The club had gained ten decibels in the five minutes I’d been gone.Tables that were half-full were now mostly-full.A line had formed at the hostess stand that we absolutely don’t have but pretend we do with a”give us a second!”smile.I scanned for Penny and found her at the bar, all hand gestures and eyebrows, talking at Mason like she was pitching a reality show.
From Mason’s scowl, he was not buying.
“Then I quit!”Penny announced, loud enough to corkscrew through the noise.
Half the bar looked over.My stomach dropped.
“What in the hell is going on down there?”Thorn asked, materializing at my elbow with a bar towel over his shoulder.
“Uh…” I winced.“Penny wants to do a girls’ weekend trip to Chicago with just the cousins.I’m assuming Mason is not loving the idea of all of his waitresses taking the same weekend off.”
Thorn snorted.“Yeah, I bet he’s shutting that shit down.”
“I’m serious, Mason!”Penny said, voice bright and furious.“We deserve to get away once in our lives without the entire town chaperoning us.”
That needed to stop before it turned into a resignation letter written on a cocktail napkin.I made my way down the bar, past Bay sliding shots onto a tray and a guy asking if he could bring his own darts (no).I pasted on my brightesteverything is finesmile.
“What’s going on?”I called, cheerier than I felt.
Penny folded her arms tight across her chest.“Mason said no.”Straight as an arrow.“He said we all can’t take off the same weekend.”
“I said no to you telling me that next weekend,” Mason corrected, voice even but strained, “you, Calla, Eden, Bell, Clove, Adley, and Bay are going to Chicago and that I should just shut the club down.”
My eyes bugged.“Whoa, whoa.”That was not the ask I thought Penny was going to make.“Nextweekend?Pen, that’s-”
“Spontaneous,” Penny snapped, chin up.“That’s what a breakis, Adley.We pick a weekend and go.”
“Next weekend is the Brewers home stand and a darts tournament,” Mason said, jaw ticking.“I’m already short a barback and Arlo’s on security solo because Oliver’s pulling prospect duty with Fox.I can’t lose the entire front-of-house.”
“You won’t lose the entire front-of-house,” Penny shot back.“You’ll do what you always do, stare at people until they move faster.”
“Pen.”I touched her elbow, kept my voice calm.“Let’s not light everything on fire to keep warm, okay?”
She cut me a sideways look, a crack in the armor.
“I want to go.But we can’t disappear on him next weekend.Not all of us.”We could give Mason more notice than a week.
Mason’s gaze flicked to me, quick, something like gratitude flashing before the stone slid back in place.
Penny huffed and rolled her eyes to the ceiling like she was asking the bartender in the sky for patience.“I just, if we don’tgo, it’s never going to happen.”
“It can happen,” I said, squeezing her arm.“We’ll make it happen.But we need to pick a weekend that doesn’t blow a hole in the bow of the Social Club.”
Penny’s mouth opened, closed.She looked down the bar at Bay, who was very conspicuouslynoteavesdropping while absolutely eavesdropping, then back at Mason.
“Three weekends from now?”she tried, palms up like she was bartering for a truce.“We leave Friday morning, back Sunday night.You still have Calla and Bay Saturday because-” She stopped, scrambled, then muttered, “Okay, fine, youdon’thave Calla and Bay because they are coming with us.”
Mason rubbed a hand over his jaw, thinking.“That’s the charity pool tournament.”
“Which brings in forty-five-year-old dads who tip in quarters and order water like it’s a personality,” Penny said.
Thorn snorted.Mason didn’t smile, but the tightness around his eyes eased half a notch.
“Four weekends,” I offered.“After Eden’s graduation party.Plus, that weekend the football team has their first out of town game so half of the town will be gone.”
Penny looked at me.“You’re… right.”She sounded surprised, then recovered.“Youareright.See?”She jabbed a finger at Mason like she’d proven a theorem.“We’re being reasonable.”
“I’m hearingmore reasonable,” Mason said.“Not reasonable.”
