Covert Alliance. Linda O. Johnston
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Tobi got into her standard quips and observations about their customers as they passed each other while turning orders in to the kitchen and picking up food to deliver. She clearly enjoyed speculating about supposed backgrounds and motives to come here, and her chatter helped keep Kelly smiling, efficient—and awake.
Lang Elgin, one of the few male servers, joined in now and then as he passed with food in his hands. Lang was a midforties guy whose paunch beneath his white shirt and dark pants suggested he enjoyed nibbling on the restaurant’s food. He also joked about how the female waitresses got all the good assignments—like the ability to leave for a few hours. Kelly and Tobi just laughed at that, and Lang grinned back.
Kelly’s shift was finished at seven o’clock, but at six forty, the cause of some of her stress walked right through the front door.
Fortunately, there were several tables available, many right near the restaurant’s door. Kelly could only hope that if Alan intended to stay and eat, he would choose one toward the front, and not in her area.
When she noticed him, she had her arms full of burgers and salads that she was about to put in front of another group of people dressed as if for a business meeting—two women and a man. She served them with smiles and the right amount of attention, saying she would be back with more coffee.
But when she turned, Alan was immediately behind her. He had chosen a table in Kelly’s section.
She felt the color drain from her face as her pasted-on smile sagged. She was going to have to deal with him again today, before she’d had time to think things through and determine how to act around him—if she had to again.
Well, now she had to. Immediately.
Fortunately, she had a good excuse for not taking his order right away. Instead, she went to get coffee for the table she had just left. The people there grinned and thanked her as she filled empty cups or warmed the brew left in other cups with a fresh top-off. Then she returned the nearly empty pot to where she’d picked it up, making her way through the still-filled tables and wishing that one of the other servers decided they simply had to have an extra tip, and would therefore take the order of the latest customer.
That didn’t happen. It would apparently go against the servers’ unspoken credo of fairness to one another, as well as Ella’s official assignments. Alan’s table was Kelly’s privilege and responsibility for the evening.
When Kelly turned back again to approach her serving area, most everyone appeared to be eating, drinking or conversing, and in any case ignoring her.
But not Alan. He was watching her, the expression on his good-looking but unnerving face bland—yet Kelly couldn’t help wondering what he was really thinking.
Sighing and pasting another false smile on her face, Kelly started making her way back to the tables she was serving.
“You okay?” Tobi, busing a tray of dirty dishes, was suddenly blocking her way.
Damn. It wasn’t a good idea to appear as if she had issues at all here, not even with someone she hadn’t known before and who might be a friend and kind of ally now.
“Absolutely.” Kelly made a point of turning that fake smile into one she hoped looked real. “I’m just a bit tired after our visit to the plaza and helping there in addition to my regular shift. I’m not used to it—yet. But I’ll get there. It was fun, and I really enjoy working here.”
Was she laying it on too thick? Maybe, but Tobi just snorted a laugh. “It gets better,” she said. “Or worse, depending on how you look at it. But if you need some help getting through the rest of today, let me know.”
Really? She could just beg Tobi’s help to handle Alan’s order?
Kelly almost gave in to her impulse to say yes.
But although that might temporarily make her feel better, it wouldn’t resolve any issues she had with the guy—assuming her worry about being here and exhaustion weren’t the only problems.
“Thanks so much for the offer,” she told Tobi, “but I’m fine. I’ll take a rain check if we have another day like this one, though. Okay?”
“Sure.” Then Tobi was gone, slipping between the filled tables toward the kitchen door. Lang was near there, too, apparently putting in an order.
It was time for Kelly to go take Alan’s order.
Well, good, she told herself. He would likely be around as long as she was in town, and she simply had to learn to deal with him better.
“So what can I get for you this evening?” she asked as she reached his table. She hoped he would say he wanted nothing and just leave, but she knew that wasn’t going to happen.
“Now that you’re becoming a veteran server here and at Government Plaza, what would you recommend?” He smiled as he gave her a long, assessing—and hot—look that suggested he hoped she’d recommend sex with her.
Wasn’t going to happen—even though parts of her body started churning in reaction to the thought.
Damn. What was it about this guy that got to her so much? He worried and unnerved her—but he also somehow turned her on.
Her mind grappled for a way to avoid seeing him again while she was here, but that would occur only if he stopped coming to the Haven. And she was sure that wasn’t going to happen.
“Oh, lots of people say good things about our burgers,” she said lightly. “I’m sure you’ve eaten them, though. What are you interested in trying?”
At his amused and even more suggestive look at her, she felt herself nearly melting onto the tiled floor. She hadn’t meant to say anything that could be interpreted as the tiniest bit suggestive, but she had.
“There’s a lot I’m interested in trying, but I think I’ll stick with one of my standard sandwiches here tonight—a chicken club.”
“Fine.” Kelly took her notepad from her pocket and jotted it down, along with the kind of bread and sides he ordered. This wasn’t too bad. She was acting appropriately as a waitress, and he was acting appropriately as a customer.
Before she left to put his order in, though, he brought her up short by saying, “Of course I know you don’t serve alcohol here, but I’d love a beer later. How about you?”
Was he asking her out? She shuddered slightly as she looked him in the face and said, “Oh, I’m more of a wine person myself, but we don’t serve that here, either. Sorry.” That didn’t exactly address what he’d asked, but maybe he would get the message.
“Very good. What time is your shift here over? If I’ve finished eating and left by then, I’ll come back for you, and we’ll go get you some wine and me some beer.”
Kelly inhaled deeply. She didn’t really want to deal with this here while she was working. How should she handle it? “Sorry,” she said. “When I’m through here, I’m just heading back to my place. I’m rather tired tonight.” Although she hadn’t told him to buzz off, she hoped he’d get it. If not, she would have to make it clearer if he asked her out again.
But his response made her freeze in fear, and not because she was scared of seeing him in any social capacity.
“I understand,” he said, his voice quiet. “But I know who you really are, and you and I need to talk right away.”
* * *
Alan had to hand it to her. Except for her initial split-second twitch of apparent nervousness, Kelly—her cover name, of course—maintained her cool demeanor.
She even managed a laugh as she said to him softly in return, “Now, that’s a line I’ve never heard before. Let’s see. I know who you are, too—Clark Kent. But I won’t let anyone know that you’re really Superman and likely to fly away soon.”
“Good. I appreciate that. Now, what time do you get off?” He hoped that taking