Page 31 of The Beach Shack Artists 3
It was a revolutionary thought for someone who’d spent fifty years putting everyone else’s needs first. Scary and exciting at the same time.
“I should go,” she said finally, as the evening grew late. “Early morning at the Shack.”
“How early?” Eleanor asked.
“Six-thirty. Same as always.”
“Maybe not same as always,” Vivian suggested gently. “Maybe time to see what happens if you sleep in occasionally. Let someone else handle the early shift.”
“The Shack has never opened without me,” Margo said automatically.
“Exactly,” Eleanor said. “Might be time to find out if it can.”
As Margo walked home through the quiet streets, she thought about experiments and patterns and the difference between managing and trusting. About what it might feel like to spend a morning painting instead of prepping vegetables, to let someone else handle the endless small decisions that kept the Shack running.
About whether three accomplished adults could figure out how to work together without her orchestrating every detail.
It would either be wonderful or a complete disaster.
But at eighty years old, she was finally curious enough to find out which.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Anna arrived at the Beach Shack for her shift at 6:30 a.m. with the expression of someone who’d had a breakthrough during her morning coffee. She was doing her usual prep work, but she seemed different—like she had a plan or something, which made Stella suspicious.
“You’re here early,” Stella said, hanging up her jacket. “And you look like you’ve solved world hunger.”
“Not world hunger,” Anna said, arranging bread slices with geometric precision. “But I have been thinking about workflow optimization.”
“Workflow optimization,” Stella repeated carefully. “That sounds... corporate.”
“That sounds inspired.” Anna gestured around the restaurant with the enthusiasm of someone unveiling a masterpiece. “I spent three months in Florence watching how the most efficient cafés in the world operate. Places that serve hundreds of customers with half our space and twice our speed.”
Joey looked up from his napkin station, where he was practicing stillness while folding. “Should I be worried?”
“You should be excited,” Anna said. “I’m going to revolutionize our customer flow based on authentic Italian café methodology.”
Stella felt a familiar sinking sensation and caught Margo’s eye across the prep station. Her great-grandmother was watching Anna with the expression of someone who’d dealt with Anna’s ideas before.
“Anna,” Stella said carefully, “we open in thirty minutes.”
“Exactly! Perfect timing.” Anna was already moving, pushing the corner table—Bernie’s usual spot—three feet toward the center of the room. “See, in Florence, they understand that efficiency comes from eliminating wasted space. Everything should flow in natural patterns.”
Margo continued slicing cheese without comment, but Stella noticed the slight upturn at the corner of her mouth. Their eyes met briefly—a shared moment of recognition that they were about to witness peak Anna.
“Bernie’s going to notice that,” Stella pointed out, watching Anna rearrange chairs around the relocated table.
“But it creates much better traffic flow,” Anna explained, now dragging Mrs. Walker’s window table away from the wall to create an “island seating concept.” “The eye should move naturally through the space. It creates subconscious harmony that improves the entire dining experience.”
“Anna,” Margo said gently, looking up from her prep work, “what are you doing?”
“Implementing the Florence Method!” Anna said proudly. “I learned it from watching Giuseppe’s café near the Ponte Vecchio. They serve a thousand customers a day with the grace of a ballet.”
“Giuseppe’s café doesn’t have Bernie,” Stella muttered, imagining their most particular regular trying to find his corner booth in the middle of the room.
Margo’s knife paused for just a moment, and she gave Stella a look that clearly said exactly.
“Oh, and I’m optimizing the ordering flow,” Anna continued, now moving the condiment station from its spot near the counter to a more “centralized location” by the window. “Instead of everyone crowding around the register, customers can move in a natural circulation pattern. Much more civilized.”
