Page 4 of Sizzle

I don’t point out to him that people who eat that way aren’t exactly the type to come eat at Duckbill. I just let him keep going.

“I mean, the point is getting more people in the door, right?”

Shit. He’s not wrong.

“You might have a point,” I say.

“Fucking right I have a point,” says Steve. “Shit, I gotta go, Cheryl’s back with the kids. Good luck, fucker.”

A couple of hours later, I’m about to head out for the night. Despite my brother’s opinion, I do actually delegate.

Sometimes. A little bit.

My lone assistant manager, Anna, is competent and cool-headed. As much as I stress, she takes it all in stride. She’s another one who started with me in the early days of Duckbill, waiting tables to help pay her way through school. She graduated last year and I had the good luck to make her manager beforehand, so at least when she leaves she’ll have to give me thirty days' notice.

I mean, assuming I don’t have to close the restaurant before then.

It’s that particular boot on my neck that’s got me seriously considering what Steve said. We need to try something new, obviously. Maybe adding one or two new things to the menu is the way to go.

My phone chirps as I slide into my car, still wired from the day but glad for a chance to finally sit down a minute.

It’s Alex. Freaking finally.

Just got in is all it says. I roll my eyes and start the car, heading for the townhouse we share.

I moved into the second floor of Alex’s townhouse last year after his Ice Bitch fiancée dumped him a month before their wedding. He doesn’t know it, but at the time I was about two weeks away from having to ask my parents if I could have my old room back when Alex offered to let me rent from him. Not that I couldn’t tell him, but I don’t want him to feel like he’s stuck with me. Whenever he gets serious about dating again, I’ll start looking for a place of my own.

As it is, we’ve got a pretty sweet setup. We both work too much for having a social life. I don’t think he’s been on a date since the breakup and I’m too damn busy trying to keep Duckbill above water to find a woman.

Maybe that explains some things. It’s been… Christ, how long has it been? I can’t actually remember the last time I got laid.

Yeah, that explains a lot. I told Alex the other day it’s been so long since I’ve been out with a woman that even he was starting to look attractive to me.

Alex didn’t laugh. But then, he doesn’t laugh all that much these days. Ice Bitch did a real number on him. He won’t talk about it but I know it’s her fault.

In the meantime, it’s my job to make him get some sun once in a while. I mean, somebody’s gotta look out for him. And he’s smart, smarter than me at least, though I’d never tell him that. I’m curious to hear what he has to say about Steve’s idea.

I pull into the driveway, and wouldn’t you know it? Alex is already drinking a beer out on the porch, his feet propped on the cooler I never remember to restock. He looks exhausted.

I slam the car door shut just to see if he noticed I’m here. He doesn’t even blink, just lifts his feet off the cooler as I reach down and grab a beer for myself.

“So, I’m probably getting evicted,” I say as I take the chair across from his.

2

Alex

It’s already dark when I pull up to the house and kill the motor. Guess that means it’s actually fall now, though you wouldn’t know it as warm as it is. I probably should have stopped for takeout on the way here. God knows there’s nothing in the fridge, at least nothing edible. Pretty sure there’s still half a case of beer though, so whatever. I’m set.

The house is screaming silent when I push the door open so I drop my bag on the couch and head to the kitchen, grabbing Elliot’s busted up cooler from the kitchen cabinet to stock it with ice and beer. At least out on the porch there are occasionally people driving by.

Elliot will be home soon. I grab my phone off the couch where I’d dropped it and take it and the beer out to the porch.

Just got in, I type.

The porch swing needs some paint, but the chains still look good. For a minute, I try to picture me and Diana sitting there, just enjoying the evening air.

I love this porch. It’s part of the reason I bought this house in this particular neighborhood. It was the only neighborhood I looked at that had front porches much at all, let alone porch swings. Not all that common in the city, I guess.

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