Bittersweet

Bittersweet: Chapter Eighteen

THIS BOOK IS CURRENTLY BEING REWRITTEN AND HEAVILY EDITED. NAMES, PLACES, AND SOME SCENES WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. SOME STUFF WILL BE TAKEN OUT AND SOME WILL BE ADDED.

THE INITIAL PLOT STAYS THE SAME.

So, if you begin reading as of 5/21/2021 and choose to read ahead further than I have updated-some things might be confusing or might not make sense. As of right now and will continue, slowly, adding the new chapters as I write them. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN has been rewritten & updated.

**IF A CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN/EDITED THE ^^ABOVE^^ NOTE WILL BE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CHAPTER.

Chapter Eighteen

Eliza

It was a pitiful Monday. Usually, most Mondays were dreadful, but this one was especially bad. It was late afternoon, and I was sitting on one of the picnic tables under the awning of Divers, working on a sketch for a new outfit idea as rain steadily poured around me. Actually, it had rained on and off all weekend. It only made me extra tired. I hadn't been sleeping well lately and the rain did nothing but make me even more exhausted than I already felt.

I had been hopeful that it would move on out, but when Sunday turned into Monday, I realized that it was here to stay, at least for a little while.  In result, we'd been dead all day which really sucked considering it was the day after July 4th. Most businesses were closed today since the holiday fell on a Sunday this year.

            Unfortunately, Divers didn't fall into the category of businesses that shut down for Independence Day. In any other circumstances, we'd have been packed on our feet all day serving customers decked out in red, white, and blue. For today, that wasn't the case.

Terra and I were the lucky ones that got stuck with the awful double shift. There was only one cook on staff who'd smoked so much reefer out behind the building that he'd passed out on the couch in the back office. Even Tanya, our general manager, ducked out early giving us instructions on closing up the place later on.

"So, I need a huge favor," Terra said nervously as she crawled up on one of the table tops of the picnic tables at Divers right across from me. She picked out a fry from my basket and shoved it into her mouth. I couldn't help but smile, the humidity was atrocious today and that never complimented her hair well. Those red curls were frizzed out, wildly. She almost looked like a mad woman. "And let me start off by sayin that if you really and truly love me like you claim you do, you'll at least hear me out."

My brows rose in curiosity, "What do you want?" I deadpanned. Anytime she began a conversation like that, I knew to brace myself.  She likely had some extravagant plan up her sleeve. The last time she came at me like this, we'd secretly taken her daddy's four-wheelers and went mud riding with about twenty others and just about got stuck in mud up to our necks. 

Let just say, her daddy was pissed when we finally road back up, covered from head to toe in mud.

After grabbing another fry and chomping it down, she grabbed my soda and took a large gulp. "Okay." She said, determination sounding in her voice. "I need you to close up tonight by yourself."

Almost automatically, my eyes rolled. "What? No." I asked as I sat my book down on the table next to me. "Why?" I drawled, my eyes had turned into slits and suspicion was laced in my voice.

When Tanya was gone, it was a strict policy that closing up was a two-person job. Not because it was a lot of work, but mostly women worked that this place. Safety in numbers, I assumed. We lived in a safe little town, but that wasn't to say that there weren't some sketchy people around here especially across the train tracks that divided the little town in two. Divers was located a little too close to the other side and Tanya never wanted us to be put in a position where we were alone in the restaurant.