Page 27 of Fair Play
He laughs. “You too, Nita.”
“It’s been forever, but I’ve followed your career. I’m glad you’re back in California.”
“Yeah… earthquakes, mudslides, and fire, oh my!”
We all laugh.
“It’s the greatest city in the world,” she says, “but there are some drawbacks, I guess.”
“Not for you. Looks like you’ve got an incredible thing going here.”
“I do.” She’s momentarily serious as she looks around. “It’s been a whirlwind but I might have finally found my passion.”
“Restaurants in general, being in food service, being around crowds of people, or some other aspect?” he asks.
“I think a combo of all of the above. I like to cook but I’m not a chef. I have a head for business but the ones I’ve run in the past bored me. This one seems to bring all of my passions together.”
“Well, that’s why it’s so successful,” I interject softly. “Look around—this place is screaming passion and success.”
She turns, surprise flickering across her features. “I never thought of it that way—thank you. And you’re hired.”
We all laugh.
“I’m serious,” she says. “The fact that you’re friends with Rome and Athena tells me all I need to know about your character, you’re very pretty—which the customers like—and you seem to have some intuition about the business. What else should I be looking for?”
I grimace nervously. “Well, the truth is, it’s been years since I’ve been on skates, Nita. I really want to work here but I need to make sure I get my feet under me first.”
“Oh.” She pauses. “Yes, that’s an issue, but just let me know. I can put you in a training class as early as next week but you do have to be confident on skates.”
“Just give me a few days to test it out and I’ll call you.”
“Absolutely.” She hugs us both again and then she’s gone, pulled in twenty directions.
“She’s a force of nature,” I say. “And I mean that in a good way.”
“She’s always been this way. If we were going to run a summer lemonade stand, she was the one who added the strawberry lemonade option to make us different—and charge fifty cents more.”
I chuckle. “That sounds about right.”
“You were trying to ask me something about skating,” he says after a moment.
“Yeah.” I clear my throat and take a sip of water. “Like I said, I haven’t skated since… the accident. I broke my femur in two places and needed multiple surgeries to put it back together.”
“You don’t have a limp or anything.”
“No. I’m fine. Bodi made sure I did all the physical therapy, but we were on our way home from a skating competition and…” I sigh heavily. I hate talking about this.
I went through it a million times in therapy and I’ve come to terms with it, but I still don’t like dredging it up. “I’d performed badly. Just wasn’t a good night for me and my parents were trying to console me. I yelled at them, the way only a hormonal teenage girl can, and I slumped down in the back, refusing to talk to them. Five minutes later a drunk driver went over the line and hit us head on. The doctors said that’s the only reason I survived. Because I was slumped down in the back.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry.”
I swipe at unfamiliar tears—I haven’t told the story in so long because it always makes me cry. “So when I was finally better,Bodi tried to get me on the ice and I refused. I literally couldn’t bring myself to do it. It’s the one thing he’s never been able to talk me into.”
“Okay, so there are other jobs. I’m sure you can find?—”
“No.” I quickly cut him off. “I want to do this. Ihaveto do this.”
“Okay.” He fixes his blue eyes on me intently. “What can I do to help?”
