Page 23 of SnapShot

My gut is telling me not to go along with this, but I trust Kate with my life. I also don’t think my mind is as reliable as it should be right now.

Just Betty

eleven

Just Betty

Charlie

I’ve only been at work for about two hours and already, I’m bored and want to hightail it back to Dovehaven. Back to Haedyn. Having spent the night with her wrapped around me, my brain has been unable to function since. Meeting her was a little more chaotic than I had anticipated, but after spending more time with her, the logic of it all checks out.

She's emotionally closed off and a commitment-phobe, but from what she has told me about her parents in the past, it’s understandable. I thought we were in a good place before she left, though. Spending the night at her place is such a huge step for her, and I couldn’t be more proud of her. It feels like luck is on my side recently, and I don’t remember a time when I felt happier.

Sure, I’ve dated on and off over the years, but the connection was surface level. Nothing worth sticking around and working for. A real relationship takes endless work and determination to make it through whatever life could possibly dish out. There’s no way around the hard times, just through them, together.

I know that Haedyn and I haven’t had the dreaded exclusive relationship talk yet, but if I’m being honest with myself, I knew she was it for me the first time we talked on the phone. She’s a puzzle that I might not ever fully put together, but spending my life trying seems like a damn good time to me. It won’t be easy, but the best things never are, are they?

The stack of checks sitting on the desk in front of me need to be signed so that my staff doesn’t shishkabob me at the end of the day, but my mind keeps drifting. I would love nothing more than to crash her weekend, but she needs this time with Kate. The two of them have been working balls to the wall for too long trying to survive. I don’t want to come between them for any reason. Kate’s her family.

I do wish that I could still talk to her, though. It would settle my nerves a bit to be able to check in on her and make sure she’s safe. Does that make me an obsessive asshole? Maybe. Do I care? No, not really. I feel like I should be ready and willing to protect her should she need me, while also standing back and letting her do her thing without interfering. She’s a big girl who can handle her own shit, which I can appreciate, but I still don’t want to see her fall.

God, I’ve got to get the hell out of this office and get my mind occupied before I do something really stupid, like track her down or something. It’s two freaking days. I will live.

If this is how badly I crave her already, then the future will be tenfold.

To pass some time after signing the last check and distributing them to the correct mail slots in the break room, I make my way to the kitchen and decide to cook with my team. It’s been a while since I’ve spent time back here. I enjoy cooking with them more than tending to the business side of things. Occasionally it makes me wonder why I wanted to open my own restaurants in the first place. I never wanted to be a business man, but the perks of being your own boss and running things the way you want are too tempting.

When I was working under others and just doing the cooking, there were several aspects of the way things were run that I didn’t agree with. For instance, the pay was absolute shit. Even in higher end restaurants, the staff was paid minimum wage, which let’s be honest, is less than what it costs to live off of in today’s times. To make any kind of semi-reasonable wage, I had to put in over eighty hours a week. It felt like all I did was work and sleep. I barely had time to feed myself.

There was also an issue of management coming in and either criticizing or changing the way things worked in the day to day flow of the place when they had no idea how we worked. They just wanted to bring in money while sitting on their asses. Of course, that sounds great, but the reality of running a restaurant is so much different from the idea. Too many things to take care of behind the scenes.

In fact, because it pissed me off so much to work under someone who had no idea what the people working for them went through, it pushed me to take that final leap to open some myself, convinced that I would do it better. That my employees wouldn’t be treated like shit and paid less than a living wage. My salary is smaller than most people would assume when they find out that I own two restaurants, but it’s because my staff are paid very well. If I can still pay my bills and keep my business prospering, then why wouldn’t I pay them more than usual?

They are loyal to me, and they are some of the hardest workers I’ve ever met. It’s crazy what happens when people are treated half decently, isn’t it?

“Where do we need extra hands?” I holler as I walk through the kitchen door to grab an apron and wash my hands.

“Angela actually called in sick, so an extra bartender would be great!” Roger tells me.

“Is she okay?”

“Stomach flu. She should be back Monday.” He explains without slowing down for a second on the grill. He’s fixing several steaks on the charcoal grill I had installed because I refuse to have steaks cooked on a flat grill. It would feel sacrilegious. The insurance costs a lot more because of it, but it’s well worth it.

“Good deal. I’ll man the bar, then.”

Luckily, this time of the day, there’s not many patrons at the bar. Day drinking isn’t as popular in the small towns like Jolie as it is in the cities. The only downside to that being my wandering mind. I can’t help thinking about what Haedyn is up to.

“What can I get you, young lady?” I ask of what looks to be a woman generously into her sixties. She gives me a cheeky grin, smearing a tiny bit of bright pink lipstick onto one of her front teeth.

“A long island iced tea, if you don’t mind.”

I get to work on her order after sending her a nod. “You just passing through, or are you local?”

“Been here my whole life. Thought about leaving about five years ago. Just never got around to it.” Something akin to a sad smile pulls up one side of her wrinkled mouth.

“Oh? What made you want to leave if you don’t mind me asking?” I lean over the top of the bar onto my elbows, fully intent on giving her my undivided attention.

“Well when you’re married for over fifty years, and suddenly you don’t have your person anymore, life just seems a lot less magical. This was our place. Where we built our home. Our family. Of course all of our kids are grown and moved off now. It was just us left. Now it’s just me, so why would I want to stick around, you know? Everywhere I turn, there he is. At first, I hated that. It was suffocating to be surrounded by the memories of our lives together. There was nowhere I could turn to escape my pain. Then, little by little, the pain began to dull, and the memories started to comfort me. So I stayed. Because it felt like if I left, I’d lose the only pieces of him that I have left.” She sniffled and removed the napkin beneath her drink to dot her tears away.

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