Chapter 14

A few days passed with them spending their free time together. Most of Maya's clothes—well, all the ones that fit—now hung in a closet at Deke's house. They spent all their time together and enjoyed each other's company completely. Maya couldn't be any happier. The only annoyance was those darn roses that kept arriving.

She didn't even have to look at them, but Maya knew that they were there. Every once in a while, she'd walk through the dining room and see someone twirling a rose with a smile. Something inside her would ball up in the pit of her stomach.

Today, she carried a stack of glasses to the waitress stand. As she passed a table, a man called her name. "Maya."

Turning, she looked at the unfamiliar face and held up one finger to ask him to wait as she stowed her burden. When she returned to the table, she asked, "Good afternoon, sir. Would you like me to call your waitress or is there something I can help you with?"

"I don't want to talk to her. I hoped you would join me for lunch."

"I'm sorry, sir. I'm working… But thank you," Maya tried to be polite as she edged away from the encounter.

"I'm sure you could talk to Mateo and take an hour for your lunch break," he assured her.

"I'm sorry. That isn't possible."

Fleeing from the man who made her feel uncomfortable, Maya hissed, "Follow me," to Mateo as she passed him at the front desk.

"What's up?" Mateo asked. "I need to seat a few tables."

"There's a man near the waitress stand that just asked me to have lunch with him."

"Deke's here?" Mateo asked.

"No. It's not Deke. I don't know who he is, but he knows my name and talked to me like we were friends," Maya said, trying to make him understand why this man made her uneasy.

"That's weird. I'll check him out as I walk these people to their table," Mateo promised.

Nodding, Maya fled through the swinging door into the kitchen. With her mind whirling, she looked at Guille and admitted, "I can't think right now. What do you need me to do?"

Thankfully, the chef didn't ask any questions. "Would you shred a block of cheddar and crumble a couple of queso blancos?"

"On it," she answered and ducked into the walk-in refrigerator to grab what she needed. The box of queso blanco hadn't been opened so it took a few minutes to wrestle free the blocks. It actually felt good to manhandle the cardboard, and she kicked a crate of peppers on the bottom shelf just because.

"Ouch!" she yelped when the wooden container didn't yield at all.

Limping slightly, she carried the cheese into the prep area. Mateo and Guille stopped talking as she entered. "Like I don't know you're talking about me. What's going on?"

"That table was empty when I walked through the dining room. There was only a hundred-dollar bill tucked under his glass. Sarita was his waitress. She brought his meal as I stood there trying to figure out if you were talking about another table," Mateo reported.

"He left without eating or getting it to go?" Maya asked, feeling her brows gather in concern.

"I don't like this," Guille announced, punctuating his words with a stab of the knife in his hand.

"I don't like it either," Mateo agreed. "I think it's time to bring in the police, Maya. What if he's dangerous?"

"We don't even know that he's the one sending roses," Maya pointed out. "Mamá probably talked to every man in the vicinity about coming to meet her daughter. He could be perfectly innocent."

"Or not," Guille added.

"Look. Let's be realistic here. I'm Maya. I'm plain, shy, and basically boring. No man…"

"You are also sweet, kind, and love those close to you with all your heart," Deke's voice came from behind her.

She turned to look at him in surprise and immediately dropped the armful of wrapped packages she carried to the worktable before rushing to his side. After hugging him, she asked, "Deke? What are you doing here? I don't get off until the restaurant closes tonight."

"I decided to come pick up some of Guille's enchiladas for dinner tonight. I was almost here when Mateo called me," Deke reported. "You are in big trouble."

"I didn't encourage the man. I got out of there as soon as possible and told Mateo," Maya protested.

"You handled the situation well. You didn't call me, however. And now, when I get here, you are talking about yourself very poorly," he pointed out.

"Oh, come on. It's amazing that you love me, but we both know I'm no raving beauty. I'm short and round. I have dishwater hands and don't wear makeup because it melts from my face anyway as I work. People make me tongue-tied, and I always say or do something stupid."

