AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ve got the dishes. I can sleep till noon if I want.” Wouldn’t, Morgan thought, but could.
“Night then.” Audrey wrapped her in a hug. “Congratulations on your first day as manager.”
As Morgan dealt with the dishes, she considered that she’d always lived in a female household. Her father had so frequently been absent, then just gone. Then she’d lived with Nina.
But she’d never been outnumbered, two to one.
Chapter Nine
Friday night. The end of the workweek for many meant a busy night at Après. And that put Morgan right in her element. As she mixed, shook, stirred, tapped, she decided that despite the horrible last year, she’d rung the bell.
She’d needed a job because she needed to earn a living, and with the first swing, she’d landed one she enjoyed. And one that helped her find Morgan again.
The capable Morgan, the Morgan who made plans and worked toward them. The Morgan who had a knack for bringing a bright spot to a stranger’s day.
Whatever Gavin Rozwell had stolen from her, she still had her skills, and after a bumpy road, she’d relocated her spine. She intended to make good use of both.
At the bar, she served Keith and Martin, a couple celebrating their fifth anniversary—dry vodka martinis, three olives—and listened to their weekend plans.
“He’ll hit the gym.” Keith, adorable in his navy blue glasses, rolled his eyes behind them. “And drag me along.”
“Because I love you.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Then a swim.” Martin took the first sip of his drink. “Whoa! Nowthat’swhat I call a martini. How about you come back to Burlington with us and make all our Friday night martinis? We’d treat you like a princess.”
“Do I get a tiara?”
“Naturally.”
“Sign me up.”
She slid down the bar to fill a table order from one of the waitstaff.
And she knew Opal—twelve years in—had plenty of reservations about the new manager.
While Morgan filled the order, Opal—forty-three, sturdy build, brown hair in a no-nonsense bowl cut—rang up the check for a second table.
“When you’re slow on the drinks, it cuts into our tips.”
Morgan added an orange slice and cherry to a whiskey sour while she filled a pilsner from the tap.
“Are you getting complaints on the service?”
“Not yet.”
Maintaining pleasant, she poured a glass of Merlot, completed a traditional sidecar. “Let me know when you do.”
“Don worked faster.” With that, Opal hustled off with her drinks.
Couldn’t win them all over, at least not all at once, Morgan reminded herself. But if that kept up much longer, she’d try a one-on-one.
She filled another table order—no bitching about her speed on this one—served bar snacks and drinks to the stools. Flirted harmlessly with Keith and Martin because they liked it, before she cashed them out around midnight.
From the corner of her eye she saw a man slide onto a stool at the end of the bar. Looked like a solo, she thought as he scrolled on his phone, and she worked her way down to him.
“Good evening. What can I get for you?”
