“DOWNSTAIRS IN the lobby, Stacey saw a woman who was, clearly, not a tenant. The stranger looked like she belonged in a fashion magazine.
Trying to be helpful, Stacey asked, “Hi, are you lost?”
The woman looked Stacey up and down before answering. “Yes, I believe so. I’m looking for someone.”
“Who are you looking for?”
“Charlie Albert. He had business here before he mucked up the deal. Have you seen him?”
Stacey’s heart raced. “Uh, no. No, not for a few days. Who are you?” It was a bit blunt, but she couldn’t help herself. Who was this woman?
The woman lowered her glasses and replied, “I’m Charlie Albert’s fiancée, not that it’s any business of yours.”
Stacey thought she misheard the woman. There had to be some sort of mistake. There was no way that this woman was Charlie’s fiancée.
“I’m Adele,” the woman went on, oblivious to Stacey’s inner turmoil. “I wanted to surprise him, you see. I’ve been overseas. His assistant said he had been here a couple times, so I thought he could be here now.”
“Sorry, he hasn’t been here since the apartments were dropped from the rebuilding plan.” Stacey hoped her voice sounded as if she had no interest in Adele or her claims of being Charlie’s fiancée.
Adele wrinkled her nose. “That’s a shame. I suppose I’ll try him elsewhere then. Now that I’m here, though, I can understand why he would leave as quickly as possible.” She laughed.
Stacey wanted to tell this strange, uppity woman that this was her home. She didn’t need strangers coming around running their mouths off about how little they thought of it. But she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Instead, she could only stare at Adele, who was looking around the lobby one last time.
“Well, thank you for the help, dear,” Adele said and left the apartment complex in her towering high heels without a backward glance.
Stacey just stood there. Her head was spinning as if everything had suddenly been uprooted. Part of her wanted to chase after Adele and ask her just how she could be Charlie’s fiancée.
But a sick, swooping feeling was slowly consuming Stacey. She had to talk to Charlie as soon as possible. She fumbled for her phone and brought up his number. The phone rang three times before a man answered.
“Charlie Albert’s phone.” The man’s voice was deep and somehow familiar although it wasn’t Charlie.
No one had ever picked up Charlie’s cell phone before and it threw Stacey off guard. She stumbled over her words. “Hi, uh, hello. This is Stacey, and, um, I’m Charlie’s—” What was she, exactly? His girlfriend? Or just a girl on the side?
“Stacey!” the man exclaimed as if he knew her. “This is Tony.”
In her haze, it took her a few seconds to remember who Tony was. The image of him smiling at her on board his yacht floated back to Stacey.
“Right, hi Tony!” She feigned a cheerfulness. “How are you? Your yacht was very lovely.”
“Glad you enjoyed it. I enjoyed seeing you on it.”
The remark startled her. His tone had been warm and almost flirtatious. That’s odd, she thought to herself.
“I’m calling for Charlie,” she blurted out and cringed.
She probably sounded incredibly rude. She was blowing off what Tony had just said. But Stacey had no idea what to make of it and couldn’t focus on that right now. The image of smug Adele still danced in her memory.
“He’s in a meeting. He’s running late, actually, because we had a meeting of our own. That’s how I have his phone,” Tony joked, “but I can pass him a message.”
“Yeah, please. Let him know I called and would appreciate a call back.”
“Of course. I had no idea you two were so, well, close,” Tony replied tactfully.
For one wild second, Stacey wanted to ask Tony about Adele. He would know, wouldn’t he? Tony and Charlie seemed to be friends and ran in the same social circles. But she stopped herself before she could do something so silly. No, whatever was going on was something she would ask Charlie directly. She would not go behind his back.
“Thank you! I have to go to work now. Have a nice day!” Her voice was too high-pitched as she tried to hide her emotions. It just made her sound crazy and somewhat desperate.
She ended the call and headed to work, telling herself that she would get to the bottom of it soon enough.
<<<>>>
Although Stacey had promised herself not to dwell on Charlie and Adele, it proved to be impossible. The restaurant had one lone customer—an old lady sitting at a booth asking for coffee non-stop as she read a book.
