Second Chance Baby

She cried out in a long scream, her hands reaching behind her to grasp my ass and pull me into her harder. With a rush of adrenaline, I pounded into her and exploded, coming hard as my body went stock-still, then vibrated as I filled her. We stood there, our mouths pressed against each other, our knees shaking as we came, and then fell into the bed, wet, spent, and satisfied.

I wanted to just lie there with Ava for the rest of the day. I could have happily spent hours holding her.

“Let’s skip work and stay here,” I suggested.

She laughed. “We can’t do that.”

“Why not?” I asked.

She got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. “Because I’m the manager now. I can’t just not show up.”

I let out a sigh and flopped over onto my back to stare up at the ceiling and frustration. She giggled and turned the shower on. That was enough to get me out of bed and across the room to her. I hopped into the shower with her and savored half an hour under the stream of hot water. We stayed in there as long as we could possibly get away with, then got out and got dressed.

“Can I at least bring you to work if you insist on being responsible and going?” I asked.

Ava grinned and kissed me. “Of course.”

We were just getting in the car when my phone rang. Seeing my mother’s name on the screen made my heart beat a little faster. Ever since both of them were diagnosed with cancer, I worried about my parents constantly. Every time one of them called me, I was afraid it was going to be bad news.

I stepped away to answer the phone, and Ava waited by the side of the car, occasionally glancing over but not wanting to watch me directly. When I walked back over, I had a huge smile on my face, and she looked at me curiously.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Everything is amazing,” I told her. “That was my mom. She had a doctor’s appointment this morning. She hadn’t told us about it because we always worry so much when she goes in for tests.”

“And?” she asked, sounding like she was on the edge of her seat, just as anxious as I was to hear what happened.

“And she’s in remission,” I said. “It’s a miracle.”

Ava gasped and ran around to jump into my arms. I laughed and spun her around, so happy I could barely contain myself.

“Oh, Mason, I am so happy for you, and your family,” she said. “That is so wonderful. Come on, let’s get to the bar and you can tell everybody the good news.”

We got to work, and while my brothers and I spent some time celebrating together, she went into the office to get some work done. We headed outside to meet the delivery truck, and I noticed Ava standing at the doorway watching as we unloaded it. She got up on the balls of her feet and kissed my cheek as I walked inside. Her mouth came to my ear.

“It’s so hot watching you unload all these heavy boxes,” she said quietly.

In that moment, life couldn’t get a whole lot better.25Ava“Well, this is a decidedly different experience than when we were hiring you,” Jesse said a few days later as we prepared to do the interviews for the bartender and cook positions.

When we posted the spots on the same job opportunity site I had responded to, I thought it would take a few days to get a response. Instead, we ended up getting so many applicants on the first day we took the listing down.

Worst-case scenario, we were unable to find anybody suitable and could put it right back up, but I didn’t want us to get overwhelmed with the number of applicants and not be able to do a thorough interview with them.

“It’s a pretty amazing turnout,” I said. “And these are the ones I’ve already screened.”

“Can you believe this?” Matt asked, coming up to lean on the bar and look out over the people waiting to be called in for their interview. “I just overheard one of the applicants say there’s so much of a buzz because everybody wants to work here. The theme nights are really drumming up a lot of interest in us all through the neighborhood and the surrounding areas.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Why do you sound so surprised?” Jesse asked. “You’re the one who said if we did theme nights our business would increase. Turns out you were right.”

“Well, yeah, but I just didn’t expect something quite like this. It’s a good thing we came in early to do the interviews. It’s going to take a long time to get through all these people. I want to make sure we are completely done and ready to get set up for tonight before opening,” I said.