Chapter Fifteen
Salzy and Jamie workeduntil almost ten o’clock.Jamie was right about Salzy; he had good suggestions and had a keen sense of how things worked.Jamie was positive that had it not been for his input, it would have taken him a few days to get a list together that was as coherent as what he was looking at.
They ordered some dinner from the diner, and Jamie had gone to get it.When he did, Flo cornered him.“A little birdie told me you and Sal were up there drinking beer in the middle of the day.Is that any way for a businessman to act?”She smiled and snapped her gum.
“You snap that gum on the dining room floor and I’ll fire you,” was Jamie’s response as he picked up the foil-wrapped plates from the service window.
Florence laughed.“Honey, you can’t fire me!”She reached into the warming box where the bread was kept.“I’m like an old plumbing fixture around here.Too old to find a replacement for, and it would cost too much to put a new one in.”
“You just keep thinking that woman.”
“What are the two of you doing up there anyways?”She asked, holding the basket of biscuits and corn bread, her hand on the swinging door into the dining room.
“That’s some more of your business.”Jamie smiled at her and Walter.“Thanks for dinner, Walter.I’ll bring the plates down later.”
Walter waved a spatula at him, his attention focused on the burgers on the flattop grill.
When he and Salzy called it a night, they had almost finished off the beer, the bottles clinking together in a box Jamie had found out by the dumpster.
“When are you going to tell everyone?”Salzy asked, standing, stretching his hands over his head, revealing that tantalizing tummy of his.
Jamie closed his laptop.“Tomorrow night at the meeting.”He yawned.“I need to find time to go and pack up my apartment in Atlanta, too.I need my printer.”
“Depending on my schedule, I can help with your moving,” Salzy said.
“Thanks.I’ll probably take you up on that.I don’t have a lot, and most of it can just go to God.”
Salzy laughed.“I can say pretty much the same thing.”He scratched his head as he looked out of the door of the Puckett’s apartment towards his own.“I think I may change that.Put down some roots.”He looked at Jamie.“I think this is going to be my permanent home.”
Jamie nodded.“I’m glad.I also think we make a pretty good team.”
“That’s ’cause we’re brothers.”Salzy wrapped him in a big hug, lifting him up off his feet.
* * * * *
Jamie’s alarm clockwent off at five a.m.He flopped his hand onto the old clock, turning it off.Groggily, he stumbled out of bed, moaning as he stretched his back.He turned at looked at the bed.“You are outta here!”
After he was dressed for the day, he went into the kitchen of the diner, turning on the lights.He turned on his oven and started making the day’s biscuits.He didn’t make as much as he usually would since they wouldn’t be doing a dinner service, same with the corn bread.
“Morning, Jamie,” Walter said as he came in, Timmy right behind him.
“Mornin’, bo-boss.”
“If’n I told you once, I’ve told you a million times, I ain’t dying my hair!”Hazel said, frustration clear in her voice.
“I’m just sayin’,” Flo said, right on her heels.
“Mornin’, Jamie,” Hazel said.“Please do something with this woman.”She thumbed over her back at Florence.
“Morning, Jamie.”Florence looked at him, one eyebrow arched.“You don’t look too worse for wear, seeing as you spent all day yesterday drinking.”
Jamie rolled his eyes at her.“You just keep it up.”He’d stopped rolling out the biscuit dough.
“Mornin’ all,” Dexter said, all smiles as he came in.“Looks like another beautiful day.”
