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“Sure thing, Gus.” She uncapped a bottle of Bud and slid it in front of him, grabbing her tray to go collect the empties at the pool tables.
Kyle appeared from the basement steps carrying a case of light beer. “Hey.”
“Hey. I’m gonna make a quick round, and then I gotta get something in my stomach. You cool for a few minutes?”
She’d been ravenous today. No matter how much she ate she still felt hungry. And nothing seemed to quench her thirst. This heat was dehydrating her.
“Yeah. Whatever you need.”
The kitchen was bustling with deep-fried dinner orders by the time she navigated her way through her tables. ZZ Top’s La Grange blasted from the jukebox over the roar of chatter, energizing her steps as she worked her way through the bar.
A victorious shout belted from the back where the men played darts and pool. No matter how tired she was from school, it only took a few minutes around the men of Jimbo’s to get infected by their easygoing joviality.
When their favorite team scored on the television the entire bar erupted. Annalise slipped into the back and picked at the olives they never used for martinis. Jimbo only bought them because she had some sort of olive addiction.
As the night progressed the crowd thinned and the vibe shifted from boisterous to mellow. Then the last few men resigned themselves to returning home to the wives they referred to as old ladies.
“Night, Gus.”
“Night, darlin’. Don’t work too hard, you hear?”
Songs like The Weight from The Band, played from the jukebox as she wiped down tables and refilled napkin holders. The only patrons still idling would avoid heading home until the very last call.
She dropped her dinner into the fry basket around one in the morning. Waiting by the opening to the kitchen, she smiled as Kyle’s gaze caught hers.
He wiped his hands on a damp rag and approached the kitchen entrance, pausing only a few inches away. Three men still sat at the bar and a few lingered in the back.
“They’re thirsty tonight.”
Holding her stare, he tipped her cup and stole a sip from her soda. “Yeah. Buck’s crew finished up a roofing job today.”
“Roofing in this heat? Yuck.”
“Tips should be good.”
She could hope, but her expectations weren’t high.
He caught her hand and chuckled, dragging his thumb over the pen scribbled on the back of her hand, reminding her which chapters to study tonight. “Did you run out of paper?”
“It’s so I don’t forget.” And it wasn’t the first time she left herself a note on her skin. Or the first time he used it as an excuse to touch her.
His arm lowered, holding onto her fingers. “How was school?”
“Good. Two weeks left!”
“Do you think—” The deep fryer buzzed interrupting his question.
Annalise hitched a thumb over her shoulder, breaking contact. “That’s my chicken tenders. I’m starving.”
He nodded and returned to the bar. She carefully fished her dinner out of the fry basket and dropped it onto a paper plate to cool. She usually used this time to cram, but tonight she wasn’t feeling it, so she ate quickly.
When the last customer left she locked the door and unplugged the neon sign in the window. She carried a tray of saltshakers to a booth to refill. The lights flickered, brightening, and Kyle went to the jukebox.
“If I hear one more CCR song I’m going to jam an ice pick into my ear.”
She didn’t mind the classic rock. There really wasn’t any form of music she disliked. Kyle preferred pop, but he wouldn’t find anything that modern in Jimbo’s jukebox, which was old enough to still operate from records rather than digital files.
The first familiar chords of The Crystals’s Then He Kissed Me brought a smile to her face as she refilled the salt shakers. Kyle sauntered toward her booth, his shoulders swaying to the tune and his mouth curved in a boyish grin, but she didn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing she saw him from the corner of her eye.
A bar rag landed on the table with a splat and she chuckled. He flirted like a teenager, but she liked it.
“You dropped something.”
They followed the same routine every night. While she tried to wrap up as quickly as possible so she could get at least six hours sleep, Kyle did his best to get her to sleep with him.
He was slowly winning her over.
Checking her reflection in the security mirror hung in the corner of the dining room, she quickly adjusted her T-shirt and tightened her ponytail. Her busy schedule kept her on her feet and her waist seemed to reap those benefits, even if her legs killed her by the end of every shift. She tucked a loose amber strand behind her ear and smiled.
Dancing toward the table, he did some fancy footwork reminiscent of Johnny Castle a la Dirty Dancing. He would have made a perfect cast member at Kellerman’s with such irresistible moves.
