Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Elias’s bad day, as far as I understood it, had consisted of answering the phone in Simeon’s office for a little while before being sent home after Simeon had to take a meeting elsewhere.
He strongly suggested that he’d been promised a reward for good work—the kinky kind he was angling to get by making me give him a chocolate milkshake.
He drew the telling of the tale out so much that it was almost an hour before I managed to take Ant and Levi aside by the coffee makers.
“I have to leave?” Ant said, looking past me at where Thaeros was wiping down a table.
“You don’t have to. I’m just offering you time off.”
At the other end of the counter, Ben cleared his throat and mumbled something I didn’t catch.
Ant did though. His face fell. “Yes, boss. And thank you.”
“You sure? You always work late,” Levi said.
I nodded. “I’m sure. Besides, you deserve it. You’ve really been stepping up since you started here, Levi.”
“Uhhh.” He deflated, shoulders coiling inward. “I, uh, I know I messed up a lot, and… Thanks.”
“Everyone messes up at the start. I did too,” I told him, trying my best to be the encouraging manager Dwayne expected me to be.
Ant frowned. “I didn’t. I did pretty good, right?”
“Well, you’re totally overqualified, Ant.” I pointed at the coffee maker. “Want to make a fresh pot before you head out?”
Levi straightened. “I’ll do that. I’ll do it. Thank you.”
“You’re quite welcome.”
I left them to it to check on table fourteen—not my normal section, but with everything being off schedule, we’d ended up switching. Thaeros had my section for the time being. Ant lingered, hiding behind Levi to watch Thaeros. Hopefully that wasn’t going to turn into a problem down the line.
Ant and Levi had finally made their way to the back to get ready to leave, but Elias caught my attention right after I’d brought table seventeen their drinks.
“I have heard you’ll have so much free time very soon,” he said, stirring his half-empty vanilla milkshake.
I sighed. “Yeah. They took a few shifts from me.”
Elias sucked on his straw while looking at me thoughtfully. “You don’t sound happy about that. Why don’t you sound happy about that? It’s the way, isn’t it, that one who moves up in the world works less?”
I straightened the pen and notepad in my apron’s pocket. “I don’t really think that’s how it works.”
“Hmm. Isn’t it? I believe it’s the promise of aristocracy, to have more leisure, more servants than messes to clean up.”
I couldn’t help myself, I laughed. “I really think you need to let go of this aristocracy idea of yours. That’s not how it works.”
“No, it is. But let’s not argue, given I’m in the right. You can finally come visit me now. I can show you my studio, and I can finally take those photographs.”
“Not getting out of that, am I?”
He shrugged. “I don’t see why you would, Amory.” He turned left. “Ben, you’d love me to take photographs of you, wouldn’t you? Be a dear and tell me true.”
Without pause, Ben said, “Can’t speak for Mr. Saintclair, sir.”
Which in turn sent Elias sprawling over the counter. “Aww, Ben! Such devotion!” He sniffled again and looked at me. “I envy you. Ambrose is nothing like Ben. My lot is a different one, Amory, and you’re the only friend who understands.”
His milkshake was still about a quarter full, but most of that was cream, and he was eyeing it in a way I couldn’t not notice. I picked up the glass.
“How about I get you another one of these?”
He sat up straight again. “Would you? That’s so very kind of you. Ambrose doesn’t make me milkshakes. Or juice, even. Amory, we must go on another juice date. I have been missing the opportunity to talk to you without this distraction of…work.”
That made me feel guilty. Not because of work, but because after the witch, just going out to grab juice hadn’t been anywhere near the top of my list of priorities.
I hated that the witch had had that effect on me.
I hadn’t been there long, even if it had made me think so.
The witch, that thing, had…wanted me. I wasn’t sure exactly why.
It was bad enough that I had a general sense of what for.
Had it been anything like that for Florence? What had it been like, being married to a witch? I forced myself to stop thinking about that. I knew it wouldn’t lead me down a good road.
“Amory.”
Elias’s hand on my arm pulled me out of my head. I’d been standing there, his nearly empty milkshake glass in hand, daydreaming.
“Sorry, I just… I’ll make you another.”
Elias gave me a look that was nothing like his usual attention-seeking self. “There is no rush.”
I nodded. There wasn’t, but sometimes it helped to keep busy.
Rae came in during a temporary lull in the dinner crowd, wrapped in a purple scarf and thick jacket, snow clinging to both. It looked peaceful and quaint from inside the Moonlight, the snow coming down as if it wanted to tuck the city in for winter.
