Chapter 9
9
Nora
T he words didn’t register at first. I had to repeat them to make sure I understood what was happening.
“I’m fired?”
Jolie winced and twisted her hands in a kitchen towel. Her salt and pepper hair was pulled back in a tight bun. “I really hate doing this. I mean hate it, hate it. But you’ve left me no choice.”
We stood in the quiet kitchen, every surface clean. All the pots and pans stacked on the shelf over the cooking stations. I’d never been here when it was so quiet. It was eerie. The kitchen and waitstaff hadn’t arrived to set up for the first seating at five, but Jolie had texted me asking if I could come in early so that we could talk.
So she could fire me.
“I was trying…” I said in my defense.
“Speaking fluent French to guests is great, if they also speak fluent French. Not so great when they don’t understand a word you say.”
“I suppose all the broken plates didn’t help either.”
Turned out I was a bit of a klutz in Petite III’s tight spaces.
“It wasn’t the plates so much as Mrs. Piedmont’s toe the other night when you dropped the bottle of wine on her foot. And Sunny’s pinky finger last week when you walked out through the wrong door. I’m really sorry, Nora. You know I adore you and so do the patrons…when you’re not confusing them or hurting them.”
I nodded and bit down on my bottom lip so hard, to try and hold back the tears, but they came anyway.
“I’m so lost,” I whispered. “I can’t actually do anything. All I can do is talk into my phone.”
Jolie dropped the towel and pulled me into her arms. She smelled like rosemary and lemons. “You know that’s not true. You’re finding your way, which is something every young woman should be doing. This didn’t work out, but you’ll find something that will fit you like a glove.”
She pulled a tissue from her chef’s apron. Jolie was always prepared.
“You know this breaks my heart more than it does yours, right?” she asked me.
I nodded. Jolie was too nice to take any pleasure in firing my ass despite the disruption I’d caused in her business these last few weeks.
“I really am sorry about Mrs. Piedmont’s toe and Sunny’s finger and…everything.” It had been a disaster.
“I know you are,” she handed me an envelope which contained my last wages and cashed out tips. “Now go, and treat yourself to something decadent that will make you feel better.”
I shoved both the tissue and the envelope of cash in my jeans’ pocket. On the plus side, I’d earned enough money that I could buy a new dress, (as long as it was on sale or consignment) and a reasonable gift for my friend Terry’s wedding in a few weeks.
Dad was right. It was about sharing the day with an old friend. If the gift wasn’t as extravagant as I was used to giving to my friends, in my life before as an influencer, well at least it was earned through hard work.
And a few broken bones.
A lot of broken plates.
And one tiny fire.
Leaving the restaurant, I decided to take the long way around the town square. It was an overcast day, with a bit of drizzle that would make my hair frizzy, but it wasn’t enough to deter me from taking in some fresh air.
I didn’t plan it. I didn’t even realize where I was going. But I felt shitty, and in Calico Cove when I felt shitty – I was like a homing pigeon to one person.
Nick.
This isn’t good for you, I told myself. You’re supposed to be staying away from him. For your mental health. For your heart. Weeks ago, I’d said we’d go back to normal, but I didn’t mean it. I would pretend to go back to normal. But if I did this…if I went and cried on his shoulder and let him take me out for chili fries, this wouldn’t be pretending.
Then what? How long after not pretending and actually being normal would it take for me to start loving him again? Like a fool.
Haven’t you been embarrassed enough, I told myself, trying to turn my feet in the other direction. But my feet were not listening. My feet were on a mission.
To Nick.
Fine. But this is a one-time thing. This is not something we’re doing again. This is not something we can get used to.
By the time I got to Nick’s shop, I was damp, resolved to my fate as a failed waitress, and ready for my something decadent. Which I was hoping was going to be chili fries at Pappas.
One of the garage doors was open, but I didn’t see Nick. A car was up on flats, but he wasn’t underneath it.
“Nick?” I called and made my way back to his office. It was also empty. He must have run out for something. Sometimes he would make house calls, if a car didn’t start in someone’s driveway.
