Page 48 of Their Favorite Game

Running from section to section, I tried to serve all the customers. It took a few minutes to get all their drinks, and a customer yelled at me because they were ready to order and I wasn’t ready to take their order. I wanted to be accommodating, but I also didn’t want people to wait for their drinks.

Once I got everyone a drink I started taking orders. I grabbed the first two tables and rushed to put them into the kitchen. Of course, they wanted soup, which was something I had to grab. Normally, I didn’t mind, but I was so far behind.

Stepping up to the pass-through for the kitchen, I put the two orders in and turned to rush back out to the dining room.

“Who haven’t you gotten orders and drinks for?” Sammy asked as she fast-walked beside me.

“Aren’t you cooking?” I asked as I went over to the soup station.

“Matty and Barb are.” She jabbed her thumb behind her.

“Huh?” I spun on my heel, almost knocking the ladle out of the clam chowder.

“Matty went into the kitchen, told Barb he could cook, and told me to go help you.” Sammy shrugged.

“Yeah, he can cook, but not like professionally.” I dished out the two clam chowders.

“Right, because our last three cooks were professionals? This is a diner, not a steak house,” Sammy laughed.

“Good point.” I placed the two soups on a tray. “Okay. I only have booth’s 7 and 13’s orders. Wanna split down the middle and get these people served?”

“Absolutely!”

I rushed off to booth seven to drop off their soup before tackling the rest of the room. Had it not been so busy, I would have been able to process that Matty just landed himself a job with me. This was one wild summer.

CHAPTER21

Mal

I wiggledon Rex’s lap as I watched the movie. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure what was playing. Having Rex’s arms around me was such a distraction, I could barely think.

Jake and Matty were sitting on the sofa next to us, enjoying The Exorcist. Everyone agreed that since Rex had been gone all weekend, I got a little extra one-on-one time with him. Not that it would ever be enough. Ugh, I didn’t know how I was going to survive without them. We only had a few more weeks left before they started leaving.

“What’s wrong?” Rex whispered in my ear.

“Nothing,” I whispered back, keeping my eyes on the screen.

Rex turned me to him. “Something is wrong.”

Matty paused it and turned toward me. Jake and Matty were studying my face, probably trying to figure out why Rex thought something was wrong.

“Can we just watch this?” I didn’t want this type of attention on me.

“After you tell us what’s wrong.” Jake crossed his arms and gave his best attempt at being stern.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I tried to slip off of Rex’s lap, but he kept his arms tight around me.

“Well, you should have thought about that before going and getting three boyfriends that care about you,” Matty smirked.

“My boyfriends for a few more weeks,” I sighed.

“Oh, babe.” Rex cupped my face with his hand. “Please don’t think about that.”

“I’ve been trying not to. Do you guys have any idea how hard it is not to?” I looked down at the carpet, paying too much attention to the sauce stain.

Jake’s mom turned the basement into an entertainment room for him when he was a teenager. She wanted him to have a place to hang out. Since she was out of town this week, it was the perfect place for us to spend time together.

“Yes, we all know how hard it is. I just think about how wonderful it is to have you for now.” Matty tossed the popcorn into the air and caught it in his mouth. “Not to mention I get to work with you now.”

---