anything to do with cooking. This needs to be a night off.”

“Deal,” Andrew said.

Lori exchanged a glance with Brenda. “Yeah, I can agree with that. I’m so tired of my fiancé talking about recipes and his restaurant. All of that is off limits.”

“You and I are on the exact same page, Lori. So, let’s go,” Brenda said. “It sounds like fun.”

When they got to the restaurant, the maître d’ took them straight in to a table near the fireplace. “Welcome. The chef asked if he can choose your menu for this evening.”

“By all means,” Andrew said.

“I’m feeling extremely underdressed,” Kelly said.

“That’s the nice thing about this kind of place. If you act like you belong, you belong. But Kelly, you look beautiful.”

“Thank you.” Her blush made him smile.

“Aww.” Both Brenda and Lori reacted, and then he was the one blushing.

The sommelier came over and poured them both a glass of wine. Andrew swirled it in his glass, then took in the aroma. One sip later, he said, “Very nice.”

The wine was poured. “To running into old friends in unexpected places,” Kelly toasted.

“And new friends,” Brenda added.

“Cheers.” He took a sip of the wine.

Lori finished hers and poured another.

Dinner came, course after course, and the conversation was easy. Brenda and Lori seemed to carry most of the discussion, and that was fine with him, although they pretty much talked about nothing all night. That was okay, because being with Kelly made the evening perfect. She didn’t know she was celebrating his win tonight, but it wouldn’t have been the same without her.

“Andrew, this has been amazing.” Kelly glanced around the restaurant. “I can totally picture you running an establishment like this. The food is wonderful, and the presentation was almost too pretty to eat.”