Enamoring Her Amnesic Ex by Kristin Canary

Author:Kristin Canary [Canary, Kristin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Aster Press

Chapter 7

Today, not even the smell of greasy fried fish or the scrape of forks against plates or the boring black uniform I’m wearing can upset me.

In my mind, I’m not delivering a hoagie and spare ribs to an elderly couple at Dom’s Diner—I’m miles away backstage at Jenkins Theatre, tucked away in my tiny office where I’ve spent the last week designing.

When I’m creating, everything else falls away. It’s just me and the pencil and the paper and the fabric. I also love the transformative stage that takes a costume from concept to reality—the finding, the assembling, the sewing—but that initial stage of discovery is just so magical.

It’s also a wonderful distraction from ex-boyfriends who breeze back into your life and attempt to take over your thoughts.

Not that I’d know anything about that. Ahem.

“Hope you two enjoy,” I say before heading back toward the kitchen.

“Ms. Flanagan!”

I startle and see Dom advancing toward me from the kitchen, flashing his gold-tooth smile at diners as he passes by. Only late Friday lunchers are here at the moment, and my feet still ache from all the running around I did during the height of the lunch rush.

So much for nothing spoiling my good mood.

I hold back a sigh and force a smile. “What’s up, Dom?”

He’s a squat little man in his forties who only reaches my shoulders (and I’m not that tall, people—like five-four on a good day), but his presence still holds a whole room captive. Not captivated, mind you. He’s more like a car accident you can’t look away from.

First, he is never seen without a tight white tank under an open button-up that shows off his beer gut and abundance of black curly chest hair. Second, his upper lip is lost in the bushiest dark mustache I’ve ever seen. Half the staff takes bets on what will be stuck in there next—feta, ketchup, relish. Amy swears she saw an entire spaghetti noodle hanging there once.

But I could look past all of that if the man had any shred of decency. As it is, the only reason I’ve lasted at Dom’s for so long is because Betty, our assistant manager, works around my theater show schedule when she creates the chart each week.

“What’s up is that there’s a man at table seven who refuses to be served by anyone other than you. What did I say about bringing your boyfriends here?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” I peek over his head to the corner booth, and there’s Kevin perusing a menu. I haven’t heard from him since our picnic five nights ago, so I definitely didn’t expect to see him here now.

My stomach trots like a pony at a show.

“Don’t have a boyfriend, huh?” Dom’s self-satisfied smirk could win him first prize in a Smug Jerk of the Year contest. “I better not see you slacking or else.”

I want to roll my eyes and ask “or else what?,” because I’m so much more responsible than most of the high school or college-aged employees here who come into work hungover or make out in the walk-in pantry.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.