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Time was ticking away, and I needed to get from school to home and then to Anna’s. It was going to be a long day.
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“Thank fuck,” I said, nine hours later when I finally collapsed on Anna’s couch and she handed me a glass of wine. Lacey’s cat, Murder, had commandeered my lap and was purring loudly.
“You doing okay?” she asked and I stuck my hand out and waved it side to side before going back to petting Murder.
“Things go okay with your parents?” I rolled my eyes.
“What do you think?” I seriously needed a shower, both to wash of the sweat of moving everything and to get the feel of being with my parents off my skin.
“I’m sorry,” she said, rubbing my arm. “It seems to run in the family.” Our mothers were sisters and seemed cut from the same problematic cloth. Her parents still lived in town, but she never saw them. I’d grown up just a few towns over, and the chances of seeing mine were also slim. Thankfully.
“Where’s Lacey?” Anna’s eyes took on a dreamy cast when she thought about her girlfriend. They’d met by chance and had been serious right from the beginning. I was expecting a ring sometime soon.
“She’s off in Vermont this week. She’s got to take work when she can get it, but having her gone a lot is hard.” She sipped her wine and sighed.
I hadn’t dated anyone in a while. Actually, the last person I dated was Fiona, my BFF from high school. I’d fallen hard for her and . .. things hadn’t worked out. I still stalked her on social media every now and then. She was off at school in New York. I tried not to think about her too much; I was still raw.
“Are you sure she’s okay with me being here?” I asked. The apartment wasn’t huge, but it had a second bedroom that Lacey used as her in-home photography studio, and that was where I’d be sleeping. I was a little nervous about messing anything up or tripping on some of the equipment when I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but Anna had assured me that I could make myself at home on the spare bed that Lacey sometimes used for her boudoir photos.
“Of course. It’ll be fun to have a roommate for a little while. Plus, you can keep me company when she’s gone. What else do you have planned over the summer?” I was hoping to avoid this part, but I needed another favor from Anna.
“Do you think maybe they might need help washing dishes at the café? I will literally work for anything. I just need something to do during the day and make a little money so I can pay you rent.” She shook her head, setting her wine glass down on a coaster on the coffee table.
“No, you’re not paying rent. We already agreed to that. You can help with groceries or utilities, but that’s it. You’re family.” Anna and I had hung out a lot growing up and I’d always felt such a kinship with her, more than some of my other cousins. I wondered if it was the queer in me recognizing the queer in her before we knew.
“And I’m sure we can find something for you at the café.” I breathed a sigh of relief. That was two things out of my way. Now I just had to actually get through the summer.
“Plus, if you wanted to give me a hand with some of my publicity work, I could pay you for some of that. Just like, sending out emails and stuff like that.” Anna was currently working three jobs: waitress at the café, part-time librarian, and she also did freelance publicity for authors. It made my head hurt.
“Oh, wow, that would be great. I could even add that to my resume when I start looking for internships.” I was an English major in college, with the goal of being involved in publishing somehow. Either as an author, editor, or literary agent. I wasn’t sure yet. That was yet another reason I wanted to stay with Anna–we had so much in common. I was definitely going to be raiding her bookshelves. Most of my books had to go back to my parent’s house, but thank goodness for e-readers.
“Sure! Anything to help out.” She put her arm around me and gave me a squeeze.
“I know it hasn’t been easy for you and I want to help. I really do. I wish I’d had someone when I was your age, and I want to be there for you.” I tried to duck my head and wipe away the few tears that escaped my eyes.
“Thanks. That means more to me than you can ever know. I just . .. Thank you, Anna. Seriously, thank you so much.” She grinned and hugged me again.
Things were going to be okay. I was going to be okay.
Two
A few days later I started work at the Violet Hill Café as a hostess-slash-dishwasher-slash-whatever. Basically, I would go in and do the stuff that no one else wanted to, or had time to do. Like taking down the old ads on the corkboard, making sure the tables weren’t wobbling, and helping Daisy in the bakery. I loved that part the most.
“So now everyone wants stuff like from The Great British Bake-Off and I want to be like I’m not Mary Berry! I haven’t been baking from infancy. But I’ll give it a shot,” she said with a laugh as she rolled up perfectly-filled chocolate croissants. I thought all of her pastries were beautiful, and I could definitely not do anything that looked that good. Still, she was letting me try, which was cool too. Today, I was learning about croissants.
Her face was covered in flour, as usual, but I liked Daisy. She knew what she was good at. Her undercut was also totally badass and I envied her bravery in rocking it. I had wanted to do something adventurous with my hair for a long time, but didn’t know what. Today I had it twisted back in a boring blonde ponytail. Blah. I hated feeling blah. I didn’t want to feel blah anymore. I need a change. I need to shake things up.
“Hey,” Anna said, drawing my attention as she shoved armfuls of dirty plates back on the counter toward the dishwasher. “Can you do those and then come help me out front? I just need someone to take a few orders and do some seating. I’m desperate.” Sometimes in the afternoons the café filled up and there was a line out the door of people waiting. It stressed me the fuck out, but I needed this job and working at a queer-friendly (and queer owned) café was more than I could ask for.
After Lacey did a profile on Jen and Sal and the café (including Anna and some of the more colorful customers), people had been traveling to come here, if only because they knew it was a safe place to be.
“Sure, give me a few minutes and I’ll be out,” I said, going to work on the dishes. I got them in the industrial washer, wiped my hands, and put on an apron.
Whoa, Anna was right. People were cramming themselves into nooks and corners, some even standing while sipping their coffee. It was going to be A Day.
I took a breath and thanked my lucky stars that I had worked weekends waitressing up at school to make extra money and could pretty much go into that headspace without a lot of effort.
