“Can I have the country fried steak?”Salzy asked.
Mike laughed.“Be my guest.But I can tell you it isn’t anything like Jamie’s.”
“That goes without saying.”Salzy pulled the covered Styrofoam container towards himself.“I’m starved.”
Mike stared at Salzy.“Um...how’s your head?”
Salzy looked at Mike and then the other two men.“What?My head is fine.Why’s everyone asking me that?Did I hit my head?Am I bleeding or something?”
“Honey, you had a lot, and I do mean alot, of tequila last night.”Joesph did that thing where he tilted his head and lifted the opposite eyebrow.
Salzy shrugged his shoulders.“I told you...”He took a bite of the country fried steak.“Tequila likes me a lot.I can drink a lot of it, and I’ve never had a hangover from it.I just embarrass myself.”
“Do you remember ripping your shirt off?”Jamie asked, smiling.
“Uh, no.”Salzy’s brow furrowed.“Did I at least keep my pants on?”
Joesph started laughing and Mike joined him.“Only because Jamie stopped you from taking them off,” Joesph said, still laughing.
“Thanks, bro.”Salzy draped an arm over Jamie’s shoulder.“See, I told you we were brothers.”
“It was entertaining,” Mike added.“It was a fun night.I’ve not had that much fun in ages.”
“I agree.”Jamie finished the rest of his cold coffee.“It’s been a while since I’ve done that.”
“And we still got to bed before midnight,” Joesph snarked.“Like real adults.”
“Eww...not adults,” Salzy laughed.“I don’t want to be an adult.”
Mike guffawed, spitting out a big crumb of biscuit.
“On a more serious note,” Joesph piped in, “We’re going to need a coffee maker.”
“I’ll run out and get one,” Jamie volunteered.
“No, you won’t.We have appointments all day long.And don’t forget, you have that meeting with Payton Manley at three.”Joesph held up his notepad, the page almost full.“Send Sal.There’s not much he can do today with all the other men in the diner working.”
“You okay with that?”Jamie asked Salzy, who had just polished off the container of country fried steak, biscuits and gravy, and the grits.
“Yeah.Just make me up a list.”He looked at Jamie and smiled.“Will I need to go to Hanson’s?”
Joesph made up a list of things, and then Jamie added to it.“Come up and I’ll get my wallet,” he said to Salzy.“I’ll give you my debit card.”
When the two men were upstairs, Jamie opened up his laptop.“I’m going to get a barbecue and go ahead and pay for it, so all you’ll need to do is pick it up.”He looked at Salzy.“Then go to Hanson’s and get some charcoal.And for goodness’ sake, ask that girl out.”
Salzy grinned.“Okay.I think I will.What else?”
“Go over to Target and get us a decent coffee maker and some martini glasses.I can’t believe I forgot about Joesph not liking beer.And then”—he scribbled something else on the list—“get us some hamburger, some buns, maybe some hot dogs too.Whatever salads they have, and maybe some chips.We’ll do a cookout tonight.I’ll figure out what I can do from all the stuff in the walk-in for the next few nights.”
“Do we have a timeline for how long all these renovations are going to take?”Salzy asked as he put the list in his back pocket.
Jamie stood up and handed Salzy the card.“I’m going to go over all that this afternoon with Joesph.I have to admit, it’s going a lot faster than I thought it would.”
Salzy shook his head.“I’ll agree to that.Joesph is a firecracker and knows how to get things done.”
“That’s what makes him one of the best in his field.His work is amazing.You should have seen that hotel lobby he did in Atlanta.It would blow your mind.”
“I’ll ask him if he has any pictures.”Salzy took the card and put it in his wallet.
