When I walk through the door, the restaurant is quiet. We don’t open for another twenty minutes. Andrew is at the host stand, assigning server stations.
“Morning,” I say, hoping to breeze past.
“How’s our favorite singing bartender?” Andrew teases, looking up from the board.
I shoot him a stare that I hope lets him know I don’t love the hallmark.
He meets my eyes then, raising a brow at me. “You all right?”
I sigh, “I’mfine.”
“You look…well, you don’t look great.” Andrew treads carefully.
“Josh moved out,” I admit, catching the tremble in my voice. “If you don’t mind, Ireallydon’t want to talk about it.”
“Oh shit. I’m sorry, Mel.” Andrew’s mouth pulls in with a frown, sympathy in his eyes but no surprise, like this was something he half-expected. I try not to take that personally. “You know how these musicians are.”
“No,” I interrupt. “It’s not the musician. It’s me. And that’s all I can say right now because I’m really,reallytrying to keep it together today.” It’s the most candid I’ve ever been with Andrew, but the guy is used to my stolid demeanor—and if I don’t let him know how I’m feeling, he’ll go on and on about how it wasn’t meant to be.
“Okay,” he says, holding up his hands. “I’m sorry.”
“Thank you.” I peer over the host stand at the white board he was writing on moments ago. “Who is on the day shift?”
“Lexi, Kaylee, Jordan, and Finn. Wes behind the bar.” Andrew crosses off a section of tables in the back where we usually set up the open mic night stage. “I have no one to cover here so I’m just going to close the section until dinner.”
“Sounds good.” I worry at my lip, looking around the restaurant, praying for a busy shift. The busier the better because when it’s slow, all I do is worry about Josh and everything that went wrong.
“Mel?” Andrew nudges me. I get the impression it’s not the first time he’s said my name.
“Hmm? Sorry.” I shake my head.
“The concert is still on, right?” Andrew frowns.
“Yes.” I sigh. “The concert is still on.”
“For what it’s worth, I think the town will love it,” Andrew says, squeezing my shoulder.
“Hope so.”
* * *
The lunch crowdcomes and just as I’d hoped, it’s super busy. Around two o’clock, I get a text from Sophie that she’s on her way down for that cup of coffee we talked about. I almost want to bail and tell her I’m too busy to get away. But I’m due for my break and Sophie has never been anything but an amazing friend to me.
I poke my head into the office and Andrew looks up.
“I’m going to take my break and grab a coffee. Do you want anything?”
“Why don’t you call it a day?” Andrew offers, ignoring my question. “Marcus is coming in an hour anyway.”
Marcus is a new guy that Andrew hired to co-manage with us. We’ve both felt as if we can’t get our heads above water this summer and there needs to be a manager on every shift. I didn’t even have to try to convince Andrew when I brought it up. He was all for it. So now there will be someone else picking up the slack around here. I haven’t met him yet, but it doesn’t matter. Andrew is offering me a chance to leave early when my world is crumbling around me. I’m taking it.
“You sure?”
“Definitely. Go do some self-care spa or whatever it is you women do.” He waves me off.
I grin, raising my eyebrows. “Self-care spa?”
“You know, Lauren is always going on and on about how important her self-care is.” He shrugs. “Just get out of here, will you?”
