Sizzle

Chapter 7

Elliot

Ican hear the thunder over the din of the Friday night crowd, which means the storm’s getting worse. You’d think weather like this would keep people home but if the party-on atmosphere is anything to go by, we’re going to break a sales record this weekend.

I can’t stop smiling.

Finally, a break.Now if only I could figure out why Joelle was crying yesterday, I’ll be set. That, and if Alex shows up. Bastard hasn’t been in all week and I haven’t seen him at the house since Monday. I saw his car in the drive every night when I got in late, so he definitely slept at home. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was avoiding me.

Joelle’s been fine at work, and she doesn’t strike me as the crying type so it freaked me out a little to see it happen yesterday. But she swears it’s nothing and has been okay since, so I have to figure whatever it was got worked out.

I hate not being able to push her about it. She’s an employee. If we stretch the definition, maybe she’s even a friend now, but not the kind I can press for answers on personal stuff.

It’s driving me fucking crazy. Surely there’s something I can do to help.

I’m doing a walkthrough in the dining room when the lights flicker. This brings a raucous cheer from the bar, which makes me laugh. Speaking of crazy.

Back in the kitchen, the guys have things under control. We’re almost through the busiest part of the night, which means it’s time to start cutting people loose. Joelle gets out first tonight because she’s the newest, so I catch her eye and give her the signal to start cleaning up. The last three weeks I’ve come up with every possible reason to keep her around as long as possible but tonight I’m tapped out. I can only hope she’ll stick around until the weather breaks.

Yeah, it’s down to that. I’ll take whatever I can of her time.

Despite my doubts, she’s turning out to be a good fit at Duckbill. She gets along with the rest of the staff, even earning the respect of the long-termers, which isn’t easy. Connie’s damn near adopted her. She caught me looking at Joelle a little too long the other day, which got me one of Connie’s infamous death ray glares, the likes of which I’d only ever heard rumors about until Joelle came around.

The new menu is coming along, too. I think we’re just about ready for a test run, maybe as early as next week. I’ll get Alex in one night to sit down with me and Joelle so we can try it all.

For some reason, the thought of sharing a meal with Alex and Joelle both makes me shiver, and my dick stirs.

Fuck’s sake. I’m seriously considering locking myself in my office for five minutes to take care of business when the lights flicker again and then blink off completely.

The cheer from the bar is deafening but the rest of the building has gone eerily quiet. No humming from the air vents in the ceiling, no roar of the kitchen exhaust fans. As the bar patrons calm down, murmuring at the other tables picks back up but without the usual mechanical background soundtrack.

It’s not the first time we’ve lost power during business hours but this is the first time it’s happened at the peak of rush on a Friday night. I wave at Anna, my assistant manager, and meet her halfway through the dark dining room. There’s just enough light coming through from the streetlights across the highway to see where we’re walking, but not much beyond.

“Get the staff back into the kitchen,” I tell her. She nods, already speed-walking away to round up the servers.

I head back to the kitchen, barking out orders as fast as I can. Once the gas cooktops are shut down, the cooks plate up what they can. I send the servers out with the last of the meals before turning my attention to everybody else.

“Shut it!” I yell to get everybody’s attention.

The yelling only works sometimes. Luckily today I don’t have to start swearing. That never fails to make them laugh, which also gets their attention, but right this minute we’ve got too much to do to dick around.

“Here’s the plan,” I say, pitching my voice as loud as I can so they can all hear me. “We’re going to give it thirty minutes. Keep the drinks coming. Don’t charge for refills unless it’s alcohol. We’re going to have to use the paper receipt machine. Keep an eye on your cash tallies and do not lose those paper copies. If you don’t have food coming out, starting cleaning up or see if somebody nearby needs help.”

I dismiss them with a wave and head back to my office for extra flashlights. The stupid squeaking door signals an arrival behind me.

“What do you want?” I bark out without looking up.

“Is that actually how you talk to your employees?” says Alex. I jump a little, slamming my head into the overhead cabinet.

Fourteen or so expletives later, I stop for a breath.

“What are you doing here?” I ask him.

“I was at the bar waiting on dinner,” he says, his thick arms crossed over his chest. “Thought I’d come to see if you need any help back here.”

I’m rubbing the back of my head. Going to be one helluva knot, not to mention a headache. Goddamn it.

“How’s it looking out there?”

“You mean the storm? Getting worse,” he says, leaning back against the door.

My office is small to begin with. You put me in here with any other human and it’s close quarters. You put me and Alex in here together and there’s no such thing as personal space.

Now that I think about it, he’s never been in here.

My heart is pounding. If I managed to give myself a goddamn concussion, I’m going to be pissed.

Except my head already feels a little better, so maybe it’s not that—which makes no sense. I’m not nervous. It’s just Alex, why would I be nervous?

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

“Have I?” Alex’s lips tilt in a half-assed grin and for some reason I can’t catch my breath.

Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought.

“Fine, be that way,” I say. Because clearly I’m still fifteen years old.

“What do you need?” Alex asks, his voice low. I scrub my palms down my thighs to stop my hands from shaking. Right this minute, what I need is confusing the hell out of me.

“Elliot?”

If I didn’t know for a fact that I’ve just given myself brain damage, I’d say I was turned on.

That makes no sense whatsoever, because the only other person here is Alex. Alex my roommate, Alex my closest friend, Alex who also happens to be a guy. I don’t know what the fuck is happening to me right now so I do the only thing I can think of: ignore it.

