“I may need to check your Ethernet cables in the walls. Jury will patch any holes. That cool with you?”
“Try to avoid any of the signed areas,” I said.
It wasn’t about the famous names that’d played at or visited Rye. They were memories. History I didn’t want erased.
A reminder of what I’d built.
“That goes without saying,” he said before handing out orders to Texas.
I left them to it as I walked out into the hall. When I didn’t see Jury, I assumed he’d taken his ass back to Lo, but she was alone at the bar. Her head was bent as she studied the menu. Despite my quiet steps, she looked up at my approach.
Christ, she’s pretty.
Beginning to think Jury has a point.
Case can’t last forever. Maybe when it wraps, I can convince her to slum it with me for a couple hours in the back room.
I dismissed the idea even as I thought it.
“You good?” I asked when she remained silent.
“No.” She tapped the laminated paper. “I’m starving after reading this. Is the food as good as it sounds?”
“Better,” I answered honestly.
Good chefs weren’t always classically trained. They also didn’t need to exclusively make pompous bullshit that looked like kitchen scraps on a fancy plate. My crew used fresh ingredients to do bar food right. And they worked hard to make it something that set Rye above the rest, which was yet another in the long-ass list of reasons the recent fuckery sucked. Having some jagoff with a clipboard mess with their organized systems and insinuate they cut health-code corners was downright insulting, along with being a pain in the ass.
“I’m not sure that’s possible,” she said.
“You’ll see on Friday.”
“Then studying this so early in the week was definitely a mistake. It’s going to keep me up at night.”
I didn’t let myself think about what else I could do to keep her up at night.
Progress.
Not much of it, though, ’cause I also didn’t send her home or retreat to a different room. I found an excuse to get closer.
“Lemme show you the order system.” Grabbing one of the handheld systems, I walked her through that before doing the same with one of the mounted registers behind the bar. Most of it was self-explanatory, and she quickly caught on to what wasn’t.
Which was saying something because with her standing so close and smelling so good, I did a shit job of teaching.
“Anything else I need to know?” Her tone was casual, but she was practically bouncing on her feet as she discreetly checked the time.
“Big plans again?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“If I don’t catch every red light.” She returned the handheld to the charging station and the menu to the stack before rounding the bar.
I didn’t follow.
More progress.
“Will your people still be working here tomorrow?” she asked.
I lifted my chin.
“I’m going to see Mrs. Hyde tomorrow afternoon. It’ll probably only take a few minutes, and then I’ll come here. You can just go about your day like I’m not even around.”
