Rufus takes the lead this time. “It’s a low-pressure hang. Don’t make it into a big thing. Just wave the white flag and show him the friendly, fun guy you are with us. Maybe he just needs to see you in a different context to get to know the real you. Maybe then he won’t hate you.”
“You think hehatesme?” Greg can deal with ambivalence—he’s done as much with his distant parents. He could even grow to live with dislike if he had to. But hate would be a step too far for him to handle. Hate in his comments section is ignorable, but IRL hate is not. Especially from someone he works so closely with, who seems as passionate about bar service as he is. The squeeze of being unwanted presses him from all sides until he feels ready to burst.
“No, nobody thinks he hates you. He just doesn’t want a ticket to board the Greg train quite yet.” Jessica’s correction does not make the situation better. “We’re all human. We’re all judgy. Let’s give him the chance to judge you in a different setting. Maybe a setting where he’s more comfortable and less stressed.”
Greg mulls this over. His current plan of awkward avoidance has been immature, and the results lackluster. A change of tactic sounds doable if anxiety-inducing. “Fine,” he relents. “But how do we start?”
“The way all good nemeses-to-friends relationships start—light internet stalking.”
“I called it! I knew there would be stalking.”
Before Greg knows it, Jessica has his phone and is launching a search for Julien Boire. The blood rushes furiously to Greg’s cheeks when Jessica and Rufus comment how Julien is already in his recent searches. “Seems like someone doth protest for no good reason,” Rufus jokes.
Jessica cackles, then adds, “We’re sending a follow and a friend request. You should do the honors!”
Greg tentatively reaches out to take his phone back, fingers shaky. “At the same time? Won’t that be weird? Won’t he think I was, like, weirdly thinking of him?”
“Aren’t you thinking of him?” Jessica asks.
Greg rolls his eyes, bested, and scrolls through Julien’s Facebook wall. There’s not much there. The most recent update is that he’s marked going to a paint-and-sip event at Studio Artiste, which is close to the restaurant. His new gaggle of older women friends who joke about hiscocktails go there. “What do you both think of this?”
Rufus and Jessica lean in to read the screen. “That’s perfect!”
“I agree. If he’s already going, there’s no way he can turn down your offer. It literally says right there, no refunds. He’d be out the money.” Jessica is beaming.
“He might not care,” Rufus says, which hits Greg in a sore spot. If only he had the luxury of not caring about money. Though, he lived in that space for a time, and it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Life had its other problems money couldn’t cure.
“Maybe I could just sign up, and I’ll bump into him there as if it were a total accident.”
Jessica and Rufus smack Greg with matching looks of shock. “Now you’re the one that’s describing stalking!” Jessica jabs.
Greg hangs his head with a chuckle to himself. “I know it sounds egotistical, but... I’m just not used to people not liking me, okay?”
Greg has spent most of his life ensuring he never felt the way he did when he lived with his parents or when he didn’t excel at the academy. He ran fast and far away from those feelings after graduating, working tirelessly to carve out his own life. He’s worried that even after all that—all those years of toughening himself up—his skin still isn’t thick enough to protect against lanky, scowly men who don’t even know him.
Rufus’s voice is serious when he speaks again. “Aw, Greg, man, we’re just kidding around with you. We know you didn’t do anything wrong. This Julien guy just needs to warm up to you. Maybe bring up the event to him at work tonight and say you were thinking about going, saw he was attending, and wanted to know if he’s been before. It’ll pull some of the pressure away.”
“Wait,” Jessica says suddenly. “That’s what you did to me with trivia night at Ted’s! You asked me if it was worth checking out, I told you I loved it, and then you mentioned you didn’t have a team... Sneaky.”
“If it works, it works!”
Jessica laughs to herself. “We’ll see with Greg if it really works or if it’s just your charm and good looks that worked on me.” She leans over and kisses her boyfriend sweetly.
A pang hits Greg in the chest. He misses that kind of intimacy, but he has no time for that right now. He needs to quickly befriend Julien, who is practically his boss’s child, so they can run successful events together and help Martin’s Place thrive.
And he can keep his job.
And he can get out of debt.
These three thoughts braid together into an unbreakable strand of anxiety that pulses low in his gut.
Nervously, he hits the friend request button and hopes for the best.
JULIEN
Julien is in the middle of pleading with Aunt Augustine when his phone lights up with a notification. He doesn’t see it right away because he’s mid-monologue. “This is completely out of the blue. We’re going to stress out the staff.”
“Stress out the staff or stress outyouspecifically?” she asks, grabbing a sparkling seltzer bottle from the fridge below the bar and taking a sip. “Hun, I know you hate change, but we wouldn’t have brought in Greg if we didn’t think this is where we were headed. We’re courting the college kids and the young professionals. Those are the people who watch Greg on TikTok.”
