Chapter 21
twenty-one
Tristyn
We’re really sorry.”
The words ring in my ears. There’s no way I heard them correctly. Four years of my life. Four fucking years just gone.
“Tristyn?” I look up at my boss, or the man who used to be my boss, and he’s holding a box of tissues in my direction. A box of fucking tissues, as if I’m going to cry over this fucking place, as if that’ll fix anything.
“You’re letting me go?”
“We wish we didn’t have to, but we’re making cuts, and due to your lack of commitment lately—”
“My lack of commitment?”
“You come in late or leave early three times a week—”
“I’m in physical therapy. Something that I might no longer be doing if I wasn’t pushing myself at this job.”
“I’m really sorry, Tristyn, trust me. If there was something else I could do, I would, but—”
“I have a kid.”
He doesn’t say anything, but his face says everything. He has the kind of face that screams “not my problem,” and he’s right; it’s not. It’s mine.
I don’t say anything else, I just stand up and leave. I’m not going to sit around and try to change something that I know I can’t change.
I maintain my composure until I reach my car, and once I’m inside, I lose it.
We were barely making ends meet already, and now I have no job and no idea where to go from here.
I pull out my phone, dial Vince, and try to pull myself together as I wait for him to answer.
“Calling me in the middle of the workday?”
“Not my workday, apparently.”
“What do you mean?”
“I just got let go.”
“You’re fucking lying.”
“Said I wasn’t committed enough to the job. Missing too much work.”
“They were the ones who kept cutting your hours.”
“And now we see why.”
“Alright, I’m pretty much done with my day. How about you go get Henry from hockey, and we’ll meet at that little diner he loves.”
“That sounds perfect.”
“We’ll figure this out, Tris, I promise.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you soon.”
I grip my steering wheel and take a deep breath.
We’ll figure this out.
We always do.
Greystone is busier than I’ve ever seen it.
Well, I guess it’s not busy, but there’s a large group in the center of the diner, and by the way they’ve made themselves comfortable, I can tell it’s not their first time here.
I think I've seen them here before. They all look familiar, but not, one of the girls looks especially familiar. Her long blonde hair is too unique for me to not be sure that it’s her, the girl Jeremy was with at the festival, and if it wasn’t for a guy, who’s definitely not Jeremy, placing a soft kiss on her lips, I would start to get concerned I was flirting with a taken man.
Was I flirting with him?
It’s been so long since I’ve even thought about going there, dating someone, I don’t even know if flirting is something I can do anymore.
“You’re back.” Maia smiles as she reaches our table. “Still waiting for one more?” She motions to the empty booth across from Henry and me, the place Vince typically sits.
“Yes.”
“No problem. You know the drill, just holler when you’re ready.”
“Actually,” I don’t get to finish my thought because the bell above the door rings, and my eyes meet Jeremy’s.
He pauses by the door; our eyes locked on one another.
“Jere! Come look at this.” One of the guys at the large table waves him over, but he doesn’t move. Not until the bell rings above the door again, and another guy enters.
“You good, man?”
“Yup, all good.”
The other guy pats Jeremy on the back before joining the group.
“What were you going to say?” Maia asks, bringing me back to our conversation.
“Right.” Jeremy rolls away to join his group. “I um,” I look back at Henry, who is too distracted by a video to hear me, “I was wondering if you guys were hiring. My job had to let me go today, and that’s really not something you need to know, but—”
“I can talk to my boss. It’s usually just me here, I’m the only server who is here full time, but if that’s what you’re looking for, then—”
“I would need full-time. And if it’s possible, I’d need to bring him with me. Or at least have him here when he gets out of school, or basically whenever I don’t have another activity for him to be in, he’d have to be with me.”
She smiles and rests a hand on my shoulder.
“He’s more than welcome to come to work with you.
We’re pretty laid back here if you haven’t noticed.
” She tilts her head back to the people behind us.
“We do get a little busier once hockey starts. We’re able to play the games here, so a lot of people who don’t go to the actual games, or don’t travel to the away games, come here. ”
“So, I wouldn’t be able to bring him then?”
“No, you still could. He’d probably need to stay in the back on those days if we need the table. We have a nice little workroom that he might even be more comfortable in on those days.”
“Thank you.”
“Of course. If you could read through and fill out an application to make sure it’s something that would work for you, I’ll give it to my boss. Hopefully, he’ll be thrilled to have another full-time employee.”
“Thank you.”
She smiles at me. “I’ll be right back.”
I join Henry in the booth as I watch Maia head through the double doors. I scroll through my emails as I wait for her to return, but when I look up, it’s not Maia in front of me.
“Hi.”
“Hi,” Jeremy says. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I heard that you were looking for a job.
This place is great, if it wasn’t, Maia probably would’ve gotten fired a long time ago over us always taking over the center of the diner.
” He chuckles. “But I think I have a better fit, if you’re interested. ”
“Maybe.”
“The rec center is hiring an administrative assistant. You’ll deal with all the class enrollments and answer questions at the front desk.
And more, but the most important thing is that any class Henry takes would be free.
You’d get a pretty significant employee discount.
From what I hear, they pay well, too. Not that I know what you’re looking for, but from what I heard, you're responsible for Henry while his parents work, and this way, he can take classes while you work and continue doing hockey.”
I blink at him. That was a lot of information.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to overwhelm you. You could stop by the front desk when you pick Henry up tomorrow, and they could give you more information, probably an application, too. I’ll put in a good word for you.”
He gives me one last smile and then pats the table.
“Bye, Tristyn.”
I give him a wave, a pretty pathetic one, honestly.
“What was that about?” Maia reaches my table and drops off the application.
“A job.”
“What?” Her eyes widen, and she turns around to the large table behind us. “Jeremy Moore, are you poaching my servers?!”
He doesn’t say anything, he just smiles.