Chapter Thirty-Eight Kenny
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
KENNY
I spent most of the next week working double shifts every day, and Daniel still hadn’t called Han. I didn’t know how much longer I could take this. I knew Han and I still had plenty to talk through, and the wedding was only four days away. I was grateful now that my mom refused to let me cancel the wedding just in case we worked things out. But I couldn’t spare any extra time with all the hours I was putting in. I didn’t want to tell Han I was trying to get him his job back because I wanted it to be a surprise when it finally worked out. Plus, I didn’t exactly want to take credit for it, since it was my own fault Han had lost his job in the first place. But even with all my extra efforts, Daniel didn’t seem to be budging.
What Daniel didn’t know was that I had a backup plan. Ever since I’d suspected it was him who might have been stealing money, I’d been gathering evidence. Taking note of how much was missing each day and writing down Daniel’s contradictions. For a while, it didn’t seem like much, but yesterday I’d finally hit the jackpot.
I’d made sure to count the money before and after Daniel had access to it. Sure enough, the totals were different. Now I had to decide what to do next. I could confront Daniel and blackmail him into giving Han his job back, but Daniel was unpredictable. Who knew how many people he’d bring down with him if he didn’t want to go along with it. No, I needed to handle this myself, and I knew just how to do it.
The next day, I went to work more stressed than I’d ever been. I’d done what I needed to do, and I didn’t regret it, but I was still hit with waves of anxiety as I got in for my shift. I came in through the back, wondering what kind of environment I’d be walking into. Would Daniel be raising hell, trying to take everyone else down with him? Would he even be there at all?
To my surprise, Daniel was standing in the kitchen scolding one of the cooks for who knew what this time, like usual. My stomach dropped at the sight of him. Had the owner taken the info I’d given her and gone to Daniel with it, allowing him to talk his way out of it somehow? Did that mean my job was on the line now? What if Daniel knew I’d snitched…
I went the entire first hour of my shift stressing hard. Even my customers noticed I was a little anxious, and I was usually pretty good at putting on a happy face for them.
“Kenny, just the man I’ve been looking for!” Daniel said when I went back to the kitchen, waving me over. I forced my feet to move step by step as I made my way over to him. This was the moment of truth.
“What’s up, Daniel?”
“I need you to cover for me this afternoon. I’m taking off after lunch.”
I didn’t know if I should be relieved or worried. He clearly still had his job, but he also seemed to have no idea anyone had tried to jeopardize it in the first place. “Yes, sir,” I said. It wasn’t unusual for Daniel to ask me at the last minute to cover part or all of the day as manager. It annoyed the hell out of me, but I had to admit taking over for a bit was a fun break in my regular day-to-day. I was basically doing the same legwork I did every day, only without having to serve customers on top of it and with the added bonus of Daniel not being around.
“Great.” Daniel strolled on over to his office, closing the door behind him.
So he didn’t know anything about what I’d done. But that also meant nothing had come of my complaint. So what exactly was happening? Maybe the owner hadn’t seen it yet?
I went another couple of hours working, trying to make the time pass faster. I made it a point to be even friendlier than usual to combat the frustration and anxiety welling up inside. I wished I had some idea of what was going to happen.
At lunchtime, Daniel opened his office door with his bag in hand, ready to head out. But someone I recognized was already marching into the kitchen like she was on a mission.
“Hi, Mrs. Frederick! I’m Kenny Bautista, assistant manager.” I introduced myself with enthusiasm. If Daniel was about to be fired, I wanted to make the best impression on the owner possible. It was only logical that I’d be promoted to manager with Daniel out of the picture, right? I needed her to believe that, too.
“Hillary. I got your email. Nice to meet you.” Her words came out cold, and her eyes searched over the place quickly. Her brows scrunched together in a glare when her gaze found Daniel. “Excuse me,” she said, then marched into his office without another word, waving him in to follow her.
“Wouldn’t want to be Daniel right now.” Tatiana had come to stand next to me, and the two of us nonchalantly made our way closer to the office so we might privilege ourselves to hear their conversation. My stomach tied itself into knots. I had to hope this would all work out the right way.
Before long, the door swung open, and Tatiana and I clumsily dispersed, tripping over each other trying to look occupied. I grabbed a customer’s plate, but Daniel didn’t acknowledge the eavesdropping. He slammed the door in Hillary’s face and stomped out of the office. He raised his hand and swung it down on my plate, smashing it to the ground, making me jump. Then he stomped all the way out the back door. Hillary calmly stepped out of the office and watched him leave.
“Fuck all of you!” Daniel shouted, then slammed the door and left, hopefully never to come back again. It was unclear whether he’d been told I was the snitch or not, but with him gone, it didn’t really matter.
“Nothing to see here. Get back to work, everybody. Someone clean this up,” Hillary said, gesturing at the fallen plate on the floor.
“You.” Hillary held up her index finger at me. “You’re covering the rest of his shift.” So, Daniel had been fired.
