“You should kiss her right now,” Dave said, coming up behind him. He held his keys in his hand. “Pretty sure it’s part of the deal.”

“There’s enough for both of you,” I said, looking at Dave. “I wasn’t planning on staying.”

“Nope. I’m done for the night. You kids have fun though.”

Jamie took the bags from my hands and walked back toward his desk. “Do you have to leave?”

“Not exactly, but you’re working. I don’t want to keep you.”

“How about you stay long enough to eat with me, then you can go, and I’ll get back to work.”

“Fair enough,” I agreed.

I’d been to Jamie’s office twice. Once because he had wanted to show me around and introduce me to the rest of the people he worked with, and a second time when we’d met the week before and gone out to dinner with Dave and Katie. We’d all come from work, so we’d parked in the office parking lot and ridden together to the restaurant. But I’d never been there at night. With just the two of us sitting in the tiny pool of light his desk lamp created in the otherwise dark and cavernous room, it almost felt . . . I don’t know, creepy?

“I don’t know how you work in here alone. Especially at night.”

“You get used to it,” he said.

“How did you end up with such a giant space? You’re not even taking up a third of the room.”

“It was Dave’s doing. He knows the guy who owns the building. Some guy rented the space and paid two years in advance but then bailed three months in. So the owner’s letting Dave and I finish out the term for nothing but the cost of utilities. It’s a sweet setup.”

“Sounds like it. I guess free space is the best option, even if it is scary at night.”

Jamie pulled all the food out of the bags and opened the containers. I’d never had anything Vietnamese. There was pho, but then there was another container of what looked like a giant herb salad Jamie set between us. He handed me a set of chopsticks and a spoon.

“You’re going to teach me how to do this, right?”

He grinned. “You’ve never had it?”

“I had to Google it to know what it was,” I said.