Page 17 of The Job

“No, we’re good, thank you,” Cash replies. “We were wondering if someone called Ever works here? She’s an old friend of ours, and we were told we could find her here?”

Cash doesn’t lie, he tells him the truth but in a way that doesn’t sound as crazy as it probably is. The way that we have people looking for Ever is not normal, under any circumstances, let alone for teenagers to be using these means. We are not normal teenagers, and we’re so used to that, sometimes I have to remind myself that what we consider normal would be a shock to other people.

Fortunately, Henry doesn’t seem to find anything odd with Cash’s question and answers with a happy smile.

“Oh yeah, Ever works here,” he looks around for the moment and my heart jumps into my throat. He points, “That’s her, do you want me to call her over?”

My stomach drops as my heart aches. That’s not Ever, not our Ever.

Cash swallows and clears his throat, pasting on a fake smile, “Oh no, that’s okay, that’s not our Ever. We must have gotten it wrong.”

“We probably misheard the name of the restaurant,” Trick adds.

Henry’s smile falls slightly as he says, “Oh, that sucks, guys.” His eyes light up as he says, “Oh, there’s another one of these restaurants on the other side of the city. Maybe that’s what she meant?”

Although it’s fake as hell, Trick smiles and replies, “Yeah, maybe. We will check with her and see which one she meant.”

“Thanks for your help,” Cash says.

“No problem,” Henry smiles kindly, “let me know if you need anything else.”

“We will, thanks, man.” Cash replies.

As soon as he’s walked away and is out of earshot, all of our smiles drop, our shoulders drooping as well.

“Fuck,” I mutter.

“I was really hoping that we had caught a break, and it was her,” Jensen adds, looking as upset as I feel.

“Me too,” Rafe signs.

“It’s been a long time since Luke’s called and been that excited about a lead,” Cash mutters, taking a long sip of his drink and clearly wishing that it was something stronger.

“Yeah, he is usually a lot more cautious about it and tries not to get our hopes up,” Trick says, “I think that’s why I found it more difficult to stay objective this time.”

“We all did, man,” I reply. “Are you guys ready to get out of here?”

“Hell yeah,” Jensen is the first person to agree.

“Don’t forget to give Henry a big tip,” Rafe signs.

“I like him,” Jensen agrees, as he leaves a tip big enough that it will most likely make his year.

“Let’s go,” Trick says.

We all get up and leave the restaurant, weaving through the tables and stepping outside.

“Guys!” We hear a voice call behind us just as we step outside.

I tense thinking that something is about to kick off because usually when people yell for us and follow us out of places, it’s because we have pissed someone off or because Tomlinson has decided that they want to cause a problem, and all the way out here it can’t be Tomlinson.

Turning around I find myself feeling slightly disappointed that I’m not going to get a fight, at least I don’t think so.

“Hey Henry, is everything okay?” Trick asks, with a frown.

Henry nods, “Yeah, sorry, I think you wrote down the wrong amount for the tip.”

Jensen smiles, “No, I didn’t, man; it’s all yours.”

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