Chapter Twelve
“Now this is New York,” Jake said, diving into a Styrofoam container of hand-pulled noodles and shredded chicken in a satisfyingly sauce with hints of beer and chilies, flecked with Sichuan peppercorns. “Remember when you asked me what I missed about New York?” He pointed at the container with his chopstick. “Spicy Big Tray Chicken. New York pizza is fine, but there’s nothing like Spicy Big Tray Chicken.” He worked the chopstick like a pro. “I may be in love with this chicken.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “Not exactly the angle I need for my exclusive.”
“But you like it? The restaurant?”
“Like it?” she said. “No. I love it, and the food is amazing.” She loaded up her chopstick with a dumpling. “How did you find this place?”
Jake looked around at the definitive hole in the wall: a narrow sliver of a space that let in almost no natural light and boasted less than ten tables. “After I found out about my ex, I had some trouble sleeping. It was tough. My parents’ marriage failed to inspire. I wanted something different. Something real. Something that would last.”
“Makes sense,” she said, chopsticks hovering above the food.
He shrugged. “Guess I wasn’t always incapable of a relationship. Uninterested in love.”
“Everyone’s interested in love.”
A small smile crept up on him. “Yeah, some love blogger told me that once. Wonder what ever happened to her.”
His smile widened as her napkin hit him square in the face.
“So how does this relate to finding Spicy Village? Food’s amazing, but it isn’t exactly easy to find.” She looked out the window at the narrow street, red and gold lanterns obscuring the view of the graphitized doorways across the way.
“Well, as I said, I’d been having trouble sleeping. Bed at two in the morning. Up at five.” A blinking red light over the wall-sized menu caught his attention, then fizzled and burned out. A bit like his marriage, he thought. He looked back at Kate. “One day I said the hell with it. Threw on some clothes and started walking. Everywhere. Central Park. Over Delancey. Down Canal. I ended up in Chinatown, exhausted, outside of this place.”
Kate gave him a sympathetic nod. “Of course.”
He liked how comfortable she seemed here. His ex-wife never would have stepped into Chinatown, much less Spicy Village. Too bad, because she was missing out on some of the best food in the city. “Must’ve looked like shit, because the owner opened up early and made me a skillet of his best dish.” He pointed toward the chicken. “So I kept coming back. Now he keeps my standing order framed behind the counter.”
“Really?” she asked with a smile.
“Really. He was a good friend when I needed one. Wish he was here so I could introduce you,” he said, scooping the noodles into his mouth.
She looked at him, a smile at the edges of her kissable mouth. “Well, no wonder.”
The gentle sound of her voice washed over him. “No wonder what?”
She reached across the table and laid her hand on top of his, a gesture so much more personal than business. “No wonder you love it so much.”
…
Thirty minutes later, they stood outside on the sidewalk. The midsummer sun washed the neighborhood in light, reflecting off the boldly-colored signs of Chinatown’s narrow shops and stalls selling T-shirts, perfume, jewelry, and “luxury” handbags. The staccato sound of the Mandarin mixed in with the rush of cars and the ding of bells of the bicycle delivery guys. The energy, the sounds, the people. This was why she’d wanted to stay in New York.
“Do you have to go?” Jake asked, casually linking his fingers through hers.
Kate smiled at him, enjoying the feel of him. “No.”
“No work deadlines?”
“Just researching my exclusive.” For a split-second that shuttered look crossed his face, tension formed at the edge of his eyes. “But if you need to be somewhere…”
“No.” His response was quick and certain. “The only place I want to be right now is here with you.”
“Me, too.” Kate gave his hand a quick squeeze. “Let me take you somewhere,” she said, nodding toward the restaurant window. “You shared one of your secret places. I want to share one of mine. So we’ll be learning each other’s secrets.”
He raised an eyebrow. “More research?”
“Absolutely,” she said, tugging him down the sidewalk.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
As they crossed over to Canal, they wandered onto a few side streets lined with awnings and flags with Chinese writing, and stopped to buy some ginger, some teas, and a small red plastic Buddha, which she insisted would be good luck. Over on Mulberry, the sweet scents of Lung Moon Bakery seduced them inside, where they loaded up on inexpensive pineapple cakes and lemon and ginger cookies. As they approached Columbus Park, she was already polishing off her second dessert.
She dusted some sugar from her fingers and pointed toward the center of the park where a few people practiced Tai Chi. “Always wanted to come down here and learn Tai Chi.”
“Why haven’t you?” he asked.
“Just haven’t made it down to that place on my list yet.” She tilted her chin toward a group of old-timers gathered for intense games of poker and Chinese Chess. “I want to learn mahjong, too.”
Jake laughed, and the sound sent her heart racing. “You have a list?”
She nodded. “A New York City bucket list. One of the things I love most about the city is how it’s so filled with…”
“Possibility?”
“Exactly,” she said, as the sounds of Chinese opera drifted toward them from the park. “Possibility.”
Near the end of Canal, she took his hand. “This is what I wanted to show you.” She looked over at a yellow brick building with a red and green tile facade. “The Mahayana Temple, and no, I’m not Buddhist,” she continued with a smile. “I’m a good Presbyterian girl from a small town in Ohio.” She let go a smile. “But it’s a beautiful, peaceful oasis. There’s so much chaos in the city, and it’s all wonderful, but sometimes it’s important to unplug and connect.”
