“I won’t drop one. I promise,” I vow. “How are you?”
I’m just trying to make small talk, because we’ve been in this kitchen together for about twenty minutes and he hasn’t said much other than to give orders. I have never felt like he likes me much and I want to change that. But all I get is a grunt and a nod as he concentrates on plating a burger order. It’s just a burger and fries but he makes it look, and taste, incredible. I’m actually really proud that our hemp buns are part of it, so I mention it, and add, “I hope you won’t let the bullshit in the paper affect our business relationship.”
That gets him to lift his eyes off the plate. “I didn’t believe a word of that rubbish, Bowen.”
“Good. Thanks.”
He smiles. “Besides, I have to keep buying from you. It annoys my fella when I tell him I get my buns from a hot farmer.”
I laugh. “You tell him that?”
“I did, yeah. And he hasn’t forgotten,” Joss chuckles with me. I shake my head and almost drop another filet. I curse under my breath and manage to get it on the plate and hand them all to Joss to cook. “I’m glad I could be used to rile up your boyfriend. See? I’m good for something.”
Joss grins and takes the plate from me and starts cooking the four fish and chips platters that are next up. He’s everywhere. The fryer, the prep station, the fridge. He moves erratically at warp speed but somehow it looks like a choreographed dance. “Can you run the finished burger plate out to Molly? It’s for table twelve.”
“Sure thing.” I take off my apron and bandana, and grab the dish, walking it carefully to the front.
Molly is by the bar, putting a drink order on her tray and she smiles at me. “Trade ya a burger plate for a lawyer.”
“What?”
Her high pigtails, which look like two poufy curl balls, jiggle as she flicks her head toward the back of the bar. “There’s a guy in the back booth who wants to talk to you. He’s a lawyer.”
She grabs the burger plate out of my hands as I ask, “A lawyer for who?”
“I didn’t ask him that.” She spins and grabs the tray full of drinks too. Auden, Tanner, and I all hold our breath as we watch her carry both at the same time.
Once she’s done and hasn’t dropped a thing, I can hear Tanner sigh in relief. Then he turns to me. “Why don’t you take your break and find out what he wants.”
“Okay,” I reply numbly. I don’t know how these past few days can get worse, but maybe I’m about to find out. All the worst-case scenarios take turns dancing through my head. It’s a lawyer for the city, they’re suing me for something. It’s Officer Matt’s lawyer, he’s suing Autumn for calling him a fuck wit. It’s Lacey Baldwin’s lawyer because when Woody gave that interview in his pajamas to the reporters who had gathered while the police searched our property, he more than subtly insinuated that he thought her camp might be behind the lies.
Never once do I think it’s going to be lawyer here to help me. But when I get to the booth, it’s someone I know. Aaron Morin. He’s Autumn’s friend. She knows him through his brother Jamie. I know them all, sort of. I mean we’ve hung out before when Autumn has dragged me out one of the many events that fill her calendar.
“Hey, Aaron” I say, feeling very confused. I thought he went to school out of state. I hardly ever see him around. “You’re here to seeme?”
“Yeah. Hey.” He gives me his hand to shake. “You got a minute?”
“Sure.” He motions for me to sit down across from him. He’s dressed in a pair of jeans and a polo but somehow still looks very much the buttoned-down lawyer. He puts his arms on the table between us and folds his fingers together. “I was asked to talk to you by a friend. About the article about you in the paper.”
“Is someone suing me?” I don’t know why my brain goes straight there, but it does.
“No. No.” Aaron smiles lightly. “But you can sue. The paper. And I was asked to give you a little bit more information about that.”
He turns and reaches down into a messenger bag I didn’t realize was on the booth seat next to him. He pulls out a small stack of papers held together with a paperclip. “I’m not a defamation lawyer. I’m not actually a lawyer at all yet, but it’s something I have covered in school and so this is just advice. Not exactly accredited legal advice but more like an informed legal opinion.”
He slides the stack of papers at me, and I pull it closer and thumb through them. It’s a bunch of examples of court rulings on defamation cases similar to what happened to me. I think. I mean that’s what I get from scanning the first two pages. I’m trying to figure out what to say to him when suddenly there’s another person slipping into the booth next to Aaron. His boyfriend Jeremy.
“Oh! You started without me. What did I miss?” he asks and wraps one arm around Aaron’s broad shoulders while placing his other hand under the table on Aaron’s knee I assume by the way Aaron’s eyes widen for a second. I remember that these two are the definition of opposites attracting. “And thanks for sitting down so I have an excuse to squeeze into this side and press myself against my man in public. He’s not a huge PDA boy and I like pushing his boundaries a little.”
“A little?” Aaron repeats and lifts an eyebrow at the same time his mouth lifts in a smile. They’re cute and then some. And it makes my heart long for what I never got to have with Chase.
“So, you totally have to sue the pants off the reporter, the newspaper, and whoever the hell their bogus source is,” Jeremy announces. “You’ll be rich.”
“I don’t want to be rich,” I reply but then I think about how we might lose the farm if Woody doesn’t win because of this. And how, although Autumn refuses to admit it’s the cause, her online hemp jewelry sales have taken a total nosedive since the article. “I just want to repair the damage they’ve done.”
“Money can fix a lot of things,” Jeremy tells me. “Not everything by all means, but some.”
“Even just filing the lawsuit and making it public will help change public opinion. The world loves when someone stands up for themselves and fights back. Staying silent makes them think you’re guilty,” Aaron explains.
