See You in Hell

2

She was still fuming about Andy's betrayal when she walked back into the restaurant 2 hours later. Shit, it was Wednesday, in her rage she'd forgotten.

"Hey Four Ears." Logan leaned casually over the front counter with his big dumb grin. Louise had abandoned her signature pink bunny hat after elementary school but the nickname lingered on.

Here he was, every Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Linda had at least arranged the schedule so their shifts wouldn't overlap, but even so. To Louise this was an unthinkable invasion of her privacy. She had been confident after Logan had graduated 2 years ahead of her that she would never have to lay eyes on his ugly face again, but he was somehow still haunting her. And in her most sacred refuge no less.

"Your Dad's down in the walk-in if you're looking for him." He offered in response to her non-acknowledgment.
"Thanks." She walked straight to the back without making eye contact.

Her Dad was in the walk-in, but he was on the phone pacing back and forth with the door open.
"Yea, uhuh... uhuh. Yup."
She wandered around the dingey cellar listlessly while she waited for him to finish up his call. She didn't actually have anything in particular to talk with him about. She was just trying to kill a reasonable amount of time so it would look like she had come into the restaurant for a reason, if she'd remembered it was Logan's shift she never would have come in at all.
"Yea. Uh huh. No, I get that Gail."
Louise's ears perked up, her Dad never called Gail.
"You know I would never want you to compromise Mr.Business' trust in you. But we'd really appreciate it if you could come help out under the circumstances, you understand."
Now it was really getting interesting.
"No that's not what I'm saying, I just meant, you know, if you have to choose between prioritizing your cat or your human sister..." There was a tirade of muffled yelling that interrupted this line of reasoning. Bob held the phone away from his ear wincing. "No, no, I didn't mean... Gail!" The yelling intensified. "Fine! You know what, if that's where your priorities are, just forget it!" He hung up.
"Shit."

Bob slammed the door on his way out of the walk-in. When he saw her waiting for him he looked a bit startled.

"Oh, hey Louise, I didn't realize you were down here."
"What was all that about?"
"Uhh, Did you talk to your mother today?"
"No, why? What's going on?" Louise's heart dropped, her Dad had a look on his face that usually meant something serious was going down.

He sighed - clearly exasperated, and eased himself down onto the basement steps.
"Your Grandma fell and broke her hip, she's gonna be fine, but she needs a surgical replacement. So Mom's gonna have to go down to Florida for a while to help out. I was trying to talk some sense into your Aunt, to try and get her to pitch in some of her time too so it won't just fall on your Mom, but Mr. Business has an ear infection or some crap and apparently she can't leave his side." He rolled his eyes. "She's completely useless as usual, which means we are gonna be short staffed through the busiest part of summer."
"Shit." She joined him on the stairs. They both stared at their shoes in silence, processing.
"Grandma's gonna be ok though?"
"Oh yea, she's gonna be fine. Gloria's a tough lady, it will take more than a little slip and fall to take her out." He sounded almost a bit put out by this fact, but he put an arm around Louise. "Don't worry your Grandma is gonna be back on her feet in no time." Louise nodded.
"But, this does mean we're gonna need Logan to take on more shifts."
"SHIT."
"And... I'm gonna need to schedule you two together sometimes. I know he's not your favorite person, but at this point I just don't see a way around it."
"Yea I get it. Don't worry about it Dad, I'll manage." He'd clearly been bracing himself for her to put up more of a fight, but for once Louise didn't make a fuss. She didn't want to make things any harder for her Dad than they already were, she could tell he was stressed enough as it was. Being mature really sucked sometimes.