“Three for The Grinch, please,” Carly says, brightly.
His gaze moves from Carly to Laurel, then to me in the middle. “Wow, you’re a lucky guy, aren’t you? Two beautiful dates.”
I can’t help smiling as I shake my head and extract my wallet. “What can I say? Family tradition.”
“Aw, we’re a family already,” Carly teases.
“Not what I meant. The ex that left me for my cousin? Didn’t even leave to be exclusive. Left me to be one of two girlfriends. They share him. Forgot to mention that.”
Carly blinks in surprise and Pimple Face just stares at me, in awe, like he’s trying to figure out what majestic land I hail from. I shake my head, drawing out a twenty and tossing it on the counter. “Tickets?”
He finally gets his shit together and rings up three movie tickets, taking my money and counting out change.
“Your cousin is polyamorous?” Laurel asks, clearly not understanding how sore this subject is. “That’s fascinating. Tell me more.”
“No,” Carly says quickly, shaking her head. “Nope, nope, nope.”
“But I have questions.”
Carly shakes her head. “Nope.”
“But—”
“Are we getting snacks?” Carly asks me, looping her arm through mine and hauling me to the next counter, where they sell concessions.
“You already told me the answer to this one. Yes.” I look at Laurel. “Can you just tell me what you want, or do I have to read your mind, too?”
“Oh, I’m okay,” she tells me.
I look back at Carly for verification. “Get her a bottled water,” Carly advises.
Laurel rolls her eyes but doesn’t argue, so I buy her the water.
Chapter Twelve
Vince
The waitress stands at our table, tapping her foot impatiently as Carly ponders the milkshake choices like her life depends on it.
“You can do this,” Laurel coaches her, hunched over her own menu. “We have it narrowed down to three. You’ve been training for this your whole life.”
“I feel like I should get candy cane. Am I a bad person if I don’t get candy cane? I mean, it’s almost Christmas.”
Laurel nods, like this is a reasonable question. “It is the only one of the choices available for a limited time. That might make the most sense.”
Carly nods solemnly, turning her attention to the waitress. “I think we’ll go with the candy cane milkshake.”
The waitress jots it down on her order pad. “And for you?” she asks me.
“I’m good with the water,” I tell her, indicating the water she already delivered. She nods her head and walks away, looking more annoyed than I would expect, even given Carly’s milkshake debate.
Carly grabs her water, sipping it through the straw and looking over at Laurel. “She hated me when I worked here. Really wish we had a different waitress.”
I lean forward on the table, peering across at Carly. “This is the restaurant you worked at?”
“Yep, this is the place.”
Laurel shakes her head, stirring the ice in her cup with her straw. “I can’t believe they fired you. Their loss.”
“Totally their loss,” Carly agrees, nodding. “I mean, I was late like four times, so I may have fired me, too. But still.”
Laurel thrusts a fist in the air. “Damn the man.”
“The owner is actually pretty nice,” Carly says, fairly.
“Um, not if they fired my sister. Anyone who fires my sister is a stupid numbskull who needs a stern talking to about the value of their employees. Let me at ‘em, I say.”
“I didn’t even like the job that much,” Carly states.
“That’s not the point. Give me fifteen minutes with the person who fired you. I can either talk them out of their wrong decision, or just use a bunch of words they won’t understand until they think they’ve changed their mind. Either way, you get your job back.”
Carly wrinkles up her nose and pokes at her ice. “I really don’t want it back. Vince works a weird schedule, so if I had to work a different schedule I would have much less time to pester him.”
Laurel rolls her eyes. “Oh, my lord. Aren’t you the one who always tells me I’m not allowed to even consider men when making life decisions?”
“Well, yes,” Carly drawls. “But I meant regarding things that matter, not a lame job serving $4 burgers at a diner in Connecticut. Like, if NASA offers you a job but Bobby Joe wants you to stay in Chicago and make him sandwiches, obviously you abandon Bobby Joe and take the job with NASA.”
“Bobby Joe? Maybe we should discuss why I’m dating a man with two first names.”
“He’s really good with his tongue.”
Laurel cocks her head in consideration. “All right, that helps a little.”
“Yeah, he’s super hot. But he hates NASA. Thinks global warming is a lie. Thinks outer space is fake—the footage you’ve seen is all done on a green screen. He thinks the earth is flat, actually. His argument is that otherwise, we would all just slide right off.” Carly shakes her head. “I’d make fun of him at Christmas dinner, but he doesn’t let you come anymore. Wants to stay home and watch baseball while you rub his feet and tend to his eight children by other women.”