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“What situation is that?” she asked.

“Your parents’ business. They might walk in and say what they know and just start doing that.”

“No,” she said. “My parents told me this was some trial thing. I didn’t ask. I never ask. It’s not my business. But I’m smart enough to know that whatever they were doing wasn’t working and you’ve got a very popular restaurant on this island. You obviously know what you’re doing and are making changes.”

“If you aren’t from this area how do you know about my restaurant?” he asked. “It’s only been open around the same amount of time as Southside.”

“I know enough to do some research when my father tells me he is going to talk to you about me.”

“Oh,” he said, smirking. “You didn’t look into me when they brought up our business agreement?”

“No,” she said. “They’d told me a few months ago they were thinking of selling and then I didn’t ask anymore. It wasn’t brought up. As my father mentioned, it’s been a rough year.”

“And you don’t like that your father said that to me?” he asked.

“I can’t control what comes out of other people’s mouths,” she said. “It wasn’t until a few days ago they told me about the business. I never asked anything as I was already committed to the move at this point.”

He nodded his head. “Okay. Why don’t we get to work and I’ll show you around? If you don’t have plans today, I can have you start. I’ll move you around from the tables to the bar. Early on I don’t have that many here, so those that are here are floating.”

“Sounds smart. My father should have done that. I think he felt like someone had to be at every station, but if it’s not that busy, someone is standing around. No one likes to just stand around.”

“I know I don’t,” he said.

“Do I have to go home and change? Not sure what the dress code is here.”

She’d put jeans on knowing that was what everyone wore with a T-shirt that said Southside Pub on it. She had one in her car if it was still the case. She wanted to be prepared.

“You’re fine,” he said. “Blue or black jeans for now and a shirt. I’ll get you one.”

“I’ve got one in my car if they are the same ones,” she said. Maybe it’d work in her favor to show her how prepared she was so he didn’t think she was some bum her parents had to save.

There was a look in Duke’s eyes that maybe he believed he was doing her father a favor. He was doing one for her, but she still didn’t want to be thought of poorly.

Which of course just went back to all the people pleasing she did in her life.

Some habits were just so dang hard to break.

5

Sadness And Embarrassment

Duke was pleasantly surprised by the woman in front of him.

She was about five foot five, long brown hair that reached the middle of her back and was straight.

She looked on the thin side. Like someone that had been under a great deal of stress lately and lost weight they weren’t trying to. Could be the fact her jeans were loose on her and not by fashion but rather the wrong size.

But she was here and eager to work based on how prepared she was.

There was a sadness and embarrassment behind her eyes that he was trying to push past.

He never wanted to get involved in his employees’ personal lives. Life was just easier to separate the two.

Encouragement for their career? Yes, he did that all the time.

Yet once she started to talk, he knew he was going to give her the chance because he had a feeling she was out to prove she was grateful and deserved it.

“It’s the same shirts,” he said. “But I’ll give you a new one just the same. I’ve got shifts that need to be covered a few days this week. You should have more than one shirt. A small?”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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