Rebecca put the menu down. “I’ll have the veggie burger.” She smiled brightly.
Britt tore her eyes away from J. T.’s. And it almost literally felt like tearing, that was how reluctant they were to leave him.
“I’m sorry... MissCorday, is it?” Britt said. It was petty. But it felt really good to say it.
Rebecca’s smile congealed.
“Could you please point out the veggie burger on the menu?” Britt knew damn well there wasn’t one.
Rebecca’s smile became more fixed and she tilted her head. “I’m sure you all could whip something up like that,caaan’tyou?” She was all dazzling, melting sweetness and the inflection was very “pretty please?”
“Rebecca...” J. T.’s voice was a slow, ground-out threat. “Pick something else.”
It was like he hadn’t even spoken.
“If you would be so kind as to go and ask your cook... Britt, right?” Rebecca’s voice was velvet and her eyes were flints. “Tell him it’s for me. Tell him he might have seen my billboard out on the highway.”
She and Rebecca smiled at each other in a silent yet beaming showdown of mutual loathing.
“All right,” Britt said pleasantly, finally. “I’ll just go do that.”
She was looking forward to it.
She whipped around so fast the breeze she created almost yanked the menu out of Rebecca’s hands and stalked over to Giorgio.
Sherrie grabbed her by the elbow and halted her. “I’ll say it again. You don’t have to wait on them, Britt,” she said slowly. It was just shy of a command. “I’m not sure you should be allowed near sharp implements today.”
“I said I don’t care,” she said a little too loudly.
Sherrie’s eyes went wide.
“Oh, my gosh, Sherrie. I’m so, so sorry, I don’t know how that happened. I mean, I don’t care,” she said, in her new serene voice. She seemed to have lost the ability to modulate volume or tone. “It’s not a problem. Besides... I could take her.”
This she muttered so blackly that Giorgio surreptitiously slid his knife block a little further out of reach.
“Atta girl,” Glenn said. Glenn clearly thought suffering built character.
Sherrie shot him a quelling look, and he shrugged. “My money’s on Britt. I think she can take that skinny thing, too. And J. T. doesn’t look too delighted to be in her company.”
J. T. was almost comically glowering. If he were a cartoon, a fluffy black cloud would be parked right over his head.
But he finally lowered himself into a chair across from Franco, aware, probably, that he was more conspicuous standing than sitting.
“It will be over soon enough,” Britt said. “They’ll be gone. Everything comes to an end eventually, right? Everything in life is ephemeral, right?Tempus fugit?”
This earned her three concerned frowns, one each from Sherrie, Glenn, and Giorgio.
She ignored them and handed over Franco’s tag. “Giorgio, Mr.Francone would like the eggs Benedict, and Ms.Corday would like a veggie burger.”
And then she waited with held-breath glee for the anticipated response from Giorgio.
He didn’t disappoint. He uttered his first and possibly final complete sentence of the day.
And Britt whooshed back to the table, smiling as though he’d handed her a pearl.
“Ms.Corday, I asked Giorgio about the veggie burger,” she said politely.
“What did he say?”