I shook my head at the chaos in his office. You couldn’t even see the desk. It was just mountains of invoices and mail. Stacks of them had fallen on the floor. Nothing was organized. I picked up a few receipts that had fallen on the floor and sat in his roll out chair. He had a land line, (covered in invoices) but nobody in this town used it anymore.
If you needed Nick, you called his cell.
He had a computer. An old Mac desktop, but I’d bet my entire paycheck that he never used the thing. Six years ago I’d set him up with Quickbooks software to handle his accounting. Whether he was using it as effectively as he should was doubtful.
Knowing this was an invasion of privacy did not stop me.
I wiggled the mouse until the password prompt appeared on screen.
Hmmmm…. was it still…?
I typed in the month, day and year of his official adoption date.
Yep. It was still the same password.
I pulled up his account and groaned. It was woefully behind. The last invoices he’d billed were six months ago. The last payments he’d entered were before that. Did he even know how much money the business was making? How much was left outstanding?
Obviously, he didn’t. But I imagined it stressed him out. This was the part of the business that gave him hives and he’d buried it like he did everything that stressed him out. Like feelings. And I might be a former influencer and a failed waitress, but I was Roy Barnes’ daughter and I knew how to budget, invoice and pay bills like a boss.
It would feel good to be useful. To help Nick. To fix a problem instead of being right smack dab in the middle of causing one.
It’s not like I had anything else to do.
Nick
I don’t know how long I stood there, my cables over my shoulder and the portable battery I’d used to jump one of the food trucks at my feet. I couldn’t have been gone for fifteen minutes, but in that time I’d been invaded.
My papers – my invoices and bills had been re-stacked.
I could see the top of my desk.
It even smelled different in my office. Less motor oil and more…flowers?
There was music playing from my computer – did I know it could do that?
And Nora was chair dancing and singing.
In my chair.
In my office.
And I loved it. I loved it like I loved cold beer. Or the first sip of coffee in the morning. My bed after a long day. I loved it with relief. With gratitude.
Yes. She’s here.
“ All too wellllll.” She sang, extremely off key, and twirled in the office chair like she was in a Taylor Swift music video.
“Nora, what the hell are you doing?”
Startled by my voice, she nearly fell out of her chair.
“Nick! Don’t scare me like that.”
“If you’re going to Goldilocks around in my garage, I think I have the right.”
I was being gruff, but inside, I was so happy to see her. It was like the happier I was, the gruffer I had to be so I could keep some goddamn balance around her.
This never used to be a problem. Why was it suddenly a problem?
She turned down the music on the computer. “Hey, this Goldilocks didn’t eat your porridge, but started to process your invoices so they are up to date. You should be grateful.”
I was. I was so grateful. Not just because she was here, but because I hated that shit. The whole town wanted me to hire someone, but the idea of having someone in my space for a large part of the day was not appealing to me.
“Why are you here, though? Shouldn’t you be starting your shift at the restaurant?”
Her shoulders slumped and her smile fell.
Oh no.
I could read what had happened all over her face, her body. There were never any secrets with her.
“I got fired.”
“Fired?” I felt this weird punch to my gut. Jolie had fired Nora? It wasn’t possible. “I’ll talk to her.”
But Nora was shaking her head and leaning back against my office chair. “I wasn’t good at it, Nick. I was dropping stuff all the time, and no one appreciated my French. I broke Mrs. Piedmont’s toe the other night with a wine bottle.”
“Heard about that. Shit happens.” Was I downplaying something that could maybe get a restaurant and a server sued? Yes. But I would do anything to take that look off her face. She smiled at me like she knew what I was doing.
“Shit happens, in particular, to me. Anyway, I came over to see if you wanted to grab some chili fries with me to make me feel better about my utter incompetence.”
Yes. Yes. This was normal. Normal Nick. Normal Nora.
“I could eat.” I’d eaten a sandwich two hours ago, but I wasn’t going to turn down my chance to have chili fries with Nora.
