Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 42829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 214(@200wpm)___ 171(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 214(@200wpm)___ 171(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
“Yes. It was so easy. Onelia helped me map it out. She’s pretty amazing.”
“Shh! Don’t tell anyone. They’ll try to steal her away. I keep giving her raises to keep her with me. Onelia is worth every penny,” Grey confessed.
“She’s amazing. I think she’s going to make me eat vegetables.”
“Oh, you’re going to eat veggies, Mack,” Grey said, then asked, “What time are you off? I have my car here. You can ride home with me.”
“Oh. Let me check.” Mack held his phone down to check the calendar. “My shift ends at six-thirty tonight, but I’m usually here until seven. I always stick around until my clients leave. You’ll be home and sitting with your feet up by then.”
“Seven works great for me. I have a big trial tomorrow. Do you mind walking to my office? There’s a guard at the door. I’ll leave your name, and he’ll buzz you in.”
“Okay. Just leave me a message if you change your mind and go home early,” Mack suggested.
“Will do. Have a great shift. I’ll see you later.”
Mack looked at the blank screen and smiled. How could talking to him make this great day feel even better? It did. Whistling a happy tune, Mack headed around Armando’s to the back entrance. He put in the code and walked in.
“Listen to you. You must have gotten some last night,” one of the female servers teased. She liked to flirt with him but had a serious boyfriend. Mack knew she considered herself safe with him. Elsa was a good friend.
“It’s a beautiful day, Elsa, and I get to work with you. What else could I ask for?” Mack answered as he clocked in.
“There’s something different about you,” Elsa suggested, eyeing him suspiciously.
“I actually got some sleep last night.”
“Hmm. That might be it. But I think there’s something else going on.”
“Put away your detective magnifying glass, Elsa. Let’s get some people fed out there,” Mack suggested as he tied on his apron.
The lunch crowd was in a great mood. Mack’s tips were large and plentiful. Everything seemed to be running like clockwork—the kitchen, the busboys, the credit card system. That never happened all on one day.
“Hey, the boss wants you to go to lunch,” Elsa told him as she came through the swinging doors into the kitchen. “I’ll cover your last table out there while I fill up the cheese shakers for tonight. They’re almost all empty.”
“Thanks, Elsa. Let’s go introduce you.”
Mack shared with his table that Elsa would check on them while he was at lunch. He grabbed a couple of meatballs and a salad to eat from the kitchen and headed into the banquet room where the servers usually took their breaks.
Checking his phone as he ate, Mack discovered he had a flurry of messages from John and Joanie. Those from Joanie were accusatory and ramped up quickly in the level of anger. John’s were filled with warnings and requests to return the vase from the living area where he’d slept on the couch.
Mack pushed his plate away. His appetite vanished, as well as all the good vibes from the great day. When he got to the last one where Joanie threatened to call the police, he was really worried.
Searching his memory, Mack never remembered seeing a vase. On the shelf they kept mentioning, he could picture a photo of the couple on vacation in the Grand Canyon and one of those fancy, waxy-smelling candles. There hadn’t been a vase there.
How was he going to prove he’d never touched that vase?
CHAPTER 6
Mack typed a response and deleted it. He tried again and deleted that as well. He searched through his pictures and found a selfie he’d taken and posted as a thank you to John when he first moved in. The angle just caught that shelf. There was no vase.
He sent that photo to John with the time and date stamp on the social media post. “Hey, I’m not sure what’s going on, but there was no vase on that shelf when I moved in. Maybe it had been moved somewhere else before I started sleeping on the couch?”
Eating his lunch even though he didn’t have an appetite, Mack watched his phone waiting to see what John’s response would be. Several times, the indicator dots appeared as if he was writing something, but no message popped in. Finally, he had to go clock back in.
Mack tried to push the worry building in his gut away as he got the dining room restocked for the evening rush. The crowd demanded his full attention, helping distract him as the evening customers arrived. He’d almost forgotten the problem by the time his shift ended.
One glance at his phone made his anxiety skyrocket once again. Joanie was now swearing he must have taken the vase on his first day there and claiming it was a very expensive piece she’d received from her grandmother’s estate. John was urging Mack to return it and he’d get Joanie to not press charges.