5. Chapter 2
Mari
N an had deemed tonight—‘Al’s last night before freedom’—a worthy celebration and promptly dumped me on pizza duty.
I’d called Lozza’s about an hour ago and been told it was ‘ wicked busy ’ by the young guy with colour-varying dreads, affectionately nicknamed ‘Noodles’ after his lovely, knotted locks.
Only one of the locks on the doors of JJ’s ute clicked, the dingy old thing.
Reggie, the old tradie-typical ute JJ’s dad had given him, was an extremely faded blue and cream white with over a dozen scratches and dents on it.
I was responsible for probably about half of them—JJ the other half.
Both of us had learned to drive in the ute, with JJ’s dad as our teacher and the other lounging in the back seat as ‘moral support’.
Really, it had just been to jumpscare each other every now and then, causing the driver to stall.
I tucked my keys into my shorts, along with my phone and the cash Nan had given me. The smell of pizzas cooking wafted through the air, and I swallowed the saliva that immediately filled my mouth.
The neon green sign hung above the wavy metal roof, flickering and humming.
The poles holding up the little amount of shelter outside of Lozza’s were rusty, and little of the original white paint remained—the paint that did was faded and dirty.
Several of the glass windows needed a clean, and the community board they’d stationed over one side still had advertisements from ten years ago pinned up.
Two sets of cheap metal chair and table sets sat underneath the windows on either side of the bright red door.
They were the kind of table and chair sets that screeched so loud when you moved them an inch, everyone within a block’s radius knew someone was sitting down for a feed.
Despite the roughed-up conditions of this place, it was still a thriving part of the Soggla community. Unlike a lot of other restaurants, Lozza’s was busy every night of the week.
Danny, Lozza’s second husband and father to their affair-driven lovechild, was the full-time manager of the restaurant.
One thing you could never fault him for was his work ethic.
What Danny did wasn’t ‘full time’, it was ‘all of the time’.
He felt a passion for Lozza’s I don’t think even Lozza felt.
I looked up to see the man himself fixing something for Noodles on the register.
Not only was his button-up, grease-stained black shirt done up with the buttons in the wrong order, it was also getting uncomfortably tight around his beer-belly region.
Neveah, his chubby, pink-cheeked daughter, reached down from his arms to touch something on the screen.
Danny groaned and rolled his eyes before handing the little girl over to Noodles, though his lips tilted up into a soft smile for the briefest of moments.
Her little orange ringlets bounced up and down as Noodles twirled her around, high and low, to keep her entertained.
“Your dreams of a career in childcare coming true?” I asked Noodles, leaning my elbows on the counter.
He wiggled his fingers on Nevaeh’s pudgy belly, and she giggled before latching onto one of his newly lime-green dreadlocks.
“Best part of hanging out with other people’s kids is getting to hand them back,” he joked, seemingly not noticing that he had a small child gnawing on one of his prized dreadlocks.
“Y’know she’s currently using your hair as a teething toy?” Danny grumbled, looking over his shoulder.
“She can chew on them as much as she likes. Bobby-Joe said the only way these bad-boys are coming out is with a pair of scissors.” Noodles grinned. Bobby-Joe’s barber shop had to be one of his favourite places on earth—he visited nearly every week.
“How much do I owe you, Danny?” I asked him, pulling out the small wad of coloured notes Nan had given me.
“On the house tonight,” he grumbled in reply, his wispy beard the same colour as his daughter’s hair fluttering about. “System’s down.”
“Pizza’s in the oven, Mari!” one of the boys out back called.
I gave them an appreciative nod before turning back to Danny. “Where’s Loz?” I asked, leaning in further to avoid all of Soggla listening in.
“Girls weekend in Darlington. One of her crazy-ass friend’s hens weekend,” he replied, rubbing a hand over his forehead.
“Need a hand with Nevaeh?” I pointed up at Noodles. “You know Nan’s offer still stands. Think she gets a little lonely waiting for me to make her some great-grandchildren.”