“Excellent. Let me just finish this last invoice and you will be caught up through last month.” She tapped on the keyboard with a speed I lacked, and after a few clicks of the mouse, she’d powered down the computer and stood up.
In silence, we headed for my truck. We could walk to Pappas, but a soft rain had been falling all day and I didn’t see the point in getting wet. We drove in silence across town to the parking lot next to the diner. I watched her tuck her hands into the cuffs of her sweater and worry her bottom lip.
I wanted to ask her a million questions.
“Don’t ask,” she said when I put the truck in park. The windshield wipers squeaking across the glass.
“Don’t ask what?”
“You want to ask what’s next and the answer is, I don’t know, so don’t ask.” She popped out of the truck and I followed her inside. The diner was warm and full of people who waved and said hello.
“Twice in one month, well, isn’t this like the old days?” Lola asked, handing us menus.
“What’s like the old days?” Nora asked, still distracted.
“You two coming in together again.”
I shot a quick look at Nora, waiting for her to say something about how we weren’t together, or this was just normal, or something that wouldn’t make Lola think there was more going on than there was, but Nora only smiled.
Lola pointed us to a booth in the corner.
Larissa, who was one of the new waitresses, quickly appeared with water.
“Chili fries with two plates and two cokes,” I told her.
“You bet,” she said with a smile, and off she went, ponytail bouncing.
“See how she just remembered that without writing it down?” Nora pointed out. “I struggled with getting orders right too.”
“It’s chili fries, what’s to remember? Jolie’s menu is complicated.”
Nora slouched against the booth’s back. “Don’t defend me. I don’t deserve it. I have to go home and tell my parents I’ve been fired. Again. That they’ve raised a perfectly useless human being and should put all their hopes and dreams into one of their five other children.”
“Hey, cut that shit out,” I told her. I thought about reaching forward and grabbing onto her hands, but I didn’t need to make anything stranger. “You’re not useless at all. Look at the good work you did on my books.”
“You need to hire someone-”
“I know. I know,” I said, cutting her off.
Larissa appeared with our fries and plates and we both dug into crisp fries covered in the best chili and a mountain of cheese.
“So good!” Nora moaned and the sound caught my attention. Like it was on some weird frequency I’d never heard before. I shifted a bit to make the weird feeling in my stomach go away. It was like on the boat when she pressed that cold can of pop to her neck and she’d made that noise in her throat. I’d tried not to notice, but what man wouldn’t be able to notice? It had been a sex sound. The sound she just made in her throat? A sex sound.
Nora made sex sounds now.
What the fuck are you thinking? Sex sounds? Nora? Have you lost your mind?
“Hey, Nora.”
And like a cold bucket of water, there was Peter Tanner weaving through tables towards our booth. His smile was all familiar and smug. Look at me, I’m a big deal author and I’m gracing you with my presence.
“Peter!” Nora stood up from the booth and the two of them hugged and kissed each other on the cheek. Each cheek. Like we were in Paris and they were long lost friends.
She never kisses me like that. And I’m an actual long lost friend.
“So glad I ran into you,” Peter said. He wore a long overcoat, and a white shirt underneath like he was a detective in one of his novels. I pulled down the hem of my Nick’s Garage hoodie that was black so people couldn’t see the grease stains. “I was hoping to chat about something.”
“We’re eating,” I said, gesturing to the excellent chili fries that were going to get cold the longer this guy stood around kissing Nora’s face.
“Oh. I’m not trying to interrupt.” Peter held out his hands.
“It’s fine, Peter. Please,” Nora said. “What did you want to talk about?”
“No, I’m sorry,” he said sheepishly, pushing his dark hair off his face. “I didn’t realize this was a date.”
“A date,” I scoffed, my heart suddenly hammering in my throat. My face went hot. “Seriously? A date? Us? It’s not a date.”
“Nick,” Nora growled. “We get it. Not a date.”
I looked at her in shock. “Like I would take someone for fries at a diner as a date?” I turned back to Peter. “You think because I work in a garage I can’t afford to take someone on a nice date? I can only afford a diner and one order of fries?”
