Chapter 2
Nikki
“Can I get a side of hash?”
“You put it on the ticket?”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “If I had, I wouldn’t be asking you.”
“Then no, you may not have a side of hash.”
“Then you can go tell the bitchy lady at table eleven in the corner she can’t have hash because she’s an indecisive cow who can’t make her mind up.” I grabbed the ticket Bos had in his hand and squiggled hash on the bottom of it. “There,” I growled, thrusting the ticket back at him. “The hash is on there.”
“Indecisive cow?” A chuckle rumbled from his lips, and he shook his head.
I leaned into the pass-through from the counter to the kitchen. “Yes, indecisive cow. It took the woman twenty minutes of me going over the menu with her to finally decide on the poached eggs and bacon. The fact she added the hash all on her own about bowled me over. Make the hash, now.” I was not prepared to go back over to her table and tell her she couldn’t have hash.
Bos huffed but turned his back to me with the ticket in his hand. He knew better than to go toe to toe with me when I was in a mood. I had only been here for a month, and he already knew not to mess with me.
“Bad day, sugar?”
I gritted my teeth. I hated when anyone called me sugar. My eyes closed, and I leaned back my head. “For the ninetieth time, Alice, please stop calling me sugar.”
She stepped next to me and bumped me with her hip. “Sorry, sugar.”
“It’s a good thing I like you, Alice. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure I would have tit-punched you.”
She scoffed and pinned her ticket up for Bos. “Please, that would have been the most action I’ve had in months. The old girls would have liked the attention.”
“The fact you call your boobs ‘old girls’ worries me.”
“Would you prefer peaches and cream?” She snapped her gum and put her arm around my shoulders. “The Olson Twins?”
“Oh, my God,” I scoffed. “You are completely mental, you know that, right?”
“You say mental, I say I know how to have fun.” She rested her head on my shoulder and sighed. “You wanna go out tonight? I thought we could hit up The Mark and watch the latest Vin Diesel movie.”
“You mean the one you’ve watched the past month every weekend? And by the way, Fast 8 is not a new movie anymore.”
“Well, by Kales Corners standards, it is.”
I pulled away from her and turned around to lean against the counter. “I think I’m going to have to pass. The last three weekends of watching the same movie over and over have kind of grown unappealing.”
“Well, I suppose we could take this weekend off and do something different. Although, don’t make plans for next weekend because I think they are getting the one with Mark Wahlberg in it.” Alice grabbed a towel off the counter and wiped down the coffee machine. “That man is almost as dreamy as Vin.”
“Why don’t we go to the bar tonight?”
Alice scrunched up her nose. “Really? You’d rather go to the bar instead of the movies? There are only eighty-year-old men and college drop-outs there. I’m afraid to say the bar scene you’re probably used to is way better than The Bar. I mean, they couldn’t even come up with a decent name. It is literally called The Bar.”
She was right about the unoriginality of the name, but I needed a drink and didn’t feel like buying a bottle I was only going to have three sips out of and the rest would sit there. “We go to the bar for a few drinks, and then I promise, we can head back to your place and watch whatever Vin Diesel movie you want.”
Alice tilted her head to the side and stuck out her hand to me. “Deal,” she mumbled, shaking my hand. “I’ll pick you up at seven. We chug our drinks, and we can be back to my house by eight.”
I was going to accept that. If I drank enough, I would get drowsy and be out before we got through the opening credits of whatever movie Alice picked.
“Hash. Don’t forget to write on the ticket from now on.” Bos slammed down the plate behind me, and I closed my eyes. Oh, how I wished for the days of Karmen and me working together. Things were so much better back then. Now I was in this podunk town trying to heal a broken heart that never should have broken, but that was the silly thing about hearts.
They felt whatever they wanted, and there wasn’t any way to stop it.
*