“Hello?” they asked, faced with Thaeros, who was balancing a stack of plates from table four.
Thaeros gave them a warm smile. “Feel free to sit where you like. I’ll be with you in a moment.”
Rae brushed the snow off their sleeve. “That’s my line. I work here. Amory?”
I was behind the counter myself, coffee pot in hand, about to start another round of refills.
“Right. Gimme a moment.”
I finished my round quickly while Rae went to the back to hang up their jacket, holding the swing door for Thaeros. Rae was back out in record time, tying their apron as they jogged toward me, wearing the guys’ uniform.
“What happened? Tell me. But don’t tell me someone fired Levi? Amory, you wouldn’t let them fire Levi, right? He barely broke anything last week.”
They shook me by the shoulder as if I had the power to fire or unfire anyone. But as their manager, I was definitely proud that they were ready to defend Levi.
I tried to keep a straight face as I said, “No one fired Levi. You got a raise. But…”
They took my hands in theirs, winter’s chill still clinging to their skin. “But what?”
“I’m only allowed to work four shifts a week going forward. They even found a co-manager for me. Soyer did, I suppose.”
They nodded. “Finally someone’s cutting you off from your work addiction. Good riddance.”
“Hey!” I scowled. Behind Rae, Elias cackled noisily, and Ben was hiding his laughter, badly, by coughing into his coffee. “Hey, you two! This isn’t funny actually. I don’t have a work addiction.”
Rae crossed their arms. “Obsession then. Trust me on these things. I know.”
“Did you hear me say I got you a raise?”
They stuck out their chin. “Well, that was very nice of you. Thank you, Amory.”
“And I guess you don’t have to do all the late shifts anymore.”
“I might do five out of seven. So I can miss you once a week.”
Ben had now joined Elias in openly cackling. If I hadn’t liked them both, I might have been offended.
I was still trying to figure out what to say to them when the bells above the door behind me twinkled. I turned.
“Welcome to the—”
Soyer stood there, snow melting in his black hair, his dark eyes already focused on me. “Yes?”
I smiled. “To the Moonlight Diner.”
Soyer wasn’t the kind of person who’d show much emotion on his face, not when the diner was still as crowded as it was. I knew him well enough though. I could see the way his lips almost wanted to smile, the spark in his eyes.
“Ambrose.” Soyer nodded to Elias’s Ben, then walked past his customary table, which was a good thing.
There was still a group of three sitting there; older women dressed so nice that I thought they’d either come from or were headed to an event.
I didn’t know that they were supernatural, and I didn’t want Soyer to scare away people who didn’t even know him.
“Yup, totally an obsession,” Rae said.
“Shush!” I said, and headed to meet Soyer.
I knew there was nothing wrong at all with hugging in public—with kissing in public, for that matter.
It was just one of those things that caught up with me sometimes, grooves in my mind of habits, fears, and prejudices I needed to unlearn.
I immediately felt smaller for it, for being unable to just step past it, then worse for not giving my fiancé the hug and kiss he deserved.
But Soyer, after all, was my phoenix mind reader. He saw my hesitation, his raised left brow told me as much. It didn’t faze him, and he stopped next to Elias and climbed onto the chair.
“Young Hawthorne. I hear you absconded.”
Elias huffed. “I did no such thing, Mr. Bennet! I would never. Amory, tell him. Tell him I’ve been here all this time. Tell him how good I was.”
“He was. Having vanilla milkshakes and nothing else.”
Elias nodded. “Certainly no chocolate sprinkles. I’d never, Mr. Bennet.”
Soyer folded his hands in front of him. “Lie to your keepers, not me.” He turned to me. “Could I get a slice of cherry pie, please, Amory?”
“You don’t even have to ask.” I turned and walked over to the pie display.
Our cherry pie had become famous. Or perhaps the correct word was notorious.
I knew Rae had posted reels and short videos about it to the Moonlight’s accounts, and I knew Elias had put something about the best cherry pie in town on the website.
On top of that, people had seen Soyer come in here just to get his cherry pie.
Well, they were probably aware he was also in here to watch me, his eyes following me like a watchful guardian’s as I went about my work.
It helped that our cherry pie really was good, whether Soyer had shared a slice of his reputation with it or not—pun fully intended.
I plated some for him, filled a coffee cup as well, and walked both over. Thaeros had come back out from depositing the dishes in the dishwasher, and they exchanged a few quiet words with Soyer before shaking Rae’s hand.
“I’m surprised the boss let you serve anyone without the uniform,” Rae said to him as I put down the pie in front of Soyer.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you, Amory.”