Page 34 of The Charming Checklist
“The hell he doesn’t. You’re not superhuman, mister. You’re just not.”
“I’ll get my break when the second shift comes in.”
Valerie took another plate from the heating lamp. “I called Cole, and I don’t want to hear another word about it!”
“You didn’t callCole?” Ava yelled.
“It’s his day off,” Max muttered, chopping an onion. Hacking, more like it.
She stilled his hand. He looked about to chop a finger off. “Let me do this, at least.”
They worked together, finally finding a silent and easy groove. Ava would reach for the ticket and call the order out to Max, then start working on the part of the order that didn’t involve heat. Max had commandeered the fryer and grill and wouldn’t let her near it again, once quirking a brow while simultaneously brandishing a large kitchen knife. She got the message, and stuck to the microwave, and pulling out the pre-cut vegetables, and pre-made soups.
And she found she really did her best when it was time for clean plates from the industrial dishwasher.
Chapter Ten
Shortly after Sam and Brian returned, a wonderful thing happened. The lunch rush ended. People wenthome. Most of them, anyway. A few came in here and there, but it was nothing like the two-hour-long Armageddon he’d just lived through. And Max found that he’d enjoyed working next to Ava, even if she’d behaved like the single most stubborn woman on the planet. She’d refused to leave, planting her feet like a tree. But once they’d found a groove and he’d kept her away from the fryer, it wasn’t half bad.
Kind of nice, actually, to have a friend jump in and assist. She’d helped with something that had to have been uncomfortable for her, and new. Her support had been...unexpected. Kind. Within minutes, they’d fallen into a smooth rhythm of working together that reminded him of the old days working alongside his family in the fields. There, every link in the chain contributed. Mattered. No matter how hard or demeaning the work. He didn’t believe he’d missed that, but experiencing it again with Ava, with Brian, Sam and later Cole, the memories weren’t horrible. After all, hard physical work was an honorable thing.
“Next time call me sooner,” Cole said, taking a pull of his beer.
After the second shift arrived, Cole, Valerie, Max and Ava had gathered at a booth to recover. Cole and Valerie, of course, were sitting on one side practically in each other’s laps. Max sat next to Ava, who was cradling her coffee mug.
The dinner “rush” didn’t seem nearly as intense but maybe it never looked that way from this side. Still, at the moment the sounds of couples talking, laughing, their silverware tinkling, was simply a soft lull in the background.
“I haven’t worked this hard in years,” Max said. “It’s humbling.”
He’d once heard a professor say that the more education acquired, the less need to work with their hands. And it wasn’t shame that led Max away from manual labor, but just the persistent belief that he had to do better. Be better. If he still liked to work with his hands, and he did, now it was simply a hobby.
“It feels good, though, doesn’t it?” Valerie said. “Sometimes after a hard day I just feel like I’ve pushed this body as far as it will go. And it’s gratifying on some level. Of course, I wouldn’t want to do it every day. That’s why I’m a teacher.”
“As if that’s not hard?” Ava quipped from next to Max.
“A different kind.” Valerie smiled and gazed at Cole, who took on that lovesick, gobsmacked look Max had seen on him for months.
Cole seemed a bit stunned some days, as if surprised he’d bagged a woman like Valerie, and about as happy as Max had ever seen him. It brought Max’s thoughts back to his own plans for a serious and committed relationship. He had no idea what it might be like to feel so smug and self-assured when it came to a woman. No idea what it might feel like to love someone so much you’d be willing to take them warts and all.
Speaking of which, none of these dating services mentioned anyone’s flaws. He supposed that was something for couples to find out as they dated and got to know each other. The whole idea had started to overwhelm him and he considered backing out. As far as he knew, Ava still had plans to find him the perfect wife. Clearly, she didn’t consider herself in the running. Then again, she’d seen his list. She didn’t know he’d purposely written in some stricter requirements that would exclude her. He thought it would be easier that way.
Not so much now.
He’d started to regret that ridiculous list now. Besides, it had been meant to simply be a guideline. Surely, she’d see that eventually.
“Well, guys, I should go,” Ava said. “I’ve got a lot of phone calls to make. And while I have you here, if you’d planned to attend the mayor’s party next week, the location has changed.”
“Where is it now?” Max had planned to attend, of course, and rub elbows with any and all of the influential.
“I’ll let you know.”
“I thought it was at the hall,” Valerie said.
“They double-booked us, and obviously the wedding is more important,” Ava said.
Funny, she didn’t appear to believe this.
“I hope you gave ’em hell,” Max said.
