Last Olive Bistro ✓

Chapter 15: At home

Rory was understanding and let me shower then head straight to bed. Maybe he smelled the wine on my breath combined with my aching, wobbling footsteps, and must've figured I was way too drunk. I played along with that notion just to avoid talking about the date.

While I removed my makeup, the wipe passed over my lips. I felt a tingle from Jacob's kiss just moments ago as it still lingered. The embarrassment over his monetary offer was fresh in my mind, and I actively tried to push it out by thinking of anything else. It was just like me to pity myself over something most people could ignore.

I tried anything to get my riled-up mind off of it, even down to attempting to pinpoint the scent notes in my body wash without looking at the label. Sure, I knew it was called "Water Lilies in Summer" but damned if I knew how many individual fragrances that included.

My feet didn't feel better until I lay in bed. The relief was better than after a busy night at the restaurant. I had to stay off them until my shift at three the next day, which I wasn't looking forward to. Not like I ever did, but my thoughts returned to Jacob and how I had the nagging feeling he would show up.

Maybe I shouldn't go. But I need the money. I always need the money.

~ ~ ~

"Check our reservations and see if the Taylor party is coming at 7 or 8," Angela said, breathing down my neck.

It was 7:29 p.m. and I knew the Taylor party of ten cancelled at the start of my shift; I took their call. Angela never looked at the reservations herself and never took our word for it. To humor her, and avoid a harsh scolding and lecture, I brought them up on the computer to provide the evidence.

"Again? That's the second time this week," she growled. "Pay attention, someone's coming in. Stand up straight."

She disappeared through the quiet dining room and I was able to breathe again. However, when I acknowledged the incoming customer, my breath halted again.

"I came by to apologize," Jacob told me when he approached the hostess stand. My eyes slowly left the computer screen to meet him. His jaw was tight with concern, his hands stuffed in his pockets.

Doesn't he have anything better to do than come here all the time?

"I can't talk now." I inspected the water and iced tea pitchers, and decided it was time for an unnecessary refill. "Would you like your usual seat?"

"Sure," he answered, modestly.

I walked him to his table but kept going straight into the kitchen. Yu-gin was swamped with dishes and Payton was furiously drying as many as she could. Of course the drying cycle on the dishwasher broke an hour into dinner service, and Angela blamed it on every one of us for somehow breaking the twenty year old contraption.

I refilled the pitchers, although the patrons were continuing to exit and none of them drank tea or water. But I had to hold up my end of the employment bargain and 'look busy' even if the task was irrelevant. Before I could get screamed at by the troll raging behind the prep line, I rushed them back out front.

The dining room was too small not to pass by Jacob, and I couldn't avoid him since I was the only waitress left for the night. Not that I wanted to go out of my way to avoid him, but perhaps I wanted to run away from the embarrassing feelings that still stung me.

"Chloe?" he asked when I walked past. I stopped and acknowledged him with a slight turn of my neck. "May I please have a glass of that iced tea?"

Per his request, I filled the glass that was already sitting upside down on the table. "It's from the tap," I said.