Page 21 of For All It's Worth
Chapter Nine
Max
Iwasprettysurethat Charlie was avoiding me. Scratch that, I was positive that he was. I’d messaged him countless times in the days since he got home, and aside from an invite to Andy’s birthday party next month, he hadn’t made any sort of plans that involved us being in the same building in the near future. There was no way I was waiting a month to see him.
Had our months apart caused irreparable damage to our friendship? I found it hard to believe that it would all fall apart now after having survived the fall out of Ethan, the death of his father, and the countless other problems we’d overcome in the past.
If I had more time, I’d chase the idiot down, but things at work had been crazy since a barista quit and another was off sick. Meaning that Kristen and I had been pulling double shifts over the last few weeks. Calling in a ton of favors, I even managed to rope Rachele, Kristen’s wife, into helping us out in the bookstore portion of the café, but she had to put her job first. She’d worked on her days off so that I could cover the bookstore and do inventory. There’d been a big book launch and the author signed quite a few copies for us to sell, so I’d been swamped. The only reason Rachele agreed to help out was that she hadn’t seen Kristen for a few days. I swear that she would’ve been asking Kristen to quit if it wasn’t for the pile of free books I bribed the pair with, including one of the signed copies that I’d wanted for myself.
We were stuck in a difficult position. We needed to hire more staff, but I had no time to do the hiring. With Charlie home though, hiring a few more employees had become the most important task for the week. I needed a day off to track down my wayward best friend and Kristen’s usual sunny attitude was dimming under the pressure of all the hours we were putting in.
With Charlie away in rehab and the weekly calls, I thought I’d be more focused and productive. I’d seen the staffing issue coming. Josie was graduating and had job offers, so I knew she was going to leave, but it happened when Denver was off sick, and all the busy days got to Molly, making her quit in tears…and, well, a shitty chain of events left me with a skeleton staff for a busy café-bookstore in an up and coming part of town.
While I knew that I should be grateful that my business was doing so well, it didn’t keep me warm at night. I was overworked and lonely. It’d been months since I’d hooked up with anyone. I needed a vacation and someone to cuddle with so badly.
Charlie and I hadn’t taken any time away since his father died and we set up our businesses. Before then we used to go away any chance that we got, even if it was just to his family’s beach house. Before befriending him, I’d never been to the beach or even seen the ocean. We used to go on a long weekend, Charlie making me drive his car since he’d lost his confidence. He’d ended up giving me the car after his dad had died and I loved it. That car was the nicest thing I’d owned before my business.
Charlie loaned me some of the start-up cash for Books & Biscuits, and though I’d attempted to pay it back a bunch of times, he wouldn’t take the money. One of the many things I loved about him was how generous he could be. He never used to let me pay for our vacations or meals but I was never made to feel like the poor friend. I’d cook for him or do his laundry to make up for it, just my small way of paying him back. He often said he was paying for the privilege of my company, which was sweet. That was a side of Charlie that not a lot of other people saw. I loved that I got that part of him to myself.
Books & Biscuits had been a dream project for me since my college days. My freshman roommate had been a British guy, Eddie, on a year exchange. We’d spent so many nights holed up in our room discussing everything. One night, we’d spent two hours arguing about the difference between biscuits and cookies. He made me laugh so much when his face had reddened with frustration over it all. He’d shown me endless photos he’d searched for online. “No, this is a biscuit!” He’d shouted, brandishing a photo of a cookie. “And this is a cookie!” He’d thrust his phone with a picture of a chocolate chip cookie in front of me. When I’d asked what our biscuits were, I’d thought he’d burst a blood vessel and I’d cried with laughter. We’d kept in touch after he’d moved back for a couple of months. The distance hadn’t changed our friendship any.
Sadly, Eddie died in a car accident one icy December morning, so I’d named the shop after him in a roundabout way. My small way of remembering my friend.
