The Wedding Gift

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"Here you go, Betty." Julie handed over a grilled tuna-and-egg-salad sandwich. "We'll see you again tomorrow, I hope?"

"Oh, no. I couldn't possibly eat here two days in a row."

Julie smiled to herself. That was what the woman had said the past three days running. She served the next customer, while Frank conducted a conversation with an elderly man over whose baseball team was going to win that season. Without being asked, Julie put together Alvin's order and passed it over to him.

"You're looking good today, Alvin. Does this mean things are going well with Ethel?"

While he filled her in on his elderly wife, Julie grilled up several orders during their long and winding conversation. After Alvin left, Frank said, "You know, you really shouldn't talk to the customers for so long, Julie."

She laughed out loud at that, if only because every time Frank said it, he would immediately spend a good ten minutes talking to the next customer to come along.

"I'll stop when you do."

He spread his hands. "This is my own personal soap opera. I can't stop now." He paused for a second or two. "Julie, could I ask you something?"

That sounded a little ominous. "I guess so."

"What are you doing working in a job like this? I pay you less than minimum wage, you haven't gone home before dark once this week, and you obviously know how to cook well enough that you could get a job somewhere else if you wanted it. Why stay here?"

"I'm happy here." She was surprised to find that, for once, things really were that simple. "Besides, what would you do without me now that you've got a bunch of new customers?"

He acknowledged her comment with a nod before saying, "Even so, I worry."

She smiled at the man she'd really come to enjoy working with. "There's nothing to worry about."

"At the very least, I'm going to give you a raise, because that way I get to feel better about completely exploiting you." He looked a little sheepish. "As soon as I can afford it, anyway."

"Sounds great, Frank."

For all that her boss liked to talk with his customers about their lives, he hadn't asked too many questions about how Julie's was faring. Likely because it had been painfully obvious that she needed space-especially after the debacle with Andrew a few days ago.

Telling her aunt about her new job hadn't been easy, though the hardest part had been plucking up the courage. When Julie had finally done it, Aunt Evie had hugged her and told Julie that she was sure things would work out. Her aunt had popped by the truck the next day and she and Frank had gotten on like two old friends. They had both spent a fair bit of time talking in low tones about Julie's cooking skills and her menu ideas. Finally, in good fun, she'd had to remind them that she could hear them perfectly.

Then right after the lunch rush, five days, three hours and forty-eight minutes after Andrew had walked away from the food truck, and out of her life, Julie's phone rang. It was Sandy, Andrew's assistant.

Julie took the call out behind the truck. "Hello?"

"Hi, Julie. I'm Andrew Kyle's assistant and I'm phoning to ask whether you'd given any thought to appearing in our cook-off on the finale of Edgy Eats?"

"I-" Momentarily flustered, Julie couldn't stop herself from asking, "How is Andrew?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" The harsh tone reminded Julie just how protective Andrew's assistant was toward her boss. "Look," the woman said with a sigh that sounded slightly sympathetic, "I get that things have been kind of weird between you two, but I really need to know, do you want to be on the program or not?"