That got Danny to laugh.
“You’re only twenty-four. There’s still time.”
“With the amount of shit I’ve gotta do around here? Not enough,” I replied, shifting the subject off of me. “Invite always stands for you and little miss.”
“Thanks, Mari, but I wouldn’t wanna trouble youse. She’s a bit of a handful at the moment,” he replied, gesturing to the baby still chewing on Noodles’ hair and gripping tightly on to two other locks.
“Don’t say we didn’t offer.” With a joking smile, I held my hands up in acceptance.
“’preciate it.” He nodded at me just as a ding sounded from the register. The cash drawer popped open and receipt paper spewed out from the machine.
“Order up!”
“You’re up, Mari!” Noodles called, moving my order from the metal bay onto the counter.
“Fucking hell , how much did we order?” I gaped at the stack of pizzas and multiple garlic breads being piled on top. Noodles, still holding Nevaeh, opened the fridge door and pulled out three bottles of soft drink. My eyes narrowed.
“JJ called and said you’d forgotten a few things,” he explained.
“ Of course he did.” I made a mental note to throw the bottle of Sunkist at JJ when I got home. “Righto then, Noodles. Load me up.”
After careful stacking of our gigantic order, I turned to head towards the door, taking small and cautious steps and stiffening my muscles to keep from any wobbles. I was not a two-tripper. There was no way JJ’s gigantic pizza order was going to beat me.
The door creaked loudly as it opened, and a series of jingles followed from the rusty bells hanging above.
I assumed Noodles was lending me a hand, despite me refusing and telling him to help the crew out back instead.
My shoe scuffed the floor and I staggered, sending one of the bottles rolling off my mountain of pizzas and said mountain into the poor victim walking through the door.
Pizzas flew, garlic breads scattered, and a bottle of Sunkist exploded.
“For fuck sake!” a deep, raspy voice boomed.
Past the scattered feed big enough to actually feed a village, my eyes landed on what could only be described as one of the world’s finest creations.
Holy sex-on-legs .
Wearing a skin-tight washed-out green shirt, now tie-dyed with Sunkist, he looked anything but.
The shirt clung tightly to what was clearly a very ripped body.
Chiselled shoulders fell into brawny biceps.
Sculpted pecs lined up with what I could only assume was the beginning of a lickable set of abs.
A head full of sandy blond hair sprawled around his neck and stretched halfway down that chest of his.
He looked up at me; the most beautiful set of ocean blue eyes gazing.
Nope, not gazing.
Glaring.
“Oh god, I’m so sor—” I started, bending down to gather the wholesale-worthy amount of food scattered across the floor.
“Watch where you’re fucking going,” he growled, tossing a pizza box into my lap.
Of course, he’s an asshole. The hot ones always are.
I opened my mouth to respond when he reached down into the now-puddled Sunkist on the floor and fished his phone out of it. He grumbled another string of curses under his breath before furiously shaking his phone, trying his best to get the orange-flavoured liquid out.
I cringed. I wasn’t a computer scientist or a phone technician, but phones weren’t built to survive being dunked in a puddle of Sunkist.
He glanced at me and rolled his eyes, those stormy pools glistening with wrath. He clenched his jaw, once, twice, before tossing another nearby pizza box on my lap. This one had been sitting in the Sunkist puddle and had unfortunately turned victim to its crimes.
“Look, like I was trying to say before your rude ass interrupted me—”
That blue gaze narrowed, and I contemplated rolling my eyes and laughing at how little it took to upset this poor man. But I didn’t, I narrowed my gaze right back.
Lifting my chin, I continued, “I’m sorry. I could barely see over this big pile of—”
Before I could even finish explaining, the man growled and stormed out.
“Need a hand, Mari?” Danny called from his office.
Restacking the mountain of food, minus a couple of pizzas and a Sunkist, I grumbled, “Little late for that.”