Page 42 of Just For Her

“Might be weird if you’re back here while I’m driving.”

“We can pretend you’re my sexy chauffeur I’m having an affair with.”

“Who are you in a real relationship with, if not me?”

“I’ve got this eighty-year-old husband on death’s door. I only married him for the money, and he’s senile, so he doesn’t care.”

She said that so bluntly that Tove almost believed her. Except Tove was not a chauffeur, and Kayla was not married to an eighty-year-old man. Probably.

Kayla buckled up but maintained her post-sex countenance while she rolled down the window and allowed a fresh breeze to blow through Tove’s car. The bumpy county road eventually gave way to the pavement as they neared town. Tove smiled to think of her great fortune.

Only a month ago, this year had been as gloomy as any other. Now? She had met the perfect woman. An angel had knocked on her door.

Chapter 12

Navigatinghernewlifein Bend gradually became easier while also presenting the kind of unique challenges that Kayla had not anticipated.

For one thing, she didn’t expect to have issues adjusting to her new job at the brewery. Kayla had worked at breweries before. She knew the difference between an IPA and a stout, and she wasn’t above sampling everything the manager presented her so she could accurately make suggestions to customers on their first trip to Brickhouse. The “gourmet” hamburgers, some of them made with interesting alternative meats, were the same fair served in the Portland suburbs. Even the layout of the place wasn’t that different from what she had experienced back in Washington County.

No, what threw her off were the customers. For every local celebrating a birthday or inviting someone from out of town, there was some stuffy tech-bro or a fellow wannabe trophy wife who sneered to see a menu devoid of lobster or oysters.If you want seafood,Kayla often thought when fielding snotty questions,go to Jack’s across the street.She and Tove had sampled the oysters there once. About as good as they got so far from the coast!

That following Thursday, when Kayla nursed the kind of menstrual cramps barely dulled by modern medicine, she dealt with any endless line of preppy, spoiled gals being pals and the occasional “work from home” crew who had long lunches together, many of whom brought their dogs along. And for every dog owner who had no problem waiting for a spot on the patio, there was another who couldn’t understand why Fido wasn’t allowed inside.

“It’s pretty busy for a Thursday,” said one of the other waitresses. She and Kayla happened to be at the counter at the same time, but it only gave them about twenty seconds to converse. “Doing okay in your section?”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Kayla said. “Though I might have to nick a Tylenol off you. Ugh, I woke up exhausted this morning.” She had woken up in Tove’s bed with the tell-tale call of her period outside her dream side door. “I need some good tips to keep me going.”

“I hear that. Can never tell sometimes which way a table is gonna go. You’ve got one that completely stiffs you, and then another coming through with the 30% clutch. Oh, well. Everything evens out, right?”

Kayla had two plates in hand. “See you in a bit. These are for table seventeen.”

“Oh…”

Kayla assumed thatohwas because she had cut off the conversation. Besides, she had no time to say more, since the salads were expected by a pair of young women who carried designer bags and smelled like a hundred bucks. From the moment they sat down, though, they had belittled the specials and asked Kayla questions like,“Can we replace the chicken with vegan crumbles?”No, they could not. The kitchen did not stock “vegan crumbles.”

Remember, if anyone asks, you’re vegetarian now.Kayla didn’t know how long she could carry on that ruse, or if it might come true on its own. For all she knew, this time next year?I’ll genuinely hate steak.Oh, well. The things she did to “lock it down” with a woman who might look for any reason to break up. While Tove hadn’t insinuated she couldn’t be with someone who wasn’t vegetarian, Kayla knew it made things easier to pretend for now.

Near the end of her lunchtime shift, the diners naturally thinned out and left only a few behind in Kayla’s section. She prepared the bill for the pair of women. When Kayla presented it to them, however, one fished into her wallet and produced a recognizable black card.

“It’s good here, yeah?” she asked without sparing Kayla a single look.

The nameFREDRIKSSONwas emblazoned on the black card, followed by an ID number. Kayla knew exactly what this was – Tove had one with her name on it, a step above a mere number. It entitled the holder to half off at select places around town.

As it so happened… they were not the first to flash this card in Kayla’s face. The first time it happened, she quickly learned that one of the brewery owners was none other than Nils Fredriksson, Thomas’s older brother. Since he owned half of the place, that meant his family got half off, too.

“Of course. Let me take care of this.”

“Wait…” The young woman batted her long eyelashes and twirled her brown hair around a slender finger. “Aren’t you that girl dating my cousin? What are you doing working here?”

“Uh…” Kayla didn’t know what to say. None of the other Fredrikssons who dined here had asked her a damn thing besides,“What do you recommend from this section of the menu?”“I’ve got a girlfriend in town.”

“Tove? Ha! My dad’s accountant. Go figure.”

Kayla took the black card to the POS system. Right in the middle of the screen was a giant F, where Kayla punched in the ID number before swiping a credit card.

As expected, she was tipped on fifteen percent of the new total, not the original, as other family members did. Even the gift card holders tipped better than this.

“Do you know who those girls were?” she asked her coworker when she passed by. The women had long gone, and Kayla was left to bus the table on her own. “Besides Fredrikssons.”

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