“No, it’s not,” Clem confirmed. “The kitchen is an absolute disaster, and they are criminally understaffed. This gentleman is their manager, and given that he clearly had nothing better to do than lounge around in his office, I simply suggested an alternative course of action to help boost morale a bit. He’s going to be our server this afternoon.Right, Ronald?”
Eliana caught sight of a line of heads poking around the entrance to the kitchen, clear elation in the tired eyes of the waitstaff—visible all the way from the other side of the diner.
“That’s right,” he grunted, his voice unamused. “Our special today is the shrimp po’boy. Half off.”
“Ugh, I suppose that means all of your shrimp is about to go bad,” Clem mumbled, snapping the menu back open. “Certainly rules out the shrimp and grits.” She huffed a breath. “I’ll just take an order of chocolate chip waffles, please. Extra syrup.”
Once they’d all ordered and Ronald wandered off, the conversation that followed was easy. Natural. Until the food arrived, and a lull developed as they ate.
“Well,” Clem began, “I suppose it’s as good a time as any.”
“For what?” Eliana asked, watching as Clem pulled a folded stack of papers out of her bag.
“So, I know I kinda sprung this visit on you, and I do feel a little bad for commandeering your work lunch . . .”
Milo shook his head. “It’s all good. No need to feel bad.”
“I said alittlebad,” Clem corrected. “But it’s not just a social visit. I got some information for you, and I thought it would be good to catch you on a day you’re with Milo, given the content.”
“Oh yeah?” Eliana sat up straighter, exchanging a quick glance of apprehension with Milo.
“So I haven’t been able to get, uh . . .” Clem’s eyes flicked to Milo for a moment and back, “everythingyou asked for. I need Marty for some of it, and that’s taking longer than I anticipated.”
Eliana nodded, understanding that Clem hadn’t been able to gather any financial data with her cousin still out of town. She wasn’t worried. Her main focus was building her own savings account, and she’d already begun to document the pieces of mail she managed to intercept. Ultimately, however, it was the bank statements that she needed most. She glanced at Milo and smothered her snort at the look of patient confusion he wore, his eyes slightly squinted as he thought through Clem’s words—clearly trying to parse out her meaning.
“Is Marty alright?” Eliana asked, the speckled face of her old, gangly, ginger friend flashing to mind.
“Well, he’s missing.”
“Missing?”
“It’s alright, I’ll find him.” Clem waved a hand through the air. “Regardless, I have managed to get you something in the meantime. Your cell company has the security framework of a doggy daycare—with chihuahuas running their IT department.” She separated the stack into two andslapped them on the table in front of Milo and Eliana. “I went back a month.”
Simultaneously, they both reached forward, lifted the papers, and began to read.
Bea
I LOVED the flowers.
Jesse
good
Bea
:)
Dreamed about you last night.
Jesse
was it hot?
Bea
You know it.
Jesse
