Summer's Second by Jeff Billington

Author:Jeff Billington
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBTQIA+, angst, poverty, new adult/young adult, high school, college, coming out, sexual discovery
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2022-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

IN HIS TWO months working in the restaurant industry, Asher came to fully appreciate one of its universal truths—Friday night brought in the money. Even on a rainy one, though only one Friday evening all summer saw any significant precipitation, customers poured inside. It typically started around five thirty and did not stop until Sally quit seating tables around nine fifteen. Though the restaurant closed at nine, she reasoned some folks got delayed, and no one liked a hardnose.

On these days, old Sam turned authoritarian about procedure, demanding every plate, utensil, and glass go through the dishwasher prior to five, when the older patrons began to trickle in to eat. From there, Asher worked at his top speed the entire evening, clearing tables and keeping the dirty dishes moving through the dishwashing process. He occasionally helped wait on tables in those rare times when the ever-resourceful and efficient Sally got behind, usually with every table full for a three-hour block. But despite the routine craziness of Friday nights, Asher never complained, as Sally always gave him a hefty lump of cash at the end of the night—his share of the tips.

“Busier than usual, tonight, even for a Friday,” Sally remarked as she dropped a bin of dirty dishes on the counter by the dishwasher.

Asher glanced back to the clock on the wall. It showed 10:27 p.m.

“And later than normal getting out,” he replied. Usually, he’d be on his way home by ten twenty on a Friday.

“Hot days make people hungry,” she commented. “Your house doesn’t have air-conditioning, does it?”

He shook his head, wishing he could say otherwise. “It’s miserable, but Mom says it’d make the electric bill too expensive,” he told her.

“She’s right,” she responded. “And plenty of people have lived without it their entire lives.”

He shrugged his shoulders in an apathetic agreement.

“Tomorrow’s your birthday, right?” she asked.

He smiled in response, feeling excited for turning eighteen, despite having no plans to celebrate.

“What are you doing for it?”

“Same as every Saturday. Come here,” he said with a smile.

A scoff escaped her.

“You are not,” she argued.

He shrugged his shoulders. He had no plans, and no else made any for him, nor did he expect them to, so why not work and earn money?

“I talked to your cousin, the one in Springfield, earlier. She told me it was your birthday and asked me if you could get off work early. Guess what I told her?”

Asher stopped loading dishes onto the dish rack and turned to face Sally. “What?” he asked.

“You have the whole day off and are getting paid for it,” she explained with a huge smile.

“Wait! What?” he cried out, his face breaking out into a broad, goofy grin.

“You need to have fun on your birthday,” she instructed him.

Of everyone in his life, outside of his grandmother, Sally did more than most to encourage him—even more than Mrs. Donovan. She’d hired him, she listened to him and got nothing from it, at least nothing he yet understood. And everything she did for him, she did with gentle eyes and a warm smile.

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