Wasn’t that the sign of a good time, a shattered glass after a party, a broken plate during a busy service?

For fans of Before Sunset and Sweetbitter, the story of a restaurant hostess over a hot Parisian summer as she slips into an emotional affair with a regular—a famous, aging rockstar—that begins to feel more real than the life she’s meant to return to.

It’s August in Paris. Mickey, an American, is filling in as an “extra” at a chic bistro while locals have fled the city. Frankie Page, a salt-and-peppered musician who once played stadiums, is in town running away from a scandal. A shared cigarette after closing soon grows into an intoxicating connection.

Mickey’s husband suspects something is off but is hardly around enough to know how his wife is spending her days or nights. For him, this summer is their last hurrah before settling down; for her, it could be an awakening.

Mickey gets drawn into the rhythms of restaurant life, where every shift feels like a performance and every late night offers a way to postpone leaving. She faces the startling realization that freedom can be as disorienting as it is exhilarating.

Steeped in that unmistakable end-of-summer melancholy, Off Menu is an escape to the streets of Paris—a sultry, stylish novel about the boundary between ruin and reinvention.