Sixteen
Four
Months Later
“Right
this way, please.” Justin picked up three menus and led the women to a small
table by the window. He pulled a small brush out of his pocket and quickly
brushed crumbs from the seats. “Is this okay, ladies?”
“Fine,
thank you.” The youngest woman gave Justin a winning smile. He politely smiled
back.
“I
hope you enjoy your lunches. I know Joey has a special salad on the menu
today.” Justin smiled again and walked away from the table. He headed into the
kitchen. “Babe, the three witches are here. I told them you have a special
salad on the menu for them.”
“Great,
J, now I gotta come up with something,” Joey grumbled. “Like I don't have
enough to worry about with Lance coming today. Who has them?”
“Tina,”
Justin said.
“Get
her over here. I'll give her the salad and she can tell them,” Joey sighed.
Justin smiled, blew his husband a kiss, and headed out into the dining room
again. He was surprised to see Chris, Nick and JC at the door.
“Uh,
hi, guys, what's going on?” Justin glowered at Chris, who whistled and looked
around the room.
“Lunch,”
JC said strangely. “You DO serve lunch in this place, right?”
“That's
what we're here for,” Justin said nodding. He looked around nervously. Lance
was coming in sometime that day for his first visit, and Justin was already
anxious. He had given Chris specific orders to keep JC away that day, and now
here they were. “How about…back here?” Justin began to walk to a tiny table by
the door to the kitchen.
“We'll
barely fit around that thing!” JC said, laughing. “Just because we're friends
doesn't mean we shouldn't get the star treatment.”
“I
just thought you'd want to maybe go back and see Joe,” Justin said, shrugging.
He moved to a bigger table a few feet away. “Better?”
“Yes.”
JC took his menu and sat down.
“Uh,
sit here, C,” Nick said, pointing to a chair that with its back to the rest of
the room. “I get paranoid if my back is to a room.”
“You're
weird,” JC said, but he moved to the offered seat. Justin gave Nick a smile of
relief.
“Hey,
Chris, Joey wanted to talk to you a second. Come on back to the kitchen.”
Justin walked away, not even looking to see if Chris was behind him. As soon as
they were in the kitchen, Justin hissed, “You dumbass, you had to come here?
How big is this town? How many restaurants are there? You could have gotten
takeout, for God's sake!”
“I
know, J, I know.” Chris rubbed at his forehead wearily. “Nick and I did
everything we could without getting obvious. He really wanted to eat here.”
“Who?”
Joey said from behind the line.
“JC,”
Justin said.
“Chris,
you dumbass!” Joey practically yelled. “Where's Colby?”
“Here,”
the man said, coming through the swinging doors. He was Justin's backup host,
which was necessary over lunch. The new café had done remarkably well in its
first few weeks.
“Come
here.” Joey put an arm around his shoulders. “Keep this on the lowdown. Lance
Bass is coming today.”
“What?”
Colby almost squeaked.
“Yes.
He's coming to look at his investment. Whatever you do, if he gets here in the
next two hours, keep him away from the table of our three friends.”
“Near
the wall,” Justin added.
“He
can look at the kitchen later,” Joey finished. “And keep an eye on Ethan and
Jerri. None of that wandering off to the stockroom to make out stuff, okay?”
“Gotcha,”
Colby said, nodding. He returned to the dining room.
“Shit,” Justin said, sighing.
Nick
and Chris desperately tried to rush JC through his meal without being obvious.
Unfortunately, JC was one of the slowest eaters on the planet, and he
especially preferred to take his time with Joey's cooking.
“You
know, babe, we have that thing soon,” Nick said to Chris, looking at his watch.
“Oh,
right, the thing,” Chris said, nodding.
“I'm
sorry. Was I keeping you two from something?” JC asked, looking up from the
dessert menu.
“No!”
Nick and Chris said together.
“Of
course not,” Chris finished.
“You
could go…I can eat alone,” JC said.
“Not
necessary,” Nick said, shaking his head.
JC raised an eyebrow, then went back to his
menu.
“Amber
just gave them their check,” Justin said to Joey. “Hopefully they'll leave now.
Chris is even offering to pay.”
“That
should be enough to make JC suspicious,” Joey said, rolling his eyes.
“I
hope he likes it,” Justin said. “I really hope he does.”
“He
will, J,” Joey said, smiling at Justin. “Lance is a good guy.”
“I
wish JC could realize that,” Justin muttered, then went back out front. JC,
Chris and Nick were on their way to the front door. He sighed with relief. “You
guys have a great day, okay?”
“Thanks, J. I'll call you later,” JC told
him. Justin nodded. His heart leapt into his throat as a long black limo pulled
up out front.
“I
won't need you to come back for me,” Lance told the driver. “I'll get a ride to
the hotel.”
“Yes,
sir,” the driver said, holding the door open.
Lance
looked up at the café. It was classy yet fun, with a big sign over the door
that read “Joey Lake's.” He grinned. He had loved the idea of the name from day
one. Justin hurried over to open the door. “Hey, Justin.”
“Hi, Lance. Why don't we go around back and
start from the kitchen?” Justin asked brightly.
“Who's
that in the limo?” JC wondered.
“Heaven
knows. This place gets all kinds of rich people,” Chris said. “Let's go,
Jayce.”
“Chris, what is your…” JC started to say as
Chris shoved him out the door. He turned into solid rock as he saw Justin
talking to Lance.
“Justin,
I'd rather…” Lance turned even paler as he looked over his shoulder and saw JC.
“You'd
rather what?” Justin said, turning to see what Lance was looking at. “Oh…”
Justin said weakly.
