I felt my gaze narrow. "You knew?"
"Me?"
Allie was a terrible liar. I gave her a serious look. "Yes. You."
She winced. "If I did, is that bad?"
"Yes," I said. "It's bad.Verybad."
"Why?"
"Oh come on," I said. "You didn't tell me. What doesthattell you?"
"Huh?"
"I'm just saying, youhadto know it was bad, or you would've mentioned it."
"Alright, fine," she said. "I knew. But I figured you'd feel funny if you found out."
"Of course, I feel funny," I said. "I work for my freaking boyfriend."
She gave me a tentative smile. "Well, technically you don'treallywork for him. I mean, he's not the manager or anything."
I made a scoffing sound. "Yeah, because it's worse. He's the manager's manager with a whole bunch of people in-between." In a flash, I suddenly realized something that I should've considered hours ago. "Oh, my God. I betthat'swhy I never work weekends."
"Oh, stop," Allie said. "Now, you're just being paranoid."
"I am not," I said. "Do you know how rare it is for a waitress to get weekends off?"
"Yeah, but you've worked weekends."
"Not lately," I said. "And get this, if I everamscheduled for a weekend, someone always begs to take my place."
"Well, maybe they need the money. You did say those shifts were the best, right?"
"Sure, but don’t you think that's odd? I mean, to be asked every single time to switch?"
"Maybe a little," she admitted. "But hey, they've gotta make their rent somehow, right?"
At this, I gave a hard scoff.
Allie hesitated. "What now?"
"Rent," I said. "How much do we pay a month?"
"Twelve-hundred, as if you didn't know."
"Yeah. Twelve-hundred. Wanna know what thelastpeople paid?"
"I dunno. A thousand?"
I gave another scoff.
"You should probably stop that," she said, "or you're gonna hork up a lung or something."
I gave her a look. "Ha ha. Now, guess again."
She gave it some thought. "Nine hundred?"
