The Marriage Contract

the phone down. “Shit.”
I had forgotten that her birthday was coming up. It was still a couple of weeks away, but still, I should have remembered that. At least I had some time to come up with something to get her and make sure we had the day either closed or covered. I spent the time heading to work coming up with possibilities for things to get Mom.
As soon as I got in, I went to the office and started collecting all the files I needed to send to Tom and putting together an email. I could hear the end of lunch happening outside the door while I worked, and eventually Jordan poked his head in.
“You busy?” he asked.
“Just sending Tom the reports,” I said, not looking up.
“Ahh, yeah, I should have sent those the other day, sorry. Did he call?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yup.”
“Of course he did,” Jordan said, shaking his head. “I think I’m going to head out early today. Babysitter isn’t feeling great, so I’m going to head home to relieve her. Hannah will stay, though, help Chloe train.”
“Sounds good,” I said. “I’ll cut her as soon as things slow down after the last call.”
“Awesome. See you tomorrow,” he said.
“Don’t forget Mom’s birthday,” I called out, and he almost fell back into the room after having pulled away.
“Right. He asked about that, too, didn’t he?” I nodded. “We’re going down there, aren’t we?” I nodded again. “Alright then.”
Jordan took off, and I finished off the email and sent it off. Without Jordan there, that meant I needed to get out there and get things prepped. Heading out onto the floor, I noticed Chloe was already there, sitting and talking in a booth with Hannah. Jordan was still there, saying his goodbyes, and I waved at him as he walked out.
Service began not much later, and I was in and out of the kitchen, relying mostly on the line cook. Otherwise, I was bouncing behind the bar and checking on tables in a management role. That meant I was always within eyesight of Chloe. Every time she left a table, I watched her walk away, and occasionally I would go check on the table myself and getting some really good reviews of her service. Hannah was handling the tables beside hers, splitting her section with her, and Chloe was doing pretty well.
As she went into the back to put up some tickets in the window, I followed her back there. She seemed surprised to see me, but not upset. I flashed a smile and hoped she didn’t think I was coming at her to fire her again like I did the day before. At least we weren’t meeting on the back porch, or else I would have a hard time not thinking about the dream from earlier in the day.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” I said back. “I just wanted to come tell you that it seems like you’re doing a lot better tonight. No spilled drinks.” I grinned, and she smiled back.
“Yeah, knock on wood. I feel like I at least got control of my balance today and haven’t been a total klutz,” she said.
“Well, I’ve been doing the manager work, talking to tables, and they seem to like you out there too, so keep it up.”
“Thank you,” she said. “And thank you again for being so nice to me. It really means a lot for people to just accept me and help me out. I know a lot of it is because of Hannah, but I still appreciate it.”
“I mean, Hannah vouching for you helped, but you’ve proven yourself so far.”
She smiled and went back to her ticket, making sure the line cook got it. I was about to walk into the office, but I decided that there was something about her that I couldn’t let go of. I needed to pursue it, or else I would be thinking about it all the time and kicking myself.
“Hey,” I said, catching her before she headed back onto the floor. “I have a question for you. If you don’t feel comfortable with it, it’s totally cool, but I wanted to ask if I could use your number. So we could hang out sometime. Not at work.”
I worried that I sounded too dorky, like I was tripping over my words. But she smiled again, and this time it was wider than the others. Then she bit her bottom lip and grinned.
“I’d love to hang out sometime,” she said.
“Great,” I returned her smile.
“Gotta deliver these drinks,” she said, before she skipped away. I watched her go with a feeling of accomplishment and adrenaline running through me. Maybe my dream and my fantasy weren’t so much fiction as they were predictions. I normally didn’t believe in wishing things into existence, but if it could work, I wasn’t going to turn it down either.

8 Chloe
I had the night off, my first, and I had no idea what to do with it. If I were still in LA, I’d be in a club or doing some other social function that other people who had wealthy parents did. All too often I found myself at them, bored out of my mind and watching the clock. For as much as some other people seemed to enjoy wasting their parents’ money on liquor and skimpy dresses to dance in, I just wanted to go home, get in bed, and read articles by my favorite journalists.
That was much more my scene.
At any rate, I felt like I might just do what I normally wanted to and spend the whole day and night watching trashy TV and catching up on some investigative reporting. It wasn’t sexy or exciting, but it would at least let me relax a little.
The problem was, I didn’t really feel like relaxing. I wanted to do something. I didn’t know exactly what, but something. The problem was Hannah was working the evening shift, and I didn’t know anyone else within a few hours of