I glanced up at her. “Huh?” My mind was swirling, and I was struggling to process my thoughts.
“You’re staring at the silverware and sighing. Everything okay?”
I glanced down at the new set of utensils that I’d gathered. “Yeah. Just tired.”
“Are you sure it has nothing to do with Mr. Asshole?”
“Shhh,” I hissed as my gaze instantly snapped over to her.
“Breia,” Patricia warned.
“Breia,” I said at the same time.
She shrugged. “Hey, you’re all thinking it. I’m just the one saying it.”
I glanced toward the kitchen door Cole had walked through earlier. He hadn’t come back, and I was wondering what he was doing. But to find out would mean interacting with him, so I decided to just live in my curiosity. “Still, some thoughts should stay inside.”
“I can have someone look into him,” she said, clearly not interested in changing the subject. “I mean, what kind of guy wears a designer suit to a diner?” She scoffed. “I saw the label on his suit coat.” She let out a low whistle. “It’s not cheap.”
I sat back in my chair and folded my arms as Breia’s words rolled around my mind. Truth was, I’d had the same thought she did. Who was Cole Watkins? And why was he here? Why did he care about some small-town diner?
“Come on, Willow. You gotta let me look into him. I can get all the dirt.” She turned in her chair so she was facing me. She brought up her clasped hands and pouted her lip.
“Breia, no. What if he found out?” I shook my head. This man was going to be my partner. The last thing I needed was for him to discover that I had one of our employees spying on him.
Breia huffed. “I shouldn’t have asked you. I should have just done it,” she said as she returned to rolling the napkin she’d been working on.
“I’m grateful you asked me.” I reached out and patted her hand. “And I appreciate you looking out for me, but I think it’s best to just accept that he’s here and move forward.”
Breia glared at me, but then changed the subject to Mr. Phillips and his choice of clothing that morning. I sat back and continued rolling napkins around silverware as I listened to Breia and Patricia fill the silence with their conversation.
We eventually had to put away what we were doing as the dinner crowd started to filter in. As the tables began to fill up, Cole reappeared, and we spent the rest of the evening waiting tables and clearing them for the next group of people. By the time we flipped the open sign to closed, I was exhausted.
Lack of sleep, plus worry, plus a long workday had me dragging my feet. We all worked together to clean the dining room, and we got finished in record time. I unlocked the front door and said goodnight to Breia and Patricia as they headed to their cars. With the door relocked, I turned and headed through the dining room to my office.
I was sitting at my desk when Brody popped his head in ten minutes later.
“I’m heading out, boss,” Brody said with a quick wave.
“Night, Brody.”
He turned to leave but then paused.
“What’s up?” I asked, pulling my gaze from my computer screen and glancing up.
“I’m not sure if I should say something…”
I frowned. “About what?”
He glanced back at the kitchen and then returned his gaze to me. “Cole is cooking something on the stove. He told me to just leave it and that he’d clean up after.”
That was strange. “Has he done this before?”
Brody shook his head. “It looks like soup. Pretty harmless. I just thought you should be aware.”
I pushed my chair away from my desk and stood. “Thanks for letting me know,” I said.
He nodded before he waved once more and headed to the back door. The only people left at the diner now were Cole and I.