“You got it,” I said, not bothering to mention that had already been the plan. Throughout my shift, I heard rumors about how he had apparently been stealing money from the restaurant. I guess I hadn’t been the only one who’d suspected it. I waited for her to tell me I was the new manager, but she didn’t. I guess it made sense that she wouldn’t make that decision so quickly, at least given the last manager’s behavior, but I’d still hoped.
The following day was my first off since I’d been trying to get Han rehired, and I was dying to spend some quality time with him before we had to go to my parents’ house to help set up last-minute things for the wedding.
“What are you up to?” I asked hopefully as I made coffee for two.
Han shrugged from his spot on the couch, where he was playing Injustice .
“Want to watch a movie?” I asked.
“Nah.” Han didn’t take his eyes off the screen.
Things hadn’t exactly gone back to normal between Han and me yet, and I was as anxious as ever to get back to that point. We used to be so comfortable around each other, but now I got the feeling he was walking on eggshells. He barely spoke to me anymore, and when he did, it was short and to the point.
“Okay if I join you?” I asked as I set the two cups down on the coffee table and picked up a controller, flashing Han a grin as I waved it around.
“Actually, think I’m gonna take a nap. You can play, though.” Han yawned and stretched out his arms, then put the controller down and got up off the couch, heading to his room without touching the mug.
I slumped into the couch. I didn’t actually want to play Injustice . I just wanted to hang out with Han. I sighed and got up to go to my own room, but as I passed Han’s door, I overheard him talking to someone—probably Leti—on the phone.
“I don’t know. I just don’t think things are gonna go back to normal…”
My chest felt like it caved in on itself. I wanted more than anything to storm into Han’s room and beg for things to go back to normal. It was all I wanted. But I knew I couldn’t do that. If Han needed his space, I would give it to him.
I continued down the hall and sulked in my room until Han cracked my door open. I sat up so fast, it gave me a headache.
“Han, what’s up?”
“It’s about that time,” Han said.
“Time for what?” I hoped he’d say something like “time to be friends again!” or “time to kiss again!” or “time for everything to be normal again!”
Instead he said, “Time to go to your parents’ house? We still have some setting up to do. Nacho and them are gonna meet us there.”
I slumped against the wall. “Right. Okay, let me just…” I pulled off my tank top and threw on an oversized sweater, noticing from the corner of my eye that Han looked the other way when I took off my tank. I adjusted my glasses and grabbed my keys from the nightstand. “Okay, I’m ready.”
When we got to my parents’ house, I found that while I was off working double shifts, Han and the rest of our families had been busy putting things together for the wedding. Apparently Han couldn’t even use his ankle as an excuse to get out of helping. Everything looked ready except for the tables and chairs, which were all against the edge of the house in the backyard, waiting to be set up.
Leti and Mary were carrying a table out to the grass, while Nacho followed them with six chairs, three under each arm. Impressive. Han grabbed a couple of chairs in one hand and used a crutch in his other arm, while Leti and I reached for a table and carried it together. Leti nudged Han and looked back at me, but Han just waved them off. I sighed and followed him to set up some more tables.
When we’d set up all the seating, it was time to decorate the tables with tablecloths and flowers. My mom wanted each to have one white tablecloth with two long pieces of purple cloth crossing each other in the middle and hanging off the edges.
After she demonstrated what the finished product should look like, I went to work on the table Han was at, hoping to get something as small as eye contact from him. No luck.
But when I went to set the purple cloth on the table, Han was setting his down too, and our fingers touched for a brief moment. I looked up, and Han finally met my eyes. I was immediately thrown back to #ZBlaineSmithHyphenSmith’s wedding, when we’d done the same thing after forgetting whose turn it was to be chivalrous. This little touch was the most intimate thing we’d done since we’d made love. But then Han cleared his throat and pulled his hand away.
“Cheer up, you two! You’re getting married !” Nacho put one hand on my shoulder and the other on Han’s and squeezed.
Then it was like a switch flipped with Han, and the pretending started up again.
“I know. I can’t wait! Can you believe it, babe? We’re getting married in two days !” He willingly reached for my hand and squeezed. And this somehow felt a million times worse than being ignored. Han was just pretending. Any affection I got was just for show.
I played along even though it killed me. I wanted this to be real again, but Han just kissed my cheek for a split second before going back to get more tablecloths. I brought my fingertips to my cheek, savoring the warmth. This was going to be torture.
Before Jackie ruined everything, fake flirting had been fun . Flirting at work or in front of family had been one of my favorite parts of the day. Now it just felt like a slap in the face. A reminder that things weren’t back to normal. And I had no idea if or when they ever would be. I had no idea what I could do to make that happen.
When Han and I got in my car to head back home, the energy immediately got heavy again.
“Are we okay?” I asked.
Han nodded. “I appreciate what you’re doing for me.”
I ignored the fact that he didn’t answer my question at all. I didn’t want our whole relationship to be centered around what we were or weren’t doing for each other. I just wanted things to go back to how they were before.