New Girl in Town

Chapter 48

"We've got a birthday at grill three," Jackie tells me as she comes back to get drinks for her table. "I'm going to get everyone together. Can you help Taeyang in the kitchen plating the pineapple tower? He'll show you how."

"Yep."

The back kitchen is mainly prep, but it's still hotter than the rest of the restaurant, and a different kind of loud, as the kitchen staff move and work around each other.

"Behind you," I call, moving through the narrow aisle between the fridges and the prep counter. Taeyang's at the end, slicing a pineapple for a special birthday tower of fruit.

"You ready to sing?" he asks.

"Oh no, not that," I groan.

"You haven't had a birthday yet?" He grins as he begins to arrange the pineapple spears on the plate.

"Not yet. But they taught me the song on my first day before I got handed over to you to train."

"I won't ask you to beat the drum this time. That takes time and skill."

"I have no rhythm," I warn him. I start to help arrange the pineapple slices on the platter once he shows me how.

"That's okay. You'll be drowned out by the rest of us."

"Do any of us have rhythm?"

"It'll be okay," he assures me with a grin. We finish creating the pineapple tower just as Jackie peeks her head into the kitchen. "Is that pineapple tower ready? I've got everyone ready up here. It's a little girl, so the chefs are going to give her a show."

"All ready," I say. Taeyang picks up the platter carefully, and I follow behind him. The entire front-house staff is assembled outside the kitchen. Luckily no one hands me a drum, but I see Cameron, one of the servers, holding one. He begins to beat it as the group of us walk toward the customers sitting at grill 3.

There's a bunch of gift bags clustered at sneakered feet, and the bottom drops out of my stomach as my eyes fly up to see Jennie sitting there next to Suzy and the rest of her family.

Taeyang places the platter down in front of Suzy, whose eyes are as wide as saucers at the tower of fruit and the sparkler candle that's piercing the top piece.

Jennie glances at the group of us and then her eyes jerk back toward mine, a double take for the ages that should make me triumphant but just makes me feel like someone's grabbed my guts and twisted.

She cut her hair; it brushes her shoulders now, instead of hanging below them. When? Why? Did she take scissors to it in a bathroom, angry and trying to purge what we had from her, like I did? Has she felt even a fraction of what I've been feeling, all these weeks away from her?

Everyone around me begins clapping their hands to the rhythm of the drum. I can barely hear them. All I can see is her. But I follow along with Taeyang when he nudges me as the chefs sing to Suzy.

Suzy cheers and blows out her candle at the urging of her parents. Jennie hugs her sister, but she's still staring at me.

I have to get out of here. I can't exactly flee the restaurant, but I can stay busy.

"I'm going to check the reservations," I tell Jackie as we disperse.

"Great," she says. "Can you wipe down the menus while you're up there?"

"Absolutely," I say, grateful to have an excuse to stay away from the grills as much as possible.

The hostess stand is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen—a reprieve. A breather. I need a second. Just one second to get it together.