Luck on the Line by Zoraida Cordova

miss you when you’re working.”
    “Just making lemonade,” I remind him.
    Felicity eats more bisque. James keeps his eyes trained on me, his arms cross over his chest, a fat vein throbbing on his neck. I’m sure he hates getting interrupted, but I’m not the one who answered the phone, he is. Nunzio drinks the wine he saved. I think he’s having the most fun out of all of us.
    “Come out tonight. There’s three-for-one at the Roasting Pig.”
    “I can’t, I’m working. We can go out tomorrow, though.”
    “Alright, fine. Go back to being responsible.”
    I smile. He wants me to stay and work for my mother, but when I’m not paying attention to him, he turns into a big baby. “See you.”
    “Who was that who picked up?” Bradley asks.
    I look at James, who hasn’t stopped staring at me. “Oh, that was just my secretary.”
    Before Bradley can ask any more questions, I hang up and flick the silent switch.
    “Sorry about that,” I say to the dishes. I can’t meet James’s eye.
    “Oh, you’re fine,” Nunzio says. “Let’s keep eating.”
    “Actually, I wouldn’t say no to more of these bad boys,” I hop off my barstool. I need to put some distance between James and me. I head towards the kitchen.
    James and Nunzio trade glances that fail so hard at being surreptitious.
    “Come on, did you eat them all?”
    “Why don’t you try the mousse?” James says, blocking my path to the kitchen. “I want you to give the greens a try.”
    Felicity sits back and gnaws on the juicy lamb bone.
    “Because it isn’t food, it’s foam . If I want to eat foam, I’ll take a bubble bath and keep my mouth open.”
    James’s green eyes turn stormy, just like they did at the coffee shop the first time we met. He opens his mouth, but his retort is lodged in his throat. Frustration lines his forehead, and for a moment I feel shitty that I’m the one that put it there.
    A loud crash turns my attention to the kitchen area. James and Nunzio exchange that not-so-secretive glance again.
    “What’s going on?”
    “It’s nothing,” Nunzio says. Or I should say lies. “Just a little hiccup in the work. Don’t worry your pretty little head.”
    James sighs loudly. “You shouldn’t have said that to her.”
    I bite down on my lip because he’s right. That’s a sure way to get me pissed off. “First of all, it’s my job to worry. Secondly, what the hell is going on? Third…why am I waiting on Tweedledee and Tweedledum for answers?”
    I duck under James’s arm and make a break for the kitchen.
    “Lucky, wait!”
    “Hang on a minute!”
    I push through the kitchen doors. At first, I’m affronted by the delicious smells of the food I just ate. Then…
    Oh my god…
    The next step I take has me ankle deep in water. Two of Carlos’s workers freeze as they sweep water out the back door, and another one struggles with a broken pipe that still spurts out a steady stream.
    James stands behind me, holding me still. I didn’t realize I was tilting sideways.
    “We’re getting it fixed,” he tells me, rubbing his hands along my arms as if to keep me calm. “I didn’t want you to worry.”
    “Why not?” I look up at him and the full stare of his eyes gives me that dizzy feeling once again.
    But before he can say anything, Felicity’s shriek interrupts us. “Should I call Stella?”
    “No!” James and I bark at the same time.
    Calling Stella isn’t even an option. She leaves me with the restaurant for one day and it’s already flooding. I press my fingers on my temples. This is a test, isn’t it? Or a punishment…
    “One of the pipes burst. It’s rusted. They never changed it from the previous owners. It doesn’t help that the floor drain is lodged with shit from the harbor,” James explains. “There was nothing to do except let it stop. It’s draining, but super slowly.”
    I breathe. I shut my eyes and let it all sink in. Of course, since the restaurant is in my hands, everything that can go wrong