“Uh.” Peter looked at Nora and then back at me. I was being an ass, I got it. But I’d jumped on this train with both feet. “No?”
“Nick!” Nora barked. “Enough. You’re losing it.”
I was offended . What was it called? Class shaming? I was about to tell him where he could put his NYT bestselling book when Nora kicked me under the table.
“Fuck,” I muttered and pulled my legs out of range.
“Peter, I promise. It’s fine,” she said, sliding down the bench toward the wall to make room for him. “Sit and tell me what you wanted to discuss.”
“Well, if you’re sure.” He looked at me like I might bite. And who knows, maybe I would.
“I am,” she insisted. “Nick’s just a little hangry and needs to eat more fries.”
Peter swung into the open seat. I all but dared him to reach into the pile of fries but he kept his hands in his lap. I stuffed two fries dripping with chili and cheese into my mouth. They were too hot, but I gutted it out.
“So, you know I’m in town working on a new book,” he said.
“I can’t wait,” Nora rubbed her hands together. “Can I get an early copy?” she asked and then her eyes lit up “Maybe I could review-”
She stopped, blinked and it was her turn to go red.
Review it on her social media account, that’s what she’d been about to say. Swept up in the moment and excited about something, she’d forgotten that she’d put all of that behind her.
She didn’t see herself as I saw her. As everyone saw her. Her talents were perfect for what she’d been doing, and absolutely that account and that life was over, but she didn’t have to reject what she’d been so good at.
She needed to start over.
“I’m sorry?” Peter said, unsure of what she’d been about to say.
“I’m just excited about your book,” she said with a half-smile.
“Well,” he said with a bashful smile that made me grind my teeth. “That makes one of us. Frankly, I’ve lost all interest in what I’d been working on because…well, I am obsessed.”
He looked up at Nora hopefully and I narrowed my eyes. I didn’t like this guy’s energy. Not one bit. I chomped another fry.
“With what?” she asked.
“You.”
Nora laughed. Hooted, really. Everyone turned to look at us and she went bright red.
Peter stretched his arm across the booth and turned towards her like I wasn’t even there.
“Peter,” she whispered, darting wide eyes over to me. “You’re not obsessed with me.”
“I’m obsessed with your story. With what happened to you with Rene.”
“The fuck?” I barked, cutting him off mid-sentence.
“Nick,” Nora admonished me.
“I don’t mean to bring up bad memories,” Peter said quickly, “but you have to admit the story is incredible.”
“It’s not a story,” I told him. “It’s her life. And it’s not for anyone’s entertainment.”
“Don’t I get to decide that?” she snapped at me.
I blinked at her. Stunned.
She shifted on the bench and reached for a fry, stalling for time as she figured out what she was thinking. Peter looked puzzled, but I knew what she was doing. She took her time eating that fry and then leaned forward to take a long draw on her coke.
Something about the way her lips wrapped around it bothered me.
“Listen,” Peter said. “You can tell your side of the story, instead of everyone interpreting what happened based on social media and gossip. You can set the record straight. Own your story so it doesn’t feel outside of your control.”
Nora tilted her head like she was thinking about it.
“That video you made, the last one?” Peter asked. “The one that broke the story.”
The one in her bed, her eyes red from crying. She’d been nearly naked, emotionally and physically.
Guys, she’d whispered. Her voice broken and rough. I think Rene is a con man. I think… I think I’ve been conned.
Thinking about that video still had the power to send me into a blind rage. I wanted to find that guy and kill him. Just pulverize him. Bury his cold body in a shallow grave.
“It’s not like I could forget it,” Nora said with a brave smile and sad eyes. That video had been the beginning of the end for her. Even though she’d deleted it a few days later, it had taken on a life of its own. “Not my smartest moment.”
“But it was the bravest,” Peter said. “The most honest and vulnerable thing I’d ever seen. And it started an international manhunt. You are the hero of this story. Not the victim.”
“Thank you,” Nora whispered. “Can I… can I think about this? I’m still pretty raw.”