“Can you keep an eye on Meg and the other bartenders?” I say, keenly aware that it’s taken me way too long to answer to Alex’s question. “The crowd was pretty wound up even before the lights went out. I want to make sure nothing gets out of hand while we figure out if we can stay open tonight.”

Alex gives me a long, searching look. I hold my breath until finally he nods and lets himself out of the office. As the door shuts behind him, I scrub my hands over my jeans again.

What the hell is wrong with me?

That’s it. Starting tomorrow, I’m dating again. I am obviously about to lose my shit if close proximity to just about anybody makes me shake like this. I mean, it’s Alex, for fuck’s sake. He’s my best friend.

Who’s a guy.

I don’t have time for losing my mind right now. I’ve got a building full of people waiting on me to tell them what to do, so I grab as many flashlights as I can carry and head back to the floor.

Twenty minutes later, I’m calling it.

“Okay, everybody!” No swearing since this time I’m addressing customers too. “Just found out the power company won’t get here for another couple of hours. Hate to say it, but Duckbill is closing for the rest of the night.” Groans all around, which is gratifying since I’m about to lose the bottom half of my best sales of the week. “Thanks for being patient with us, folks. Your servers will cash you out and hopefully we can pick this back up first thing tomorrow. Be safe getting home!”

The storm had peaked a while back, so there was no reason for people to linger. Many had already headed out as soon as the rain tapered off. Me and the rest of the staff spend the next half hour or so helping the remaining customers, flagging down Ubers and cabs, making sure the most committed drinkers aren’t driving themselves.

It takes another hour to get the staff squared away. I swear I will never again bitch about how long our computer system takes. This writing shit out thing sucks donkey balls.

All the aggravation and extra work aside, though… I freaking love this shit. I love it that all these people are looking to me for answers, for me to tell them what to do. Boss man, that’s me.

Sure, it’s hard sometimes. Isn’t everything? It’s a lot of responsibility. But it’s worth it, knowing that they trust me to tell them the right thing to do. It’s twice as gratifying on nights like tonight, when everything could have gone straight to hell in a heartbeat. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not stoked about losing business to this storm. But getting through the hard shit and seeing smiles on people’s faces when they leave?

Yeah, that’s on me. I’ll take it.

And maybe sometimes I resent them for it, too. Like, why is it so hard for somebody else to take charge? Why does it always have to be me? But when I get to the end of a night like this, I remember it’s okay, ‘cause I can totally handle it.

Finally, after nearly an hour of writing out the day’s sales by hand with only two flashlights to keep me company, I lock up the office and do a slow check of the kitchen. Almost everybody’s finished and clocked out for the night, and if the conversations I overheard earlier were any indication, nearly every one of my employees is hanging out at the bar across town for an impromptu afterparty. I could make an appearance—several of them made a point to invite me. But that’s a line I don’t cross often.

Then again, I might be able to get a jump on that whole dating thing I’ve been thinking about all night…

Nah. I’m feeling something tonight, but that’s not it.

“Boss?” The quiet voice comes from a booth just outside the kitchen. Joelle stands up.

“Hey, I thought you took off hours ago,” I say. She’s so damn pretty that I miss the first part of what she says.

“—Was supposed to be my ride because of the storm and the buses aren’t running, but then he took off.”

“I can give you a ride home, if you want,” I say, catching on.

This is not my best idea ever.

Then again, twenty minutes in a car with Joelle Munroe might be enough to get my head back on straight.

So to speak.

Joelle nods slowly.

“If you don’t mind,” she says. “Meg and her husband offered, but they live on the opposite side of town and she’s exhausted already.”

“Not a problem,” I tell her, checking my watch. “Give me another twenty minutes, maybe. I think everybody’ll be done by then.” Her smile is thin as she nods again and checks the display on her phone.

“Somewhere you need to be? I can get you a cab if you need to leave now.” It’d probably be safer that way anyway. Safer for me, I mean. I’m not prone to jumping on women who need my help.

Just that I can’t stop thinking about what it would be like to jump her. Or for Joelle to jump me. Or any possible variation of those things. Every variation.

“No, I don’t mind waiting.”

“Tell you what,” I say, an idea forming. “My friend Alex is sitting in the bar. He can keep you company while I finish up so you don’t have to sit alone in the dark.”

“A-Alex is here?” She stutters his name and my eyebrows hit the ceiling.

“That’s right. You guys have met before.”

“Yeah. Last week, waiting on to-go orders,” she says. To my surprise, even in the dark I spy a blush creeping over her face.

Well, I guess it’s not that surprising. Alex is a good-looking guy.

What’s really surprising is that I’m not jealous of that blush. Considering the amount of time I’ve spent deliberately not-fantasizing about my newest employee, you’d think her obvious interest in Alex might bother me.

It doesn’t— which is just the weird-ass cherry on this weird-ass night. Fuck it all. I need a drink.

And that gives me a better idea.

“You know, Alex and I had talked about sticking around to play pool once I lock up for the night. Would you care to join us? If you don’t have plans already, of course.”

Alex and I had no such plans, but he’ll do me a solid once he sees Joelle, surely. Then again, he’s already seen Joelle. They met last week, she said… and he’s been avoiding me ever since. I shoot a glare at the lone figure nursing a beer at the bar across the room.

Hmm.