I tug my wrist free, take my tray, and head over to the table that flagged me. Wow. That was not at all a great beginning. I throw myself into the rest of my shift like I’m up for Waitress of the Year and am currently being evaluated by a panel of judges.
But by two-thirty the lunch rush has evaporated. The gaggle of tourists that have remained a week after labor day are back to the beach or one of the amusement parks, water parks, or other attractions peppering Route One just up the road. The locals are back to work. So now it’s just staff, which is ninety percent family, and Jake. He’s been sitting on that same stool at the counter this entire time and people have shown up to shower him with greetings. First Logan came. Then Dad sauntered in from the docks where he was cleaning the fishing boat after a morning out switching the lobster traps. Some of the locals walked over too before leaving to say welcome back or congratulate him on the new position.
I’ve been cleaning the countertops of all the tables and booths but now that I’ve finished that, I decide I should head back into my office where I can finish up next week’s schedule and sneak out the back door in the break room to avoid Jake a little longer. If he sees me disappear he doesn’t try to stop me this time. I make it into my office, which is the closet-sized room next to the walk-in freezer, and close the door.
I move my textbooks out of the way and then stare at the schedule on my computer screen for fourteen minutes while I think of Jake and nothing else. He looks… incredible. And he called me Tink, which is short for Tinkerbell. He’s started that trend after the first time Logan and Finn had him over to our family house. Jake was fourteen. He’d been working two shifts a week as a dishwasher at the restaurant for almost a month. Logan and Finn loved having him around since most of the staff was way older. We were all shocked when Mom and Dad hired him because he was so young and well… everyone knew about Jake Grady, the skinny kid with the troubled mom and no dad, who bounced in and out of foster care.
Because Logan and Finn liked him so much, they started hanging out with him outside the restaurant and inviting him over to dinner. Mom and Dad never minded an extra mouth at the table. Anyway, the first time he came to the house he saw the picture my mom had on our mantle. It was of Halloween when I was six. She had somehow coaxed me and my brothers into theme costumes. I was Tinkerbell, Logan was the crocodile Tock, Finn Peter Pan, and Declan was Captain Hook. He’s called me Tink on and off since he first laid eyes on that picture. But I never expected him to remember that now. After a solid three-year gap, I wasn’t even sure he’d recognize me.
There’s a single rap at my door. I yell that it’s open, and Nova pops her head in. “Don’t yell at me but Mom said we had to check on you anytime you disappeared for a longish period of time.”
I roll my eyes. “You faint once at work and suddenly everyone is on high alert.”
Nova opens the door farther and steps inside. “Five stitches and blood on the floor in the middle of a dinner rush earns concern, Sis.”
“That hasn’t happened since,” I remind her. Nova isn’t my actual sister. She’s my sister-in-law, married to Declan. But she feels more like a sibling than he does most days. “I was getting used to the dialysis. I’m a pro now.”
Nova frowns. “Nothing yet?”
“You mean donor-wise? Nada,” I reply. “Hey, has anyone said anything about this to Jake?”
Nova shakes her head, her thick wavy chocolate brown ponytail swaying like a horse tail behind her, but then she blinks and her face lights up. “But I bet he would get tested if he knew!”
“No!” I bark and it causes the excitement on her face to disappear. “I don’t want him to know. Not yet. And I am definitely not asking him to get tested.”
“Terra, you should be askingeveryonein town to get tested,” Nova lectures and I try not to get pissed off. She, like the rest of my family, just wants me to get a new kidney from anyone I can. I want that too, frankly, but Jake? No. I mean I won’t ask him. He has a habit of turning me down for things I really want. “Yeah, eventually maybe someone should tell him but not now. Not today. He just got back. And besides what are the chances he’s a match? Slim.”
Your luck at getting a kidney match is best with direct family. I have three brothers and two parents and sadly only two of them were matches—my dad and Declan. But Dad was disqualified because of age and his type one diabetes. Declan was not deemed an acceptable match because he has had mental health issues in the past. The kidney donor regulations are strict and vary from state-to-state, and Maine is stringent with emotional issues. It’s not just that he has ADD and takes meds for that or that he suffers from depression. He tried to kill himself a week before his eighteenth birthday, and there’s also concern the carbon monoxide from that almost-successful attempt that involved a car and a locked and sealed garage might have damaged his kidneys without anyone knowing. He’s appealing the decision, meeting with psychiatrists, and getting doctors to run more tests on his kidney function, but I’m not holding my breath.
“You never know, Terra.” Nova is the Queen of optimism. “If Selena Gomez can get a kidney from her best friend, you can certainly match with your brother’s best friend. And I bet it’s an extra strong, extra tough, extra handsome kidney. Like Jake himself.”
I laugh at that and Nova joins me. “He looks good though, huh?”
I can’t believe I just said that out loud. I shouldn’t have.
“To be clear, I’m just stating the obvious. I’m happily married but…” Nova’s chuckle dies out and she grins. “He looks hotter than the fires he puts out.”
I laugh again. “Not a lie. And to be clear, I’m also just stating the obvious.”
“Like hell you are,” Nova challenges, and I no longer want to laugh.
“Seriously. I’m with Tom, remember? And I like Tom,” I say pointing to the framed picture on my desk of my boyfriend Tom and I.
“We all like Tom. Tom is swell,” Nova says, her voice as cheery and bright as it always is but somehow it feels false right now. “Is he coming to town this weekend?”
“Yeah. He’ll be here for the party actually,” I say and shutdown my computer, giving up on doing the schedule today. I scribble a note on a post-it and stick it to the corner of the screen with the other To-Do reminders I have stuck there.
“Has he been tested yet?” Nova asks, her tone judgy. I’m running out of excuses to call her on it.
“He was supposed to go this week now that he’s got the clear from his insurance company and his college faculty,” I reply and keep my eyes focused on my desk, absently tidying up the papers strewn there instead of meeting her eye. She is less than impressed that Tom’s first thought about becoming a living kidney donor was how that worked for insurance purposes rather than how it would be giving me my life back. “I’ll find out how it went tonight when he gets in.”
“Cool,” Nova says lightly. She opens the door as I grab my purse and make my way around my desk. “See you and Tom tonight.”
I nod and blow her an air kiss. “Hasta luego, hermana.”
“Ugh. Your Spanish is horrible,” Nova moans. “Es doloroso para mis oídos.”
“That’s because I took French in high school,” I remind her.
