“Toby-bear. I need you.” Claire’s muffled voice says behind the door.
He shakes his head quickly, mouthing ‘don’t’.
A flirtatious smile spreads across my face. I love it when he gets shy. It’s endearing in a twisted way. “Come in,” I call out, squeezing his waist in my hands. He awkwardly tries to escape but I hold him firmly so he can’t budge.
Claire sidesteps in, eyes covered by her hands. “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but–” She quickly removes her eyes to smile over at me. “Hi, Elijah! Missed you!” She waves. I smileback at her and give her a quick wave. She quickly returns to throwing her hands over her eyes. “One of the pool tables isn’t dropping the balls again, and these college douchebags are getting rowdy about it.”
Tobias drops his head to my shoulder. “I’ll be out there in five.”
“Okay, thank you!” She sings before slipping back out.
“The night has begun.” He mutters into my sleeve. I wrap my arm around his neck and hug him tightly.
“You’re holding this all together and…I’m just so thankful for you.” I sigh. He picks up his head and looks at me, eyes bouncing back and forth between mine.
Something flashes across his eyes. I can’t decipher it, but it’s gone before I can look deeper into it.
“I’m so happy you’re here.” He smiles, resting his forehead again on mine.
“I’ve got an idea,” I say, standing up. “How aboutIdeal with the pool table? You take a second to drink your coffee andbreathe.” I say, rubbing my hands up and down his arms.
He thinks this over for a second, before a slow smile creeps on his face. “Yeah, that sounds nice.”
I lean in, planting a soft kiss against his lips. “You’re not alone. Don’t forget that.” I place my hand on his cheek and rub his jaw gently with my thumb. His eyes shut as he leans into my touch.
“What would I do without you?” He hums.
“You’llneverfind out,” I say, guiding him to his chair.
***
Mission tonight? Make Tobias’s shift as easy as possible. I know I may not be here for a while, but for the time that I am, I could help take some pressure off his shoulders.
I’ve stayed busy fixing the pool tables, refilling the ice buckets behind the bar, and cleaning off tables during the rush, and now I’m taking the end of the night as the perfect opportunity to update our social media.
“One more time,” I repeat, waving for Claire to walk into the camera frame again. I’m recording all of the staff for a social media trend where they slow-mo walk into the video one at a time to a short, funny audio clip.
Claire exaggerates a hair flip while walking forward.Perfect.
“Was that good?” She giggles, clapping her hands excitedly.
I nod my head, replaying the clip. “Oh yeah, they’re going to eat you up.” I laugh. Claire has one of those universally attractive qualities about her. If you’re into women, you’d be into her. Her lingering cheerleader personality only adds to it all.
“Do you need one of me?”
A low, smooth voice comes from my right. I turn my attention to Gabe, sending me one of his perfect smiles while pouring a Guinness from the tap.
Ididfilm everyone else in the restaurant. I guess it’d be rude not to include him.
I guess.
“Sure.” I perse my lips, starting up my camera again.
He nods his head before sliding the glass to another one of our servers. He returns his attention to me, wiping his hands off on his black apron.
“What should I do?” He shrugs, scratching the back of his neck.
“Whatever, man. It’s not that serious.”
