Part I
Boy Meets Girl
1
Gianna
Cincinnati, Ohio
I slid my palms over my black apron, smearing the sticky remnants of vermouth over the gold embroidered Teddy’s Tavern logo. I surveyed the long row of customers sitting at the polished mahogany bar of the upscale restaurant in Hyde Park. Most were dressed in business attire, having just come from work to hit happy hour. They chatted away with their colleagues, all seemingly satisfied—for now. It wouldn’t be long before I was flagged down to make another martini.
“Gia!” Theodore Reeves, also known as Teddy, called out to me from the door leading to the kitchen. “Nat is swamped since the new girl called in. Can you do a sweep of the tables over in section A?”
I glanced over at Natalia, my co-worker and best friend. She definitely looked frazzled.
“On it, Teddy,” I replied with a little salute.
“Thanks, doll. It’s impossible to find good help these days.”
I moved around to the end of the bar and waved him off.
“Come on now. You know they all can’t be perfect like me,” I joked as I headed over to my friend. When Natalia saw me, I watched her shoulders visibly sag with relief. “What can I help you with?”
“Table seven and nine need drink refills. Table five’s food should be ready in the kitchen. Take your pick. Grab the drinks or get the food,” she said in a rush. A strand of jet-black hair fell loose from her ponytail and she hastily tucked it behind her ear.
“I’ll get the drinks. That way I can keep an eye on the bar customers too,” I suggested.
“Good idea. I can’t believe how slammed we are today! With the Danbury Musical Festival going on, I thought it would be slower.”
I cocked one eyebrow and leaned in closer to her so I wasn’t overheard by any of the patrons.
“Seriously, Nat? What you see here is Cincinnati’s most prestigious yuppie crowd. Do you honestly think any of them would be going to see Fall Out Boy or Sublime?”
She smirked, then pinched up her face as though she was trying to picture it.
“No, I suppose you’re right. I can’t imagine this swanky bunch anywhere near a mosh pit.”
I laughed, patting her shoulder, then headed in the direction of the tables needing drink refills.
Five hours later, the restaurant had cleared out and there were only a few stragglers left at the bar. I leaned on the back counter watching Natalia as she counted our tips for the night. She handed me a stack of cash totaling six hundred dollars.
“Good night for tips,” I mused, grabbing my purse from under the bar. Separating the money, I put half in my wallet and the rest into a worn, tattered white envelope. After I put my purse back under the counter, I glanced up to see Natalia staring at me with a sad look on her face.
“What?” I asked.
“Just thinking, toots. That’s all.”
“Thinking about what?”
“About how long it’s going to be before your mom’s bills are paid off,” she quietly replied.
Emotion scorched my throat and I tried to ignore the stab of pain I felt whenever I was reminded of my mother. Natalia was referring to the credit card debt I racked up trying to help my mother pay for the prescription drugs she needed to survive the death grip cancer had ensnared her in. She’d had decent health insurance, but sometimes it wasn’t enough. At the end of the day, nothing I did mattered. No amount of money spent was enough to save her. I lost her to ovarian cancer nearly a year ago and I still missed her something fierce. Unfortunately, the small life insurance policy she had was only enough to cover the burial expenses and I was stuck paying off the mountain of credit card debt.
“I only owe another few thousand,” I said with a shrug.
Four thousand two hundred ninety-eight to be exact, but who’s counting?
“After they’re paid, what comes next?”
I pursed my lips and contemplated her question. I knew what she was asking. Both of us frequently talked about our bucket lists and all the things we wanted to accomplish before we turned thirty. The only thing holding me back from scratching things off my list was the credit card debt. Once that was paid, I could begin to really live my life for the first time.
“I know we talked about traveling but I think I want to go to college first,” I blurted out.
“College? You’ve never mentioned that before.”
“Yeah, well… the money might be good at Teddy’s, but I don’t want to work here forever.”
“Hey, I heard that!” shouted Teddy. “What’s wrong with being a lifer?”
I looked up to see him sitting at a table near the far side of the restaurant with Ben Santos, the unofficial bouncer at Teddy’s Tavern. The stack of leather-bound books in front of Teddy told me he was tallying up the weekly numbers. He winked at me and I smiled.
“Being a lifer means I won’t be able to take a month off to backpack across Europe. Mark my words—I will do that one day. But,” I drawled out in a teasing voice, “maybe I’ll stick around part-time just for you, old man.”
Ben snorted a laugh which earned him a scowl from Teddy.
“This place wouldn’t be the same without you,” Teddy grumbled.
“And what about me?” Natalia asked accusingly.
“Alright, you too,” Teddy begrudgingly admitted, but we could all tell it was in jest. “You girls keep this place running like a well-oiled machine, and the customers love you too.”
I was about to respond but the sound of a glass being slammed down on the bar stopped me.
“Hey, if you can wrap it up anytime soon, I need another drink down here!” yelled a man sitting five stools to my left.
I straightened quickly and headed his way. He was scowling, but I simply plastered a sweet smile on my face and reached for his glass—which I had literally filled just ten minutes before. I tossed Ben a sideways glance to signal we might need to keep an eye on the guy.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, sir. Another Jameson? Neat, right?”
“That’s right,” he confirmed, watching me through narrowed eyes. The guy wasn’t a regular customer, of that I was sure, nor did this seem like a place he’d frequent. Almost everyone who came to the upscale tavern looked like they just stepped off the pages of a Nordstrom catalog. The five-star restaurant reeked of class—but definitely not this guy. He was sloppy in an unbuttoned plaid flannel with a faded concert tee underneath. His hair was a mess and he desperately needed a shave. He appeared more suited for the crowd at the music festival than Teddy’s. Still, he was handsome in a rugged sort of way.
I grabbed a napkin, placed the drink on top of it, and slid it across the bar to him. I was about to ask if he needed anything else when he grabbed hold of my wrist. I tried to tug my hand free but he held firm as his gaze roamed up and down my body. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. When you worked behind a bar, getting hit on by guys who overindulged in their booze tended to be a nightly occurrence. Nine out of ten times, the best thing to do was kill them with kindness and move along.
“Would you like something to eat? The kitchen is technically closed but I’m sure I can get the cook to throw something together for you,” I told him with a sugary sweet smile on my face.