Authors POV
Cheryl clung to her laptop the entire morning. Finally The e-mail dinged, and She opened the e-mail attachments, pleased to see the info she'd requested.
Her private investigator was thorough, she'd give him that. Enclosed were several scans of personal documents. Including Her driver's license. Kimberley Walsh, it read, and it had her home address. Cheryl studied the picture of her, then moved on to her employment history. She currently worked at mima's Diner. The private detective had even taken a few photos from afar and attached them to the e-mail, and Cheryl's breath caught at a picture of Kimberley in a short pink waitress costume with a frilly apron. Her head was tilted, and she looked like she was laughing at something someone had said.
The next item was a brief history of the diner and financials on it. The place was months away from going out of business. There was a list of prior addresses that Kimberley had lived at, along with roommates. Female names. Good. She didn't have a live-in boyfriend. Not that cheryl thought she would.
Cheryl's gaze fell on her phone number. She called and listened to it ring.
"Hello?"
Her voice was soft and pleasant, just like cheryl remembered. "It's me, Kimberley."
Cheryl heard her suck in a breath. "Don't call me. Please."
"I wanted-"
"You're a liar." She hung up.
Cheryl stared down at the phone. She wasn't going to call and beg kimberley to see her. That wasn't her style. But she wanted to talk to her. To see if they could connect like they had on the island. She needed to find a way that kimberley would be unable to avoid seeing her.
Cheryl picked through the information the private investigator had sent her and paused on the diner's financial info. And she smiled.
***
"Hello?" Kimberley picked up her phone, yawning and glancing at the clock next to the bed. It was seven thirty in the morning on her day off. This call had better be an emergency.
"Hey, kimba , it's me." Sarah's voice. "You're not going to believe this."
She rubbed her eyes, trying to wake up. "What is it?"
"The diner was sold."
"Sold?" Kimberley sat upright, her heart pounding. "Do we still have our jobs?"
"As far as I know. But the new management has called a meeting this morning at nine, and they want everyone to attend."
"Gotcha. I'll be there."
Kimberley dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and drove down to the diner. The diner sold? She knew that being a waitress wasn't a permanent sort of job, but she didn't have the savings to make a career transition at the moment. She hadn't planned on being a waitress for so long, but now that she was in danger of losing her job, her stomach was tied in knots. She needed a paycheck.
When she got to the diner, the sign was flipped to CLOSED, she went opened the door and walked in. "Hi," she said, casting a worried look at Sarah, Mia, and Eva, fellow waitresses. The cooks sat at another table, and the old manager was nowhere to be seen. "Did I miss anything?"
"Not yet," Mia said, pushing a piece of gum into her mouth and chewing nervously. "You think the new boss is going to shut us down?"
"Surely not," Kimberley said.
"Then why call us all in here?" Eva asked, worried.
Kimberley didn't know. "Maybe she just wanted to meet us all personally?"
