He shook his head and ignored me.
"Thanks, though." I held up the orange. "I am hungry, but I was running behind, and-"
He held up a hand to silence me. "Just eat."
I sighed. Not even a simple thank you could crack his icy exterior.
I felt that he"d been hurt, a deep soul-crushing kind of hurt, but I didn"t know him well enough to ask, and I wouldn"t be sticking around long enough to find out.
Liam reached over and turned the radio on loud enough to drown out any chances of a conversation, and I was okay with that.
I ate my orange in silence, careful not to let any juice drip on my clothes. The last thing I wanted to do was show up for work with stains on my clothes; my morning had already been enough of a disaster.
Liam pulled into the parking lot of Mo"s ten minutes later.
I gathered up the paper towel and orange peel before getting out of the car.
"Thanks for the ride." I smiled politely at him.
He grunted in response.
I tried to hide the roll of my eyes, but I was sure he caught it. I closed the car door and he sped away. I rolled my eyes again.
I couldn"t let his behavior get to me, though. I had a job to do.
Throwing away my trash in the outside dumpster, I headed inside.
The restaurant was already insanely busy and panic rose up my throat, nearly strangling me. I hadn"t worked anywhere...Ever.
Movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I turned to see Darren heading toward me. His smile was huge, and the corners of his eyes crinkled.
"Ari," he greeted me, "you"re right on time." Continuing without pause, he ushered me toward the bar. "This is Rebecca; she"ll be training you."
"Hi," a perky blond greeted me. Her hair was so light it was nearly white and pulled back into a straight ponytail. Like me, she was dressed in khaki shorts, but while my shirt was purple, hers was yellow.
"It"s nice to meet you. I"m Ari."
"I know who you are." She smiled, removing dirty gla.s.ses from the bar and wiping down the shiny wood. "Darren"s filled me in. You"ll be shadowing me for your first week. Less if you get the hang of things sooner."
"I"ll leave you two to get started. I have a mountain of paperwork waiting." Darren smiled briefly at each of us and gave me a pat on the shoulder before leaving.
"Come around here." Rebecca waved me around to the back of the bar.
Once I stood behind it I felt like I"d stepped into a s.p.a.ceship or something.
There were so many gla.s.ses-some clean, and others dirty-bottles containing alcohol, and a large sink with some kind of odd contraption.
I felt overwhelmed, but I tried not to show it on the outside. I needed the job, and I had to appear semi-competent.
Rebecca immediately launched into a spiel about working the bar. It mostly included warnings about some rowdy regular patrons, and not so much on how to actually mix drinks.
A guy sat down at the bar, and she pointed at him. "Why don"t you take his order?"
I began to panic. "Um," I started awkwardly, "when are you going to teach me to mix drinks? If he asks for something like that, I don"t know what to do." I didn"t really know how to do anything. I didn"t even have a notepad to write anything down.
Rebecca shook her head sadly. "You"ll get there."
Her words made me feel a little better. At least she didn"t look at me like I was crazy for not knowing those things.
"Forget him. I"m trying to push you off on your own too soon. That"s my bad." She reached out and tentatively touched my shoulder. "We"ll start with the basics." I nodded. "First, we need to grab you an ap.r.o.n. Darren was supposed to give me one for you, but he must"ve forgotten." Turning to the newly-seated man at the bar, she said, "We"ll be back in a minute."
He tipped his head at her words.
"Follow me." She moved from behind the bar and headed toward Darren"s office.
I trailed behind her, and we stopped outside his office door. She tapped her knuckles against the door, and he told us to come in.
"What do you ladies need?" he questioned, a slight irritation in his eyes. He had a phone clutched in his hand, and I hoped we hadn"t interrupted an important phone call.
"Ari needs an ap.r.o.n."
He winced. "Sorry, I forgot to give that to you. It"s there." He pointed to a long table beside the door.
"Thanks." Rebecca grabbed the ap.r.o.n and slipped out, closing the door behind her. "Here you go."
She handed it to me, and I tied it around my waist. It was pretty short, half an ap.r.o.n, but it"d get the job done. It was black and had one, long, pouch-like pocket I could use to put things.
Back behind the bar, Rebecca rifled through a cabinet. "Aha, I knew I stashed some of these in here." She held out a notepad triumphantly. Plucking a pen from her pocket, she handed that to me as well. "Consider this a first day gift from me."
I laughed, accepting the notepad and hot-pink pen.
"Watch me for a bit, and then I"ll let you try serving a few."
"Thank you," I whispered, my relief obvious. I knew by watching her I"d pick up on things faster. Sending me out on my own immediately would have only resulted in disaster.
"What can I get you today, James?" Rebecca asked the man who was still waiting patiently at the bar.
"The usual," he replied with a pleasant smile.
"Ah, I know your usual, but Ari here does not." She pointed at me where I stood by her side. "So would you mind saying it so she can write it down?"
