Page 45 of Nicki's Fight

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Sonny’s asleep on the couch,” he said, chuckling. “He took his shower first. When I came out, he was sound asleep. Now I can’t wake him up.”

My youngest brother was known in our family for his deathlike-sleep. If Sonny fell asleep, you might as well just wait until morning. He had slept through tornado warnings, drum playing, and even cold water being dumped on him.

I laughed.

“Better let him sleep it off, then. I’ll let the ‘rents know you aren’t going to make it. From Lee’s account, it sounds like things went really well today.”

“Yeah,” he answered. I could hear him walking into another room. Up until a few months ago the twins had lived upstairs, two doors down from me. They had decided that they wanted their own place, and since they had the money for it our parents had reluctantly agreed. I think it was rough for the moms to let their babies grow up.

They had privately shared the concern that the boys were taking on too much at once. First the apartment then the new store. Being a business owner was hard, and most businesses were touch and go for the first several years. We had wanted them to continue living at home so they would have one less bill for a while, but when they turned twenty-one, they had argued it was time for an apartment of their own. We’d moved them into their own place at the start of summer.

“Can you give the moms love for us?” he asked.

I agreed, wished him a good night, and hung up.

The evening flew by, and despite the fact that Mama D did, in fact, kill off the party, it was well worth it to watch the interactions between my uptight older brother and the famous graphic artist.

We finally called it a night and I dragged my body back upstairs. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

9

Nicki

It wasmy third week working as a server at the Wally Waffle. Tips weren’t bad, and I was starting to recognize some of the repeat customers who came in every day. I’d been a server back in Florida, so the work was familiar. It wasn’t very stressful, the menu was straightforward, and most of the customers were nice.

One cute senior couple, Jay and Joy, came in almost every morning for coffee and to watch the people roaming the Circle.

Tallmadge Circle was a historic area, and they would sit for hours watching people drive around it. The Circle was, literally, a circle of land that had an old church and former town hall that had been built back in the 1800s. It was frequently used for weddings during the summer months, and it had little walking paths traversing it. All I remembered about it from when I was a kid were the Christmas decorations the town put up during the holiday season.

It was a tiny bit of green space, and on its own wasn’t anything special, it was the traffic around it that caused problems. There were at least eight streets that led on and off the Circle and navigating them all safely was a challenge.

Jay and Joy were adorable together as they watched people walk in and around the Circle. Jay had been an electrician at Goodyear, and Joy had been a pharmacy tech. They had only met and married a few years back, but they were so in love with each other, it was delightful to watch.

Jay had kind of thrown me the first time I served them. I’d walked up and introduced myself. He looked up at me a twinkle in his faded blue eyes and asked “So, young man, do you mind who gets the check?”

I could tell I was walking intosomethingbecause when I glanced at Joy, she was rolling her eyes at him, but still smiling affectionately.

“Um, no, sir. I don’t mind who gets the check,” I said.

“Great! Give it to the next guy that comes in the door then!” he quipped before the two burst into a fit of giggles. It took me a minute, but when it finally registered what he said, I couldn’t hold back a bark of laughter.

It began one of the best relationships I’d managed to build since I’d started working at the restaurant. The couple came in daily, sometimes with one of their family, sometimes just them. They had both been married previously and had children who lived in the area.

That day, I had the late shift, which meant I was working from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and had been rushing around like a chicken with its head cut off. My trainer, Mary Beth, had called out sick, so we were shorthanded and there was still a lot of things I didn’t know. Erika Carmichael, our Manager, was taking Mary Beth’s place as hostess, but I wasn’t exactly comfortable asking her a ton of questions.

Business had finally started to slow down and I had just cleared out a table of six middle school teachers who had stopped in for lunch. They were having one last hurrah before summer ended and were heading from here to the pool. As I’d bused the table, I saw Erika seat two men in my section. Shit. It was after three o’clock, and I groaned. I was used to being on my feet all day, but I still had my prep work to do before I could cash out. I couldn’t really complain, though, I needed the money.

I saw Erika had gotten them their drinks, and given them their menus, so I finished busing the six top before heading over. As I put the last of the dishes in the bus tray, I saw the one man wad a napkin up and throw it at the other man. It flew right past his ear to land in the booth. Great. I knew who was going to have to cleanthatup. I figured if I went over to get their order in, I might be able to head off bigger messes.

As I walked up, I heard the one man tell the other, “Again, with the no thank you,” he said, “…but if you keep bringing it up, I might just have to find you a blind date.”

The man facing me was tall. Like, six two or taller. I couldn’t tell for sure with him seated, but he looked all military-like. His hair was blond, long on top and short on the sides, like a grown-out buzz cut. He was handsome, in a bark-orders-at-you kind of way. Not really my type.

I couldn’t really see the other guy’s face, but I’d seen his body from where I’d been busing the table. He was almost as tall as his friend, but where his friend was all muscle-y, he was just… yum… My mouth had watered at the sight of his ass as he’d slid into the booth. His hair was cut similar to his friend, short on the sides, but a lot longer on top. It was brown with the coolest highlights to it. I had to force myself to look at my order pad as I walked up and hope like hell that the semi I had growing in my pants wasn’t visible.

“I don’t need a blind date,” he said. “And you can tell the moms that I’m fine. Nothing a little sleep won’t solve.”