Page 60 of Starfish and Coffee
“What a shithouse this place is.”
Melissa laughed at Alex as she refilled his cup of coffee. “You’re just now figuring this out?”
“He thinks he could make it better.” Holly filled in for him, her voice still dull and sad, but she was at least trying to be social, which was an improvement. “’Cause he’s so good at fixing things that are broken.”
Alex glared at Holly. That one hurt.
Melissa set the coffeepot on the table and slid into the booth next to Holly. She wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “Cheer up, darling. Seeing you so down breaks my heart. You had to know it’d never work out with someone like Will. He’s too big for this island. He’s just one of those people who rises to the top.”
“Wow, that helps.” Alex frowned. “Thanks for that. Good to know he’s better than the rest of us bums on the beach.”
“Happiness is knowing your place,” Melissa said softly. “You could’ve gone to college, Alex. You had a free ticket, but you’d rather stay here and party. There’s nothing wrong with it. That’s just who you are. You’re never going to make a hundred grand a year, but you’ll probably have a much better time along the way, and we all like that about you.”
“I’m so sick of life being about money,” Holly said bitterly. “There’s so much more to living than how much you make. That’s not what it’s about.”
“Exactly,” Melissa agreed as she squeezed Holly tighter once more. “It’s about friends and having a good time and the beach after a long day. Stick with Alex. He gets it. He’s the better Hunter for you.”
Holly looked at Alex despondently across the table.
“You could do better than me. You’re supposed to be more than this,” Alex told her, wanting so much more for Holly than a broken heart and a lifetime of being his shield to the world. “You can do better than Will too.”
“Don’t listen to him. You two are the perfect couple,” Melissa said with a snort. “This happens every once in a while. You break up. Holly gets her heart broken, and then you’re back together. Look at that whole fiasco with what’s his name in Key West. Now it’s Will. Maybe this time you’ll just stick with Alex.”
“Maybe,” Holly agreed as she looked out to the beach once more. “Doesn’t seem to work out for me any other way.”
“You two are too weird,” Melissa said with a laugh as she slid out of the booth. “Can I get you anything?”
Holly shook her head, and Melissa left to go check on the only other table with diners.
“We could fix this place,” Alex told her once they were alone. “I’m not the useless beach bum everyone thinks I am, and you’re not just some waitress who needs a man and a party to make her happy. We’re better than this. I know we are.”
“I believe you,” Holly said with an indulgent smile. “Given the opportunity, you could make this place amazing.”
“We both could,” he assured her.
The problem was no one was going to give a beach bum the opportunity, and they both knew it. The world expected them to know their place just like Melissa suggested, and reaching for anything outside it left them burned. It was a bitter reality; one Alex didn’t want to accept even if all the clues pointed in that direction.
He wanted to be more—a man who could’ve supported Matt even if he’d lost it all. For the first time in his life, Alex wished he were Will. Hardworking and determined, a person who could make something out of nothing and never again feel weak and vulnerable to someone like Cecilia Tarrington.
* * * *
Life didn’t stop for a broken heart, and big ideas didn’t change his station in life. Alex still showed up at Frank’s café five days a week, cooking for the tourists as spring break kicked into full swing, but things weren’t as busy this year, and the steady decline was just the beginning of the end.
Frank missed paying everyone on payday.
The food vendors wouldn’t deliver because of unpaid invoices.
Holly had been running to the grocery store to buy supplies for the restaurant using the last bit of cash to be found in the register, which messed up the food cost so badly Frank wasn’t making any more off what they did manage to serve up.
Then the gas got turned off on a Sunday, and there was nothing to be done about it. They couldn’t serve breakfast with a cold flattop. So Alex, Holly, Melissa, and Jimmy, the cook who moved from the late shift to replace Matt in the mornings, stood there and watched as Frank wrote out the CLOSED FOR BUSINESS sign.
“I’ll get money for the building,” Frank promised them with false brightness, though his eyes were hollow and dead looking in the same way Alex’s were when he looked in the mirror every morning. “And all the equipment. A hundred thousand at least. So I’ll retire early and finally get a vacation.”
“I’m sorry,” Holly whispered, seeing through Frank’s thinly veiled veneer of optimism. Like Alex, she was all too familiar with the death of a dream, and she clearly didn’t wish it on anyone. “It’s not fair, Frank.”
“Life’s not fair.” He shrugged as he looked around the restaurant once more, his eyes growing watery for a brief moment before he cleared his throat and said, “I’ll walk you out.”
Alex and Holly didn’t bother to ask him for the money he owed them even if they desperately needed it. They’d both just lost their jobs on the same day. They had shelter by taking care of the rentals, but it didn’t change the fact they still had to eat.
