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But that warm holiday glow doesn’t mean I don’t object when she directs us to our first stop.
“Not to be a guy about it, but please don’t make me go in there.”
She clucks her tongue and herds me into the fancy purse store.“Don’t be such a stereotype.”She moves with purpose toward a display of weird little croissant-shaped bags.“What color for Becks?”She gestures to the black, brown, teal, and yellow options.I cautiously poke the yellow one.
“Good choice.These are just starting to blow up on TikTok, and I knew we’d be able to score a good deal on one here.I think Becks’ll lose her mind.”
I hand over the cash without arguing, trusting Liv to be the girl-whisperer.
“Okay,” she says as we walk out.“What about Wyatt?”
“I renewed his annual membership to the stick-up-the-ass club.”
She turns a flat expression on me, and I sigh.“He was complaining that his ex got all the good kitchen stuff when she moved out, so I was thinking maybe something kitchen-y.”
After a quick scan of the stores around us, she nods briskly and tows me across into a place that has more pots and pans than I knew existed in the world.
“Pick a color,” she says when we reach the wall of Dutch ovens.
“Goddamn,” I gasp when I pick one up.“It’s a good thing he’s cleared for weight-bearing activities.This is heavy enough to pop stitches.”
“That’s why they’re magic,” she says brightly.“Is that the color?”
I grabbed a pot at random, and now that I’m studying it, it actually reminds me of my brother.The jewel-tone blue seems flat at first, but when you look closely, you can see the subtle variations in color, the depth and richness of the pigments.“Yep,” I say.“This is the one.”
“Cool,” she says, and like that, it’s one more gift checked off the list.
Our last stop of the day is a few minutes away from the outlet mall.
“You genius,” I say when we walk into the mega-art supply store.“I should’ve thought of this.”
“You weren’t a nerdy, art-loving high school girl.I was.”
We take the most time here as Liv decides what supplies Drea can’t live without, but in the end, she’s assembled a kit that’ll keep my prickly sister in self-expression heaven for a very long time.
Once we’re loaded in the car and debating where to stop to eat, I admit to myself that I don’t want this to be an easy-breezy friendship.I want to keep Liv in my life for a very long time too.I just wish I knew how.
Nineteen
Liv
“Verdant after dark is wild.”
June nods as she tops off my wine.“You wouldn’t think an uptight weirdo like Darryl would throw such a good party, but…” She sweeps her arm in a wide arc over the bacchanalia that took over the restaurant after we closed today.
Samson and his kitchen team whipped up a Feast of Seven Fishes for the annual staff holiday party, and then they added all the other meats on top of that, along with three meals’ worth of sides, and now they’re stuffing their faces around the mega-table we created to accommodate everyone.Bass-heavy music has replaced the tinkly Christmas soundtrack we’ve been listening to for weeks, and the busboys are in a dance-off to the death with the dishwashers.The servers I’ve gotten to know so well are laughing and cheering them on, and every single one of us is drinking like we’re all seven of the fishes we just devoured.Darryl’s watching it all with tipsy joy on his fleshy, SPAM-colored face.He loves this party so much that he actually shuts the restaurant down the day afterward to let us all recover.
Then there’s Hollis.My buddy, my pal.He’s pounding shots with the sous chef.He’s shaking his ass with the busboys.He’s nudging Marcus and Ariel toward the mistletoe, as if they need an excuse to make out.He’s telling stories and cracking jokes and hugging anyone who wishes him well on his new career.
He’s also starting to lose his cool as our coworkers express their ongoing shock that he’s leaving Verdant.They might not see it, but I do.The skin around his eyes is tight, and his smiles are frighteningly toothy.He’s keeping it together but barely.
After a particularly rough round of, “Aww, man, I thought we’d be working together forever!”from Rob the busser, I can’t just sit by and watch it happen anymore.Even better, rescuing Jonesy lets me set my master plan for the night into motion.
“You know,” I say as I approach, “when I started work here, Jonesy told me he was the best silverware roller around.”
He spins to face me, and I watch as the tension on his face morphs into surprise, then understanding and finally gratitude.
“And as I recall, that was because you saidyouwere the fastest roller around.”He runs his tongue along the inside of his lower lip as he tilts his head and looks me up and down.“You thinking what I’m thinking?”