He looked doubtful. “A Buddhist temple located beneath a billboard for the local casino.”
She tugged him up the stairs. “Don’t knock it until you try it.”
“Am I going to have to meditate?”
“Meditation isn’t required, but it is an active place of worship, so be on your best behavior.”
He stepped in front of her, snaked his arm around her waist, and pulled her into a kiss that sent her mind reeling. Right there on the steps of the temple. Next to the gold lions.
“I think I better add to my bucket list,” she said in a voice she scarcely recognized.
Funny, but he seemed as surprised as she was by his kiss. He nodded toward the entrance. “C’mon, let’s get this over with.”
“Hey, I tried your big chicken,” she whispered as they moved into the temple.
“That’s because Spicy Big Tray Chicken is amazing.”
Kate gave him a look that said he could go ahead and talk tough, but she noticed his hushed voice as he took in the red and gold foyer. He was open to the experience. Funny, she’d never brought any other man she’d dated here. In some way, she felt able to reveal herself to him. He felt inexplicably safe. She felt his hand low on her back as he ushered her past the foyer. A nice guy in a naughty, naughty package.
Inside the temple, the walls were lined with paper strips bearing prayers along with offerings of flowers, fruit, and incense. Kate let the distinctive scent of lotus blossom fill her senses as she took in the magnificence of the temple. Never failed to amaze her. “Beautiful.”
His hand at her hip drew her closer. She looked up, and he was gazing down at her as if she, not the temple, was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Her heart did an inappropriate flutter, kicking up a notch at the memory of the way he kissed. But he was leaving in two days. Two days. She bit down on her lip. And yet, her crazy, super-sized heart still wished for more.
Smiling up at him, she took his hand. “Come with me.”
Together they walked into the main sanctuary, where an enormous golden seated Buddha looked over the wooden benches. To the right, several visitors milled around a small shrine of boxes filled with scrolls of white paper. “Do you have a dollar?” she whispered.
“A dollar?”
“For a fortune.”
He reached into his back pocket. “I don’t believe in fortune-telling.”
“For a therapist, you are remarkably grounded.”
He handed her a twenty. “For an independent woman, you are remarkably light on cash.”
“Credit is easier,” she said, noting the twenty. “This is too much.”
“Consider it a donation to the upkeep of the temple.” He pressed the money into her hand. “You need to carry some cash. For safety purposes.”
Kate smiled up at him before sliding the donation into the box. “You really are a boy scout. Okay, now, close your eyes and pick one of the o-mikuji. ”
“The o-mikuji?”
A soft laugh escaped her. “O-mikuji,” she repeated. “Unrolling the paper reveals the fortune written on it, but you can’t think too much. The random quality is purposeful. Simply choose one.”
With a skeptical expression on his heartbreakingly handsome face, he pulled a scroll from the box nearest the bell. She reached into a different box, selected an o-mikuji, and took his hand to lead him into a quiet corner. “Go ahead, open it,” she said in a hushed voice.
Jake unraveled the scroll to reveal two Chinese letters. Kate peeked over his shoulder and pointed at the symbols. “The first one is a blessing. The second defines your fortunes regarding specific aspects of your life. You’ve received a half blessing in the area of tabidachi, which is travel.”
His eyes narrowed. “And what about you? What is your fortune?”
“I thought you didn’t believe in fortunes.” Kate slanted him a look of anticipation and unrolled the paper as her heart fluttered with a kind of hopeful expectation. Never failed. She loved this place. He slipped his arm around her waist, and the warmth of his hands at her hips sent a different kind of hopeful expectation through the southern regions of her body. Behind her now, he looked down at the paper, waiting for her translation. “Well, mine is a great blessing…” Her voice trailed off, nearly a whisper. “For the fulfillment of my negaigoto. My dearest wish. My desire.”
His strong fingers tightened at her hips, angling her closer, and moved them deeper into the corner. She turned slowly in his arms. The shadows of this hidden corner played across his handsome face. He opened his mouth to speak, but she pressed her fingers to his lips. Maybe the heady scent of incense was making her light-headed, but she wanted to kiss him. Now. Right now. In this beautiful, sacred place, knowing it was as close to a promise as she’d get from this gorgeous man. She reached up and brought his lips down to hers, kissing him like she wanted him to know her wish. Like she wanted him to understand how much she desired him. Trusted him. Her lips moved over his, tender and yielding as he returned the kiss, giving as much as taking. Kate poured everything into that kiss, everything she couldn’t say, knowing he’d be leaving. But not knowing how she’d be able to let him go a second time. She drew away slowly, lingering in that kiss, a kiss she knew she’d never forget.
Yeah, he wasn’t offering love. But she knew who she was. Where she was. What she had. And this—he—was pretty good.
She just wondered if this would be enough.
“Thank you,” she said, her breath heated and shallow, “for coming here with me.”
An uncertain expression imprinted on his heartbreakingly handsome face, and he took her face in his hands. “Heck of a wish,” he whispered.
Kate grinned up at him. “Heck of a wish.”