More Than Anything (Broken Pieces 1)

In fact, the band had been all her, and she felt a thrill of excitement and pride whenever she saw the crowd they drew.

Business was booming, life was good, and, despite all the wonderful things happening, Tina was staggeringly lonely. Which was odd, because she was surrounded by so many amazing people. People she liked and who cared about her. Her brothers had started calling more often; Smith had even visited a couple of times to check out the restaurant. Conrad and Kyle were constantly offering unsolicited advice and messaging random ideas for the restaurant, and none of them ever had a negative word to say. Which was a welcome change.

Libby and Greyson appeared to be at an impasse with each other, but it didn’t look like Greyson was going anywhere soon. He had become something of a friend to Tina. He was still her next-door neighbor, seeming disinclined to find a better place, and would often invite himself over for breakfast in the mornings, since he was a truly terrible cook. Even worse so than Tina.

Logically, Tina had no reason to be lonely. Only . . . she was. And her loneliness was only alleviated when she was texting Harris. They had graduated to more frequent voice notes, and Tina often wished she were brave enough to actually call him and have a real-time conversation with him. He was still in Perth; he had been there for nearly six weeks, but he had mentioned during their half-text, half-voice-note conversation last night that it looked like he’d be heading home within the week. The news had made her heart race, because she wasn’t sure how having him back in the same country would affect their nightly texting ritual.

It hadn’t escaped her notice that she was always the one instigating contact. He never texted first, and she knew it was probably because he was uncertain about what the acceptable boundaries of their relationship were. Not that Tina knew. She just liked being in contact with him, sharing her daily little triumphs and failures with him. As much as she liked hearing about his.

“Morning, Tina,” Ricardo called from his front-of-house spot, where he was chatting with the waitstaff, who had formed a loose semicircle in front of him.

“Hi, guys. Sorry I missed the meeting,” she said. Ricardo usually had a morning meeting with his waitstaff, and while Tina tried to attend most of them, she’d had yoga with Lia this morning and was running half an hour late. “Ricardo, I’m sure you’ll let me know if anything came up. And I think it’s time, people. Get ready!”

Ricardo tossed her a thumbs-up, and she grinned before making her way into the kitchen, where Libby was having a similar meeting with the kitchen staff.

“Morning!” she said cheerfully. “Am I in time?”

“In time for what?” Libby asked with a confused frown, and Agnes nodded and grinned wickedly before everybody started singing “Happy Birthday.” The waitstaff flooded into the kitchen, and Agnes produced a large cake from beneath one of the countertops, with Happy Birthday, Libby sloppily iced on top of it.

“Oh my God.” Libby’s hands flew to her flushed cheeks, and her eyes flooded with tears. She fanned at her face before staring down at the messily frosted, fluorescent pink-and-green two-tier cake they had placed in front of her. She stared at the cake in comically confused horror. “Who made this? Agnes? Did you do this? It’s terrible!”

“That would be me,” Tina said with a grin. And Libby laughed.

“Seriously? Tina, the last time you baked anything, it was inedible!”

“I know! That’s why this cake isn’t for eating!”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a smash cake!” Tina informed her with relish.

“No! Not in my kitchen!” Libby said, her eyes going wide with dread. “Smash cakes are for toddlers.”

“Live a little, Chef!” one of the busboys called, and she sent him a death glare.

“And will you be cleaning up the mess, Vusi?”

“I always do anyway,” he retorted cheekily. Libby pursed her lips and kept her gaze focused on him before grabbing a fistful of the cake without warning, and, keeping her eyes fixed on Vusi, squashed it right in Tina’s face.

Tina squealed in horror, completely suckered by the move, and stood in disbelief as cake and frosting dripped down her face and onto the front of her green blouse.

“Oh. Oh! It’s so on now, my friend!”

In the end, the carnage wasn’t too bad; they remained mindful of the fact that they’d be opening for service in a couple of hours and kept the mess confined to one spot in the kitchen. Both Tina and Libby and a few other casualties had to change into new clothes, but everybody had pretty much anticipated needing a change of clothes and had planned ahead. Tina had even brought something for Libby. Which hadn’t been an easy task. She had been forced to enlist Greyson’s aid because, since he was babysitting Clara at Libby’s house these days, he had easier access.