Gabe De La Hoya. The hairs on my arms stood on end and my cheeks flushed with warmth. I nodded, unable to speak.
‘You’ll be his primary trainer. If you’re not on the schedule, I’ll find someone else, but on the days you both work, I’d like you to focus on training him as wonderfully as I’ve trained you.’
How nice of her to take credit for training me when it had actually been a series of other servers. ‘You got it. What else?’
‘The next task is to prove to me that you can totally handle yourself with the residents.’
I smiled politely. ‘I do that every day.’
She shook her head. ‘I mean that I’ll task one of the residents with testing you. Something particularly difficult.’ Her voice went up a few octaves, making it sound overly saccharine. ‘Something you can’t say no to.’
That was Natalie’s biggest rule: never tell the residents no. If one of them asked for something that seemed impossible, we had to fetch her and either she would make it happen orshewould be the one to tell them no.
Natalie continued, ‘It will test how you deal with a difficult resident.’ She seemed particularly proud of herself as she said it.
‘Okay, I’ll be ready for something fun tonight.’
She shook her head and clapped her hands together quietly. ‘That’s the best part! It won’t be tonight because I want it to be a surprise! You’ll never know who it will be or when it will happen.’
Which meant every single batshit request that every single resident had from now until that letter was in my hand was potential disaster.Kill me.
I kept my face neutral. ‘Got it. And the final task?’
‘I’ll have to think about that one.’ She pursed her lips. ‘I think we’ll know when you complete it. But if I get the inspiration before then, I’ll let you know.’
So every possible misstep – and certainly not my triumphs – could be the potential dead end to my La Mère acceptance.
‘Sounds fun,’ I said with as much sincerity as I could muster. She dismissed me, and I left the office, pulling the door closed behind me. And there was Gabe’s name again, right next to mine.
I needed to tell Ava.
Without saying hi to anyone else, I left the kitchen and cut through the salad bar, where James – a scrawny, six-foot-tall white kid with an inane ability to create unwanted nicknames for everyone – was refilling the last of the dressings.
‘Bahama Mama!’ He did a little dance as he said the ridiculous nickname he’d come up with for me. ‘What’s up?’
‘Hey, James.’ I continued back to the rear service station as James played both sides of the conversation he imagined I was supposed to stop and have with him.
James lowered his voice. ‘I love that shirt – is it new?’ Then in his own voice, ‘Aw, thanks for noticing, Bahama Mama, but nah, it’s the same one – I just spilled French dressing on it.’
I called Ava, but it went to voice mail. She was probably driving, since her shift started any minute. I texted her my location and told her to meet me as soon as she arrived.
Several minutes later, Ava rounded the corner of the rear service station, looking a little anxious.
‘You’re late!’ I scolded.
Her eyes went wide. ‘What?’
I showed her the time on my phone, and her shoulders relaxed. ‘Two minutes, and it took those two minutes to walk from the time clock to here.’
‘A likely story! Guess wha …’ I started to tell her about Gabe but realized she still seemed agitated. ‘Wait, what’s wrong?’
She sighed. ‘What isn’t wrong? I had to borrow my uncle’s car to get to my nail appointment, and he made me fill up the tank as payment. I tried to go shopping for GJ’s birthday but couldn’t find anything—’
‘Get your uncle to buy her bourbon for you.’ Ava’s grandmother was legit life goals. Almost eighty years old, but you’d think she was sixty. She had a set routine and ended each day with a glass of bourbon with two ice cubes while she watched old TV shows on their family streaming plan.
Ava shook her head and held a finger up to me. ‘No, Grandma Jenkins buys her own bourbon. Anyway, I still have two weeks. Till her birthday, I mean.’
‘Let me know if you want help? Or at the very least a chauffeur – that way you don’t have to fill up your uncle’s car.’
