Page 46 of Another Last Call
I scoffed. “You’ve never waited a table in your life. Do you know how much multitasking it takes to keep track of everything?”
He looked at me pointedly. “So maybe keeping me behind the bar where I’m focused ononetask inonesection is the better business decision.”
I glared at him, but he wasn’t wrong.
“So we need to hire a new bartender is what you’re saying,” I said.
“Well, yeah, but I work here too, Mags.”
“You have enough other stuff to deal with. Like renovating your lake house.”
It was his turn to glare at me. “I can do both. Besides, until we get some money flowing into this place, there’s only so much I can do at my cabin.”
“Lake house.”
He sighed. “Lake house.”
I told myself it wouldn’t be that bad, that it was actually the ideal situation for Caleb to start out in since we wouldn’t be that busy. We were only planning on opening for dinner and nobody was even expecting us to be open for another couple of days, right? So it would be perfect for him to learn the ropes and the system and all that.
Then Annie happened.
I heard her squeal the moment she walked in. Considering I was still upstairs in my apartment, that was saying something. Startled, I’d shoved my shoes on and hurried down the stairs, worrying that she’d tripped or hurt herself or something.
But when I burst into the kitchen, she had her arms around Caleb, whose face was turning steadily redder. Whether it was because he was embarrassed about her constant stream of gratitude and praise or because she was hugging him so hard that he couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t tell. The moment she saw me, she wrenched one of her arms off him and extended it to me.
“Get over here, Mags,” she said in a teary voice. “Come hug me.”
“But—”
“Maggie Myers, if you don’t hug me this instant, I’m going to quit.”
It was a baseless threat, but I joined her and Caleb for a group hug anyway and immediately confirmed that his face was red from the vice-like hug she had us in.
“It’s amazing, you two,” she said, her voice muffled. “It looks so good in here. And mycounters. The fryer… oh, and thatgrill.God, I feel like a real-life TV chef.”
“The grill isn’t new, just clean,” Caleb choked, but Annie didn’t hear him.
It was a while longer before she let us go, but she did, shooing us away and insisting on making us lunch before she started on her prep for the day.
“What are you doing here so early?” I asked him after Annie let us go.
He shrugged, rubbing his neck. “I figured it’d be good to see what she does in case she ever needs help or a day off or something. I mean, I should probably know… you know. How our business works.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “I should get a head start on some stuff, too.”
“Mags, you can go home. You’re working tonight. I just—”
“I said I wanted to do some work.” I glared at him before turning towards the office. “Besides, it won’t be that busy tonight.”
And boy, the only thing I ate faster than those words was the cinnamon sugar bannock Annie plied me with as I sat in the office going through resumes for the bartender we’d need to hire.
“Hey boss,” Big Tim said, poking his head in the office at the start of his shift a few hours later.
I wrinkled my nose. “No.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t… don’t call me that. Call Caleb that if you have to, but not me.”