A clattering noise from the café made my head pop up from where I’d been resting it in my hands at the book counter while I’d been pretending to do paperwork. The trainee, with a name I hadn’t had the energy to remember, flushed and stooped to pick up the smashed pieces of the plate and muffin they’d dropped on the floor while Kristen swooped in to reassure them and give the waiting customer a fresh order.
I rolled my eyes while hoping that the girl didn’t notice even if it was the third plate she’d broken in the last two hours. I sighed, deciding to ask Kris what the problem was because she had been lovely and competent sounding in the interview, but it had gone to shit as soon as the girl had been put in front of a customer. It made zero sense to me, because she had café experience, too.
While the girl’s back was turned, Kris took the chance and turned to me, shaking her head. Well, fuck.
Unfortunately, that completely unoriginal and undecipherable - insert sarcasm here - signal meant she didn’t think the girl was cut out for it. I was inclined to agree based on what I’d seen from where I’d been observing, but letting her know that we wouldn’t be keeping her on was the worst part of hiring.
Getting up from the desk, I made my way over to the café portion of the building to get some cash out of the register before asking the girl to meet me in the office.
Books & Biscuits was two units that had been combined. The bookstore and café each had windows facing the busy street and had separate entrances. Sofas were set up in both areas to enjoy a coffee while the customer read their newest purchase. There were tables dotted around the café for people to enjoy sandwiches and snacks made in the tiny kitchen. Beneath the long counter were display cases of cookies and cakes. Behind the service station and coffee machine were doors to the kitchen and office, which is where I led the worried-looking girl.
After a short talk and thankfully, no tears, I paid her for the hours that she’d worked, but let her know that she didn’t have a job with us. My heart broke for how disappointed she was, but she seemed to know it was coming because she didn’t seem surprised.
If I was honest, I was glad she wasn’t staying because she gave off a weird vibe while we were alone in the office and I felt distinctly uncomfortable at the way she had stared at me and asked some questions that bordered on personal and downright inappropriate. It felt like maybe she was hitting on me, which had never happened to me with a female before. She also had this weirdo air about her, a total bunny boiler vibe that had me running for the safety of other people.
“What are we going to do?” Kristen asked when I returned to the coffee counter to help with the orders coming in. One of our part-timers was sent to watch the book shop counter instead of helping Kristen. The coffee machine was temperamental at the best of times and required a real knack for it, especially for the milk frother, so it tended to be one of the baristas that used it. Kristen and I had taken some special training that was given when I bought it and hired her on. The old machine had given up the ghost and totally died on me, so I’d invested in this behemoth and regretted it every time that it needed servicing. I’d figured that an Italian machine would be great, and the coffee it made was worth the cost alone, but it was a pain in the ass to use.
“I dunno, she was the best of the applicants and seemed so capable in the interview.” Stopping to consider for a second as I finished the cappuccino I was making, I said, “I think we’ll just have to work our way through the rest of them and see how it goes.” I shrugged and pushed on with getting through the orders that were piling up.
Kristen was silent on the subject for a bit as she and I worked to get through the rush. “Maybe we should just put the sign up again or put an ad in at the university or something?” She sounded skeptical that we would get anyone decent and I tended to agree with her judgment.
“Yeah maybe… None of the other people gave me the right vibe. Maybe I’m being too picky.” I let out a frustrated sigh. I’d really hoped that we’d be done with hiring already.
“I don’t think that you are, but we do need people. That guy seems to be doing okay, Finn was it?”
“Yeah, Finn’s cool. He’s worked in a café before so he didn’t need much training, which is handy.” Picking up a rag and cleaner, I started to clean down the counter now that the rush had passed while I thought about how to get some staff.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I made a wish for good news and not a sick call.
Charlie: I’m so bored that I signed up for the gym just so I can leave the house.
Max: I’ve been asking to meet you for days. If you’re that bored, come help us out at work, we need the staff. I’ll show you how to use the coffee machine and you can be useful.
My stomach fluttered with butterflies at the thought of Charlie helping us out before the idea settled and I realized that it was the perfect solution. I wanted to see more of him. He needed a job that wasn’t around temptation. We needed at least one more staff member.