""Course." He turned his attention fully to me. He tried not to be obvious about it, but he couldn"t help but look me up and down, his eyes lingering on my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. At least he couldn"t see much else since the bar hid my bottom half.
"I"ll have a Bud Light and the roasted pork barbeque sandwich."
My pen scribbled furiously across the page.
"Any sides?" Rebecca prompted.
"Nah." He tapped his fingers against the bar top. "That"s it."
"We"ll get this right in." She winked at him before dragging me over to a computer to enter in the order. "How are you feeling so far?" she asked me when I"d finished putting the order into the system.
"Pretty good," I answered honestly.
"Good," she nodded, "but I have a lot more I need to teach you."
From then on, everything seemed to exist in a blur as I tried to absorb everything she was telling me.
I soon discovered the thing I found most difficult about being a waitress was carrying a heavily-loaded tray. The other girls balanced it on one hand and made it look effortless. I held my tray in a death grip and then Rebecca had to grab the plates and set them on the table.
My shift ended at four, and I was exhausted. I"d been on my feet the entire five hours and had been running around like a chicken with its head cut off for most of it.
I had a newfound respect for servers.
I thanked Rebecca as I left and stepped outside, expecting to see Ollie or Talia waiting to pick me up.
Instead, it was Liam.
He stood outside his Jeep, leaning against the side of it with his arms crossed over his chest. His lips were pursed like he was incredibly displeased by life itself.
His icy gaze landed on me and he muttered, ""Bout time."
I pressed my lips together to keep from saying something snarky. As much as I"d have liked to tell him off, I knew it would be wrong of me. He"d given me clothes and a place to stay-that kindness deserved my patience with his p.r.i.c.kly personality.
He opened the driver"s door and slid inside, slamming the door closed a second later.
I sighed heavily and prepared myself for another silent drive. I climbed into the ma.s.sive vehicle, and Liam tore out of the parking lot before I could even get the door shut.
Keep it together, Ari.
A minute or so later, Liam spoke, his question catching me completely off-guard. "How was your first day?"
I stared at him like he"d lost his mind.
"Um...good, I guess?" It came out sounding like a question since I was so taken aback that he"d even asked.
He nodded at the information, tapping his thumbs against the top of the steering wheel.
"Cool."
And that was that.
I stared out the window, marveling at the pa.s.sing scenery of palm trees, cute houses, and people walking on the sidewalk without a care for the world.
When we made it to his house, Ollie was parked in the driveway. He hopped out as Liam pulled his Jeep into the garage. Without a word, the two of us got out of the car to greet him.
Ollie was grinning from ear to ear and pointed at us triumphantly. "I have a solution to our problem."
"And what"s that?" Liam questioned him, his voice gruff from lack of enthusiasm.
"A bicycle!" He said it with such glee you would"ve thought he was announcing that he"d discovered a unicorn.
"A bicycle?" Liam chuckled. "Why am I not surprised?" To me, he said, "Ollie works at a bike store, so..."
"Hey," Ollie held up a hand, "it"s still a fan-f.u.c.king-tastic idea regardless of whether or not I made a commission."
"Commission?" Liam narrowed his eyes on his friend.
Ollie grinned slowly, revealing all of his teeth. "I charged it to your account."
Liam tossed his hands in the air and ground out, "Of course you did."
I glanced from Liam to Ollie. "I don"t have to have it. You can return it so Liam gets his money back."
Liam opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Ollie.
"Actually, it was on clearance and non-refundable."
I winced and glanced at Liam. "Sorry."
He waved away my concern. "It"s fine. I don"t have the time to drive you everywhere, so this is a decent idea."
Ollie grinned and clapped his hands together. "Did you just say I had a good idea? Think you can repeat that? I didn"t quite hear you loud enough." Ollie cupped a hand around his ear and leaned forward.
Liam sneered and turned to head back inside. "I said decent idea, not good." He flipped Ollie off before the side of the Jeep obscured him.
Ollie shook his head, his hair flopping around and falling into his eyes. He brushed it away with a sweep of his long fingers and then tossed his thumb over his shoulder.
"You want to see it?"
"Sure." I shrugged and followed him to the back of the van.
He swung the trunk open, and inside sat a bright yellow bike. He heaved it out and set it on the ground, and I reached out and ran my fingers along the cool metal of the handlebars.
"Thank you, I love it." I smiled up at him.
"I know it"s not a car, but I figured it would do." He smiled crookedly.
"It"s great, really. Thanks for this."
"Thank Liam." He chuckled, rolling the bike into the garage. It even had a little woven basket attached to the front.
"Riiiight." I nodded.
Ollie leaned the bike against the wall and headed back to his van. "I"ve gotta go, but I"m sure we"ll see you soon."
"Mhm, bye." I waved as he got in the car.