“Actually, I can’t. I have another commitment in the morning, and I don’t know how long it will take.”
Jaxon’s assessing eyes are on me, and it makes me jittery.
“Just… know I’m here if you need me, Jasper. We all are,” he says, his voice filled with genuine concern, much like Olly’s. “Even if you just want to talk or vent.”
“I appreciate your concern, but honestly, I’m fine. It’s just a routine follow-up.”
I lie.
He nods his head, “All right, get to work, or next time Ms. Cook comes in here, I’ll make you handle her.”
I get up from the deathtrap of a chair. “You can send that crazy old lady my way any time. She is a hoot.”Fuck, did I just say hoot?
Now I want to wash my mouth out with soap.
“Mira!” I yell. “You got any soap up there?”
“Oh no, what did you say this time? Because I don’t think anything can beat fiddlesticks,” she yells from behind the front counter.
“I don’t want to talk about it!”
“He used the word hoot in a sentence, and it wasn’t about owls,” Jaxon yells from his office.
“Excuse me, you literally just called us yahoos, and you don’t see me throwingyouunder the bus.” I can hear Jaxon gasp in his office, and I smirk.
Why do I work here again?
Since we started these so-calledfamilydinners, they have slowly become more than just work colleagues. I just need to figure out how to let them in.
MyshouldersspasmasI sit around my tiny desk in my cramped office tucked away in the back of The Diner. Is it the size of the office or the size of the desk? I can’t tell.
I glance at the clock and let out a deep breath of relief when I see the day is almost over. I quickly finish placing orders for supplies and ingredients I won’t be able to purchase at the Farmers Market tomorrow.
Locally grown and caught ingredients are something my grandfather always took pride in. So do I, but there are some things I need to order from distributors.
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to sit in my office and handle paperwork on a Friday night. Normally, I would be back in the kitchen cooking.
I finally bit the bullet and hired Dillon a few weeks ago. They came highly recommended by The Matthew House.
Marcus and Jacob started The Matthew house in honor of their husband, who passed away. Marcus is a big investor who likes to focus on LGBTQ+ projects and is also an investor in my friend Alex’s video game company.
Many of the local businesses in the area helped The Matthew House put on a job fair. Jaxon, Alex’s boyfriend, along with Spencer, the host of tonight’s family dinner with his boyfriend Finn, all came together.
Spencer, who knows what he’s talking about in business, is younger than me and impressively runs not one but two businesses. Well, it’s more of a combo situation. A bookstore and café in one, it’s ingenious.
When I met Dillon, I scooped them up as fast as I could. I’d been wanting to make some changes, and I’ve slowly been putting them into motion.
Hiring another cook gives me a little breathing room and now that Dillon has settled into their position, I get to take advantage.
Plus, I still have Darcy. She has worked for me for the past 8 years. She’s more than capable of managing things in my absence.
I’m ready to make a change in my life and figure out what I want. Even if I don’t know exactlywhatit is I want.
Well, thereisone thing I know I want… Ok, I lied. There are two things.
I want more time for baking. Baking centers me. It’s slow and delicate, it’s soothing. It’s precise measurements and following directions to a ‘T.’ It calms my sometimes almost overwhelming need to have everything neat and orderly.
And the other thing?
