Page 34 of The Beach Shack Artists 3
“Design philosophy,” Joey supplied, emerging from the kitchen with a tray of clean glasses. “Apparently we’ve been doing restaurant seating wrong for fifty years.”
“Let me paint you a picture,” Stella said. “Anna decided our furniture arrangement lacked ‘intentional flow,’ so sherelocated everything. Bernie’s booth toured the dining room. The condiment station went sight-seeing by the windows.”
“She had a whole system,” Bernie added, pulling out his phone to show Tyler a photo. “Documented it for posterity. Something about circulation patterns and aesthetic harmony.”
Tyler looked at the image—furniture scattered across the dining room like pieces on a board game, with what appeared to be hand-drawn arrows indicating customer flow. It looked like a puzzle designed by someone who’d never actually tried to solve it.
“There was a speech about Giuseppe’s café,” Joey chimed in, passing by with drinks. “Near some bridge in Florence. Apparently, they serve a thousand customers a day with the grace of ballet.”
“Mrs. Walker spent twenty minutes looking for her table,” Stella continued. “It had been moved to the center of the room for better light circulation.”
“I offered to send up a flare,” Bernie added from his booth island. “But she’s tougher than she looks. Eventually just sat down and glared at the condiment station.”
“And the condiments,” Stella said, “were relocated. Salt and pepper got separated. Sugar ended up by the window for color balance. Very pretty, completely dysfunctional.”
Tyler groaned. He could picture it perfectly—the chaos, the confusion, Anna’s absolute conviction that her system was best. He could also picture Stella and Joey scrambling to translate between Anna’s vision and actual restaurant functionality, Margo quietly managing the crisis while cooking, customers growing increasingly confused.
“How long is this going to go on?”
Stella shrugged. “Margo hasn’t said anything. It’s still happening,” Stella said. “We convinced Anna that moving theregister would confuse the collecting money part, but everything else is still Anna-optimized.”
“So people still can’t find anything?”
“Mrs. Walker asked if we’d been robbed,” Stella confirmed. “Bernie had to guide three different customers to find ketchup.”
“Sounds like you handled it well.”
“We’re getting good at Anna translation,” Stella said. “This one just required more customer guidance than usual. And some emergency napkin-folding to keep Joey from having a circulation-related breakdown.”
“I don’t have breakdowns,” Joey protested. “I have stress responses.”
“You folded 200 napkins in fifteen minutes while muttering about traffic patterns,” Stella pointed out. “That’s not focus. That’s panic origami.”
“It’s meditative precision.”
“I texted you,” Stella added casually, continuing to organize coffee cups. “But didn’t hear back.”
Tyler felt a small jolt. He’d seen the text—Stella asking if he was coming in, mentioning that Anna was “implementing improvements”—but he’d been focused on photographing the vendor setup process and decided it could wait. He’d had no idea that the changes were so huge.
“Oh, yeah. Had to finish documenting the vendor setup.”
Tyler felt good about his explanation—it was true, and professional, and important. Festival documentation was part of his responsibility to the arts community.
“Ah.” Stella nodded, her voice neutral. “That worked out well. Seems to work out a lot for you.”
Tyler paused, something in her tone catching his attention. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing, just...” Stella shrugged, continuing to organize supplies. “Funny timing. Your Festival work getting urgent right when Anna’s implementing her artistic improvements.”
“That’s coincidence,” Tyler said, shifting his camera bag. The strap felt suddenly heavy. “Professional photography can’t wait for convenient timing.”
“Of course.” Stella said. “Just something I noticed.”
“The Festival documentation is important,” he said again. “For the arts community.”
“Absolutely,” Stella agreed, but something in the way she said it made Tyler feel like she was agreeing with something different than what he’d said.
“And Anna’s projects usually work themselves out. She gets enthusiastic, tries something new, realizes the practical limitations, adjusts accordingly. It’s her process.”