Maria bustled into the kitchen about two hours into her shift and looked over at Stacey. “I quit.”
“What? That just leaves me and Amanda.”
Maria shrugged. “Not my problem. I’m going to go fucking mental if I stay here a second longer. See you around.”
Stacey stared as Maria headed toward the break room. She hadn’t ever been exactly close with Maria so she hadn’t been expecting a tearful goodbye. But a mumbled ‘see you around’ was a pretty shitty farewell.
Tears formed in Stacey’s eyes. She turned away to face the wall. What is wrong with me? She tried to regroup. Normally, someone quitting wouldn’t affect her like this.
She left the kitchen, leaving Brad behind playing a game on his phone and found William in his office. She knocked on the door, and he looked up at her.
“You’re not quitting too, are you? I was hoping to run with a skeleton crew until we closed, but it’s turning more into a ghost crew at this point.”
“Nope, I’m here ‘til we close,” Stacey replied. “I have a job lined up afterward already.”
“Amanda mentioned that the other day. Congrats.”
Working at another diner didn’t seem like something to be congratulated about. Out of the blue, her sister’s words from their last fight haunted her. All you do is work at some dead-end job without every trying to better yourself or move onto something new.
“Thanks,” Stacey replied without really meaning it. “Figured I’d see if you wanted to alter the schedule.”
“I can’t give you any more hours. You’re already in overtime on my end. I’ll pick up some shifts. You know, Stacey, if you are hurting for money, I’d understand if you have to leave early.”
She was touched that William was giving her a way out if she wanted to take it. William had always paid everyone more than the minimum wage plus tips for wait staff. She didn’t need much, and it had always been enough to scrape by. Business had been so slow lately that the tips barely made a dent in her bills. But she was determined to stay out of loyalty to an employer who had treated her well the last four years.
“I’m making due,” she replied.
William looked relieved, “Thanks, Stacey. Don’t worry about Maria quitting. I’ll take care of it.”
“Just wanted to make sure. Thanks,” Stacey said and left the office with a wave.
She had been secretly hoping to get Maria’s hours. Not only because she wanted the money but because she had been hoping if she threw herself into her job then she could forget about everything else on her mind.
William had reminded her of another thing bothering her—her foolish sister and that damned diamond tennis bracelet. Allison had promised to give her the bracelet after dragging her to the yacht party. Instead, she had given it back to Jacob when he left for Europe in some misguided attempt at being romantic.
That was Allison in a nutshell. She would make promises and deals and never follow through with them. She’d change things at the last second on any whim. Stacey should have seen it coming. When she thought about how much they could have fetched selling that bracelet, it made her sick. She closed her eyes for a few seconds. Then she went to go check on her lone coffee-guzzling customer.
<<<>>>
Charlie didn’t call her back until late in the afternoon when she was almost done with her shift. When her phone vibrated in her pocket, she slunk off to the break room to take the call. Amanda had shown up twenty minutes ago, so Stacey finally had help to cover the customers.
“Hey, sorry it took me so long to call you back,” Charlie said when she answered.
“It’s fine. I need to talk to you about something.”
“Can it wait until tonight when I see you? There’re a few urgent matters I need to tend to in a few minutes.”
Stacey was taken aback. She was just going to confront him over the phone about Adele and had forgotten about their date later in the evening. But in person was probably better where she could watch his reaction.
“Oh, that’s what I’m calling about. I have to run an important errand for Tina tonight. Can we meet up for coffee or something instead?” Stacey felt there was no point in prolonging the agony over a dinner.
“Yeah, sure.” Charlie’s voice sounded disappointed.
She gave him the name of a coffee place near her apartment complex, and he said he would meet her there at six.
The rest of Stacey’s shift dragged by. She was incredibly nervous about seeing Charlie. She finished work with twenty minutes to get to the coffee shop. She tried to fix herself up before leaving to see him.
I shouldn’t waste my time, she told herself as she reapplied her lipstick. Why bother primping for him? Even so, Stacey ran a brush through her hair and set off to see him.