Second Chance Baby

He passed out a few of the flyers, and immediately people started getting excited about it. They were pumped to come back and see what we came up with. When he was done handing them out, he came behind the bar and stood beside me.

“Thanks again,” he said. “You’ve done wonders in a short time.”

I grinned up at him. “I think it worked out really well. And I’m sure I can come up with more ideas too.”

“Good. I look forward to hearing them,” he said.

We looked at each other for a few seconds, then glanced away. Things were still awkward, but it was calming down some, as if we were starting to get used to occupying the same space again. Jesse called over from the other side of the bar, asking for a glass. Mason and I both reached for it at the same moment, our fingers brushing. We paused at the touch of our skin. A rush of butterflies filled my stomach and it took everything in me not to drop the glass and run out of the bar.10MasonPutting together the entire Black and White theme night in one week was a challenge, but I felt like we really pulled it off. When the day finally came, I was at the bar before anyone else to get everything set up and ready to go. Both excitement and anxiety churned around in my stomach. This could be fantastic for the bar. It could also be a colossal failure and make things worse.

It was a toss-up, but I decided to go into it with optimism. Ava’s idea really was incredible. I never would have thought of doing theme nights, especially not something like she concocted with the blacklight. But after testing the bulbs after hours a couple of days before, I could visualize it even better.

Jesse and Tyler had been hard at work all week coming up with the menu. Jesse managed to get the bakers he knew to provide customized desserts for a percentage of the profits, and both were working on savory dishes. All of us had been working through the week to find cocktails we could rename to fit the theme and come up with new drinks that worked. It made for some late nights and a lot of mistakes, but we ended up settling on offerings I thought were going to be extremely popular.

I had most of the decorations put up and was testing the lights when my brothers showed up together. They hauled in crates and bags of materials for the event and dragged me out with them to the truck waiting out back so I could help bring in the rest. After our third trip, we started unpacking and washing the dozens of tiny black-and-white dishes we bought to accentuate the menu. We decided to stage them on a table set off to the side of the kitchen so it would be easier to serve.

As we set them up, I noticed the three of them exchanging glances. Anybody with close siblings could recognize that look. They were communicating with each other without saying anything, and it was all about me. I let it go on for a while, waiting to see how long it would take before one of them finally said something. But by the time most of the dishes were in place and we had started prepping the more complicated dishes, I lost patience.

“Are one of you actually going to say something, or is this going to go on all night?” I asked.

“We were just talking while we were picking everything up,” Matt said.

“About anything in particular?” I asked.

“It’s been a couple weeks since Ava started here,” Jesse said.

“It has,” I agreed.

“And?” Tyler asked.

“And she’s doing a really good job. People like her, and she came up with this really awesome theme night idea,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s not what we were getting at,” Tyler replied.

“I figured as much,” I said. “But I thought I might be able to detour the conversation.”

“Has anything happened between you and Ava?” Matt asked.

“And yet, we still end up here,” I said with a sigh.

“You can’t seriously think no one was going to ask,” Tyler replied.

“Actually, I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t,” I said.

“Is that a no?” Jesse asked.

“Yes, that’s a no. Nothing has happened with Ava and me. And nothing will happen between Ava and me,” I said.

Just as I was finishing the sentence, the kitchen door swung open and Ava walked in. She went right past us to the cooler to pull out fruit to prep. She didn’t react to what I’d said, but I didn’t know if she didn’t hear me or if she was just pretending to have not heard me.

We didn’t have much time left before the event was supposed to start, so we rushed to get everything set up. As we were putting the final finishing touches on the decorations and getting the lights turned on, Ava went outside with a large chalkboard. She’d written all the drink specials and menu items on it so we could display it and entice people to come in. When she walked back in, her eyes were wide.