Page 25 of Just Ten Seconds

I ignore her as I bring the glasses to a table along with two paper straws. When I get back to the counter, she’s staring at me, waiting for a response.

There’s a spot on the counter, so I grab a rag and wipe it clean. Her light eyes are fixed on me as she blinks up in interest.

I look down and focus on my task. “I went out for coffee.”

“By yourself?”

“Yep.”

She tilts her head to the side. “At nine o’clock at night?”

“What’s up with the Spanish Inquisition?”

“Nothing. It’s just, the last time I couldn’t reach you, you were huddled in the corner of your bathroom, breathing into a paper bag. I worry about you.”

I look up in response to her brazen and accurate statement. I give her a wry smile. “You’re a good friend. That’s why I love working in this crazy little diner with you.”

There’s skepticism that shows in the lines of her forehead. Something must trigger inside that blonde head of hers because her gaze drops, and her shoulders fall as well. She lowers her feet down to the floor, so she’s eye-level with me.

I rest my hip against the counter and give her my full attention as she gnaws at her cheek.

“You know, when I told you to come here and live with me and Nick, I never intended for you to work here. First, you started by helping Nick and me around our house, and it was so damn clean that I could eat off the floor. Come to think of it, if you ever want to move back in with us, you’re more than welcome,” she jokes and then gets serious again. “Anyway, one day, you popped in here and said you needed something to keep you busy during the day. I love that you’re here. It’s just … you and I had these larger-than-life dreams in high school. Mine didn’t work out, but I found a new one with Nick. This was never your dream. I don’t want you to settle into a life because you’re afraid of your own.”

“It’s okay. I like waitressing.”

“But you’re not a waitress. You’re an actress who turned her back on her dream to be an assistant in her husband’s company.”

“Correction: I was a bartender turned assistant in her husband’s company.”

She doesn’t approve of my sly comeback. “You deserve more than minimum wage and tips. You need to get back out there.”

“As an executive assistant? No one would ever hire me. I’m tied to one of the greatest financial scandals in the last decade.”

“You had no idea what that horrible man was doing.”

“I turned a blind eye because I was an idiot.”

She grips my shoulders and gives me a stern look. “Don’t ever call yourself that again. I mean it, Mara. You are more than your past mistakes. You had the shittiest three years in human history, but you have to stop blaming yourself for … God, so many things! I can’t change what happened. I wish I could. What I can do is beg you to think about it. Just don’t settle.”

I raise my thumb to my mouth and bite on my nail. I understand her concern. She wouldn’t be my best friend if she didn’t have this passion running through her. I love that about her. And I understand what she’s saying. I do. It’s just that I like it here. It’s comfortable. It works.

“Do you consider yourself settling?”

“No, because this is my husband’s passion, and it’s part of our family. If you want to bus tables, I’m happy to have you by my side until you’re old and gray. But there’s gotta be something else out there for you. What about the theater?”

“I gave up on that aspiration.”

“And whose fault is that?” She places a hand on her hip with sass.

I know what she’s referring to. Benjamin. He might have thought it was a waste of time, but when it comes to the outcome of my life, I don’t blame anyone but myself.

“This food isn’t gonna stay hot forever,” Nick chimes from the kitchen.

Jackie and I give a double groan at his tone.

We line up our arms with food and deliver them to the tables.

I walk back to the kitchen window where Manny, the weekend chef, is flipping pancakes next to Nick. “Those almost ready?”