By the time nine thirty rolled around, things started to clear out, tables emptied, and Cal got to take a breath. Only a few customers remained. A man in an oxford and tie scrolling on his phone. A woman with short strawberry-blond hair reading a book. Ellis took a rag and spray bottle of cleaner and hit the empty tables, one of which was next to the redhead, who had slipped on a pair of black-rimmed glasses that did nothing to diminish the sexiness factor. In fact, they added to it.
“You’re still here,” she said to her. Good one, Captain Obvious. She internally rolled her eyes.
The redhead looked up from her laptop, and Ellis noticed her eyes were large and brown. “I am. Do you need the table?” She blinked and looked around the diner.
“Oh no. No. Not at all. You can stay there as long as you like.” Smooth, Ellis was not. Exhibit A: what just happened. Her plan had been to engage in more conversation, but after that, she just felt stupid and couldn’t get away fast enough. Back behind the counter, she sighed. It was probably better this way anyhow. Who had time to date? Not her. And while it was super unusual for her to be so physically attracted to somebody so fast, the redhead was clearly out of her league. Dressed in a business casual outfit of dark jeans and a green top, she looked professional and competent.
And here’s me in my rust-orange uniform and dirty apron.Yeah, way, way out of her league.
Her phone was in the pocket of her uniform, and she felt it vibrate once, quickly, which meant a text. She slipped it out and took a quick look, just in case it was the residence with a question or issue.
It wasn’t. It was fromThe 11th Commandment.
Are you available for an interview? Today, our offices, 3pm.
She rolled her lips in and bit down on them as she read it again, then typed out her response, telling them she’d be there. When she looked up, the redhead was smiling widely as she took a selfie. Ellis watched. She couldn’t help it. Something about her was fascinating.
“She’s here a couple mornings a week, you know.” Kitty’s voice was quiet and very close to her ear. “You stay cooped up in your office in the back, and you miss things.”
Ellis flinched in surprise, turned to meet Kitty’s eyes, and blurted, “She is?” before she could stop herself.
“Mm-hmm,” Kitty said and turned away to make a fresh pot of coffee. “Always sits at that table. Goes between her laptop and her phone. Takes lots of pictures. Of herself. Of her food.”
As manager, Ellis did spend most of her time in the back office, dealing with orders and invoices and payroll. It was rare for her to be out here on the dining room floor. She watched the redhead pack up her laptop and move toward the door where she stopped with her hand on the handle and turned back. Her eyes met Ellis’s. Held. A smile. Then she pushed through and out into the day.
Yeah, maybe she needed to start coming out of the back office a bit more often…
* * *
“Well, it’ll bring in a little extra money.” Ellis used speech-to-text to communicate with Evan, one of her besties. It was too hard to type while walking, and she was already running late to see her sister, but he’d asked her to update him as soon as she got out of the interview. “I don’t love the premise of the place. Do you know what the eleventh commandment is?” She sent the text, zigzagged around a woman who’d stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, and made her way to the parking lot where her ten-year-old Honda Civic was parked. “Gotta drive,” she spoke into her phone when Evan hadn’t answered back.
Her tiny apartment was within walking distance to the diner, butthe residence home where her sister lived was just outside the city limits. It took her about half an hour to get there if traffic wasn’t crazy, and she did her best to be there at least a couple hours a day. When Evan called her halfway there, she put the phone on speaker.
“Sorry, I was in a meeting,” he said. “The eleventh commandment isDon’t get caught.”
“Exactly. So this place is about catching people in lies. Celebrities. Politicians. Local businesses. Etcetera.”
“So, it’s an online tabloid?” Evan laughed, the sound deep and throaty.
“Kinda? But it’s just writing the articles. I guess the photographers are the real investigators. They give me info and photos, and I write it up and send it off to the editor.”
“Quick and dirty.”
“Sounds like it. Both things. Not really my jam, but at least I’ll be writing again. And the pay’s not awful. It’ll help with some of my sister’s incidentals.”
“I get that,” Evan said. “You do what you gotta do.”
“Will I see you later?”
“Depends on my client. He needs hand-holding like he’s five.” Evan’s irritation was clear. He was a financial advisor, and some of his clients made him feel more like an elementary school teacher, he’d told her.
“I’ll make sure Kendra eats something.”
“Appreciate it.”
They talked for another minute or two and then hung up, and a few minutes after that, Ellis turned her car into the long driveway for Hearts and Hands Residence Home.
It wasn’t a commercial building, but a large, one-story house that had been turned into a home for residents who needed twenty-four-hour care, but not a hospital. A nicely maintained place with immaculate landscaping, they only took on five patients at a time. Three spots were short-term, for people in rehab. Two were for permanent residents. Ellis’s little sister, Michaela, was one of the two.