Page 53 of Win Some Love Some
“Why are you here, though? Shouldn’t you be starting your shift at the restaurant?”
Her shoulders slumped and her smile fell.
Oh no.
I could read what had happened all over her face, her body. There were never any secrets with her.
“I got fired.”
“Fired?” I felt this weird punch to my gut. Jolie had fired Nora? It wasn’t possible. “I’ll talk to her.”
But Nora was shaking her head and leaning back against my office chair. “I wasn’t good at it, Nick. I was dropping stuff all the time, and no one appreciated my French. I broke Mrs. Piedmont’s toe the other night with a wine bottle.”
“Heard about that. Shit happens.” Was I downplaying something that could maybe get a restaurant and a server sued? Yes. But I would do anything to take that look off her face. She smiled at me like she knew what I was doing.
“Shit happens, in particular, to me. Anyway, I came over to see if you wanted to grab some chili fries with me to make me feel better about my utter incompetence.”
Yes. Yes. This was normal. Normal Nick. Normal Nora.
“I could eat.” I’d eaten a sandwich two hours ago, but I wasn’t going to turn down my chance to have chili fries with Nora.
“Excellent. Let me just finish this last invoice and you will be caught up through last month.” She tapped on the keyboard with a speed I lacked, and after a few clicks of the mouse, she’d powered down the computer and stood up.
In silence, we headed for my truck. We could walk to Pappas, but a soft rain had been falling all day and I didn’t see the point in getting wet. We drove in silence across town to the parking lot next to the diner. I watched her tuck her hands into the cuffs of her sweater and worry her bottom lip.
I wanted to ask her a million questions.
“Don’t ask,” she said when I put the truck in park. The windshield wipers squeaking across the glass.
“Don’t ask what?”
“You want to ask what’s next and the answer is, I don’t know, so don’t ask.” She popped out of the truck and I followed her inside. The diner was warm and full of people who waved and said hello.
“Twice in one month, well, isn’t this like the old days?” Lola asked, handing us menus.
“What’s like the old days?” Nora asked, still distracted.
“You two coming in together again.”
I shot a quick look at Nora, waiting for her to say something about how we weren’t together, or this was just normal, or something that wouldn’t make Lola think there was more going on than there was, but Nora only smiled.
Lola pointed us to a booth in the corner.
Larissa, who was one of the new waitresses, quickly appeared with water.
“Chili fries with two plates and two cokes,” I told her.
“You bet,” she said with a smile, and off she went, ponytail bouncing.
“See how she just remembered that without writing it down?” Nora pointed out. “I struggled with getting orders right too.”
“It’s chili fries, what’s to remember? Jolie’s menu is complicated.”
Nora slouched against the booth’s back. “Don’t defend me. I don’t deserve it. I have to go home and tell my parents I’ve been fired. Again. That they’ve raised a perfectly useless human being and should put all their hopes and dreams into one of their five other children.”
“Hey, cut that shit out,” I told her. I thought about reaching forward and grabbing onto her hands, but I didn’t need to make anything stranger. “You’re not useless at all. Look at the good work you did on my books.”
“You need to hire someone-”