When I told her that, she didn’t believe it. But here she was eating it right out of this guy’s hand.
“Of course. Of course.” Peter squeezed her hands with both of his. “Hey, are you going to be at Terry’s wedding next week?”
“I am. You?” She said.
Peter nodded and I felt something drop in my gut. He was going to ask her to the wedding. Right in front of me. Which of course shouldn’t matter. We were not on a date.
No, we were pretending that I never heard her say she loved me.
But it was the principal of the thing. The dude didn’t know where things stood between me and Nora. Asking out a girl when she was sharing chili fries with another guy was a dick move.
I was about to open my mouth to say…I had no fucking clue what I was going to say, when he stood, “Great, I’ll see you there and maybe we can discuss this some more. Great to see you, Nora, and I really hope you’ll consider my idea. It’s a win/win for both of us.”
There was another hand squeeze and finally he turned, his trench coat whirling out behind him.
“Win/win,” I muttered.
“What is your problem?” Nora hissed at me.
“What’s my problem? Are you seriously thinking about letting him write and sell your story?”
“Hell no. You think I want all that embarrassment and humiliation in print? I was trying to be polite.”
That consoled me. I wasn’t wrong about Nora. She wasn’t interested in controlling the story, she wanted it dead and buried. In the same way I wanted Rene dead and buried. We were in complete accord.
“Good,” I said and pushed the fries towards her. “Eat some more.”
She pushed the fries back towards me.
“What was your deal anyway? You were acting like you wanted to bite off his head.”
“I wouldn’t have bitten off more than his hand.”
Nora sighed. “I don’t need a protector, Nick.”
“You absolutely do,” I corrected her.
She flung herself into life, like someone would always be there to catch her, and that someone used to be me. She didn’t believe it right now, but I was winning her back. Chili fries were proof of that. I pushed the plate towards her again.
She made a face but she ate a few more fries.
“I have an idea,” I said. It was the kind of plan that had been waiting all along. Waiting to be noticed and then accepted and now said out loud. It was the best plan. Natural. Perfect for everyone. I had total faith in this plan.
Nora, of course, would fight me.
“I don’t want you to say no right away. Because that’s what you’re going to do, but when you think about it, you’ll know it makes sense.”
She sat up straighter. “I’m listening. And I would not say no right away. I’m very open minded. I like to consider all angles before making a decision and-”
“Come work for me,” I said.
“No.” She took another fry and looked up for our waitress. “I’m thinking I might need a milkshake to wash these down.”
“What happened to open minded?”
“Did I say open?” she asked, so innocently. “I meant closed minded. Very close minded.”
“It makes sense. I need to hire someone, you said it yourself. You need a temporary job while you figure shit out. And you already know the accounting software. Hell, you’ve done most of it already this morning.”
“What are the hours?” She asked, giving me some side-eye.
“Whatever you want them to be. The garage opens at ten am, but I’m usually downstairs by eight to work on longer projects. You can do the paper work whenever. I’ll give you keys. You can come and go.”
“Excellent. I’m terrible with schedules.”
“You’ll need to bring me coffee,” I said.
“Coffee, huh?”
I could feel her skepticism.
“The fancy kind. From Common Grounds.”
She smirked at me, shaking her head. Completely onto my bullshit.
“Does the coffee allowance cover me too?” she asked.
“Of course. You can get that cold foam, cold brew, whatever thing it is you like.”
“You make a hell of an offer, Nick. Coffee and a job.”
She pushed her hand out over the table.
“You’re going to do it?” I asked, stunned that it was so easy. I expected way more push back.
“Congratulations. You have officially hired me, for better or for worse.”
“As long as you don’t break anything, we should be good,” I said. Holding on to our handshake maybe a second too long.
“Don’t make me regret this.” She was trying to joke, but the words landed funny.
I wanted to tell her I never meant to hurt her. But we were never talking about that night.
We dropped each other’s hands and both of us laughed a little awkwardly. We were so far from Normal Nick and Normal Nora, I felt like we were turning into entirely different people.