My feet were tired, but I couldn’t help but catch the whimsical mood of the night. And I hadn’t had to wait on anybody I didn’t like. So… win-win!
“Hey,chica!” Coco’s voice called from behind me.
I turned around and grinned at my friend. Noticing the woman at her side, I lunged forward and squealed, “Emilia!”
She met me halfway, throwing her arms around me. “Ruby! Oh my gosh!”
I pulled back to take her in again. She was dressed in her signature boho chic style, a white peasant dress that ended mid-thigh and showed off her coffee-with-cream-colored legs, a wide-brim tan hat that was oh-so-hipster and suede cowboy boots that were more small-town than stylish, but somehow worked for her. “Co, why is your sister so fabulous?”
Coco rolled her eyes. “This is the same girl that sent us pics last week of Sasquatch’s twin.”
That was true. Only last week, Emilia’s wilderness selfies were more wild woman of the forest than trendsetter. But now that she was showered and properly shaved she was like the spokeswoman for all things hot and hippie.
Not that Coco was less glamorous. She’d also dressed up for the occasion in form-fitting denim overall shorts—the trendy kind, not the Dickies the farmers showed up in every weekday morning— and a pale pink sleeveless silk button-up. She also wore cowboy boots, but they were the black leather variety and well-worn. They both had long, lush black hair and big brown eyes. They were unfairly gorgeous, and hip and I felt like the biggest dope in my work uniform, frilly white apron and sensible Chucks.
“I thought you weren’t getting back until next week?” I asked Em.
She shrugged, adjusting her hat so it sat farther back on her head. “I finished faster than I anticipated. So, I came home early.”
“Only you would hike an entire coast faster than anticipated.”
She smiled again. “I wasn’t alone.”
“I know. You and your weird cult of outdoorsy people.” We laughed. I had a hundred questions to ask her. I wanted to hear all about her trip. Every single thing. Emilia was the most adventurous person I had ever known and since I couldn’t be adventurous, I lived vicariously through her.
Before I could start my interview, Brett, the other server who was still in high school, stepped up to us. “Hey, Ruby, I’m going to take a break. Okay?”
“Sure.”
“Back in fifteen.”
“Okay.” To Em and Coco, I said, “Are you guys eating? Sit down in my section.”
“That’s why we came,” Coco said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “It’s also the reason Emi is actually back. She heard about the spicy chicken and sprinted the last half of her hike.”
“Not true,” Em denied. Then she looked at me and said, “It might be true.”
We laughed again, and I led them to a recently cleared table for two.
“Emilia!” someone called from across the street. All three of us turned to see who it was.
My good mood fizzled with the simple turn of my head and panic rushed in like a riptide. “Fork,” I growled the curse word I used around Max.
Em gave me a sheepish look. “Sorry,” she whispered as her friends from town started making their way over.
“Why are you so popular?” I growled at her.
Coco laughed. “Why areyouso popular, Ruby?”
Rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness of her comment, I planned to let it go. But her waggling eyebrows argued silently with my nonchalance. She nodded her head toward the same group of people. Among the Emilia fan club was a group of guys Coco and I graduated with—including Levi Cole. He was staring at me and when my gaze crashed into his, he lifted his hand in a casual wave hello.
“Shit. Fuck. Son of a bee-otch!”
Emilia whipped her head around, eyes wide. “What happened to fork?”
“I need to go,” I told them quickly. “I’ll get you some Cokes.”
“Diet for me!” Coco said to my back.
