Page 11 of Peach Tree Family

Now Ace smiled and split the stack into three sections.

"What are you doing?" Theo asked him.

"Sharing," Ace said and pushed the plate toward them.

"Thanks, Ace, But I can't eat. I'm too nervous about filling this out," Seth told him.

Theo gave his own reason. "And I need to make sure not to get this application all sticky."

"But it's selfish," Ace complained.

"It's not. You'll owe me," Seth told him. "Next time you have some really good candy, you can give me some. I'm partial to the sour gummy worms."

Ace agreed and they got serious about filling out the forms.

"They don't really need to have a phone number, do they?" Seth asked. He was seeing way too many things he didn't have.

"You don't have a cell phone?" Theo said, surprised. "Put down mine."

"And your address too?" Seth asked as Theo had him copy off his form.

"I guess so," Theo said.

"And I'll put Ace down as my reference." Seth then lowered his voice. "I got no other references. That's gonna hurt me."

"They don't have to be local. What about from back in your home town?" Theo asked.

Seth shook his head. He could feel his chances of getting this job slipping away.

"A teacher, a pastor, a neighbor," Theo listed.

"Old Moira next door, but she's kind of senile." That was the only person Seth could think of who might say a decent thing about him.

"Put her down. It's better than nothing," Theo told him.

"My previous experience is crap all," Seth said under his breath.

"You must have done something to make money," Theo said while he finished up his own application with no pause or hesitation.

"Washed cars by the rest stop," Seth said.

"Was that a job?"

"Nah, I wasn't supposed to even do it. The sheriff was always chasing me off, and last time he took me in for it. Didn't bother charging me though."

"Damn. Put it down anyway. Car maintenance services, self employed," Theo instructed him. He told him to put down landscaping for pulling some weeds in Moira's garden for which he got paid half a lemon pound cake.

In the end, Seth knew who he'd give the job to and he probably had no shot at that inn. It wasn't his decision though. Rico sat across from them and asked them questions. Theo had better answers every time.

Then Rico explained the deal. "One of our best waitresses had to go out of town. Her sister had twins and an unexpected C section. Magda went to help her out, but we don't know for how long. She will definitely be back. Now I don't mean to rush you... Or maybe I do. One of our other servers called in that she's coming in late today. Which one of you can start right now?"

Seth and Theo looked at each other. Rico stepped away when a customer waved him over, and the two of them got a chance to talk it out.

"You should take it," Seth said. "You need a job right here. I can find work anywhere."

Theo thought for a minute. "No. I want to go and apply at the inn, and I can't do that if I'm stuck here. This one is temporary anyway."

"I have no shot at that other one if they want computer skills," Seth said and made the decision. "Alright, I'll take this and good luck at the inn."

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