"You are refreshing and gorgeous. Your skin glows and your eyes twinkle. You can do anything you want to do, and I will not allow you to speak badly about yourself."

His eyes promised a spanking. She looked quickly at the other two men and knew they suspected exactly what she had earned and thoroughly endorsed the idea.

"I think we're forgetting the problem here. It's not me. It's that guy," she deflected quickly.

"I already called Avery and Wyatt. They helped Nora when she had a problem at Craftastic," Mateo said.

"Do you really think that's necessary?" Maya asked.

"Yes." Deke's answer was echoed by the other two men.

"Okay. I'll talk to them."

"I'll go pull up the video footage to see if I can spot him coming in," Mateo said, excusing himself.

"Unfortunately, I have to get to Stuff-It. Avery and Wyatt will stop by when they have a break, and I can't wait to talk to them. Be sure to tell them to call me," Deke requested.

While they'd talked, Guille had moved around the kitchen to put together a to-go container for Deke. "Here. I'll make sure she tells them to call."

"Thank you, Guille."

"Just heat it up in the microwave. It won't be as good as it is eating here…"

"Never," Deke agreed and turned back to Maya.

"Walk me to the door."

She allowed him to guide her out of the kitchen and to the cash register. "I'm not charging you for that," she told him when he pulled out his wallet. "Don't argue with me. I'm already hanging on by a thread."

Deke pulled her into his arms and kissed her forehead. "It's going to be okay. Mateo will follow you to my place before heading home tonight. I don't want you alone until we get this figured out."

"Okay."

"And we'll have a talk when I get home." Deke looked at her sternly, and she knew that talk would involve her bottom and his hand.

Maya nodded. She should have called him after alerting Mateo.

* * *

"How long have you been receiving anonymous roses?" Wyatt asked.

"Almost two weeks. They're coming from Blooms by Daisy," Maya told them. "We talked to Daisy and she couldn't trace the person who was ordering them online nor could she block them."

"So you've been giving them away?" Avery posed the questions as she wrote details in her notebook.

"Yes. I didn't want them. We figured that whoever it was would get tired of sending them," Maya explained.

"You would think," Avery agreed. "And there was some man here tonight who invited you to have dinner with him?"

"Yes. Then he disappeared before his meal was served," Mateo jumped in.

"Oh, so he stiffed the waitress for the cost," Wyatt commented, nodding like he now understood.

"No. He left a hundred dollars to cover his bill," Mateo told them.

"The meal was that expensive?" Avery questioned, looking up in surprise.

"No. It was about twenty dollars with his drink," Mateo corrected. "I have him pulled up on the security camera."

"You think he was suspicious just because he asked Maya to join him for dinner and then left when she said no and left money for the waitress?" Wyatt summed up the event simply.

"It sounds innocent when you say it like that, but it was creepy," Maya rushed to add.

"We'll go talk to Daisy and see if we can get to the bottom of the flowers. I think if that stops, a visit like today won't feel so…" Wyatt searched for a word to finish his thought.

"Icky?" Maya suggested.

"Exactly," the detective agreed. "We're not dismissing that the man could have been here for a bad reason, but there's no evidence of any wrongdoing for us to hunt him down."

"We'll try to get to the bottom of this for you, Maya. I wouldn't like the flower thing either," Avery sympathized.

When they left, Maya felt torn. Was she making more of this than she should be? Maybe the flowers and the man's appearance were completely unrelated.

"It's okay, Maya. The cops will figure everything out," Mateo reassured her as they walked out of his office where the interview had taken place. The police had looked at the security footage, but they hadn't recognized the man.

"If it's okay, I'm just going to stay in the back for the rest of the night. I'll send someone else out to restock," she said, hating the quiver in her voice.

"Of course. That's exactly what I was going to suggest. Great minds," Mateo said, obviously trying to cheer her up.

"Thanks, Mateo."

Maya turned and walked into the kitchen. The sudden urge to chop things made her choose to work on prepping vegetables. She'd work off her uneasiness and have things ready for the cooks to use.