Waiting for a Girl Like You by Christa Maurice

putting people at tables there. One of the librarians arrived and went to work taking orders. A girl in ridiculous high heels and a two-hundred dollar haircut also started taking orders. More townspeople arrived to seat people outside and stopped to gossip with each other while hogging the coffee pot and forgetting to give people water. Meals stacked up in the service window. Diners started going in search of the coffee and refilling their own drinks. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed on the world. She was in the storage room hunting for flatware because everything in the dining room was dirty when she heard the cash register ring. Alex ran out to it.
    “Thanks for coming,” Finn said waving the customers out the door.
    “What are you doing?” Alex demanded.
    “They wanted to go so I rang them up. I know how to handle money. I’m an accountant.”
    John-John sat on Ida’s stool munching on a cookie and staring at her. Alex did not want to know where he got that cookie, or why he was here in the first place.
    Behind her, a plate smashed, hushing the steady chorus of “excuse me” from diners who had not yet gone freelance with their service.
    Into that silence, the door opened and in stepped Marc.
    So this was what drove Tina to throw herself into Mrs. Geoffrey’s arms sobbing. Alex forced herself back a step just so she wouldn’t drop into his embrace like a hysterical mess. Her jaw ached from the effort of not crying with relief.
    “Something wrong?”
    “Nothing we can’t handle,” Finn grumbled.
    Alex decided she needed to find out what the history was there some other time. Right now, she had a super volcano rumbling right under her. She needed to get it under control before Paul called to find out how everything was going and had to be told the business had been destroyed in a few unattended minutes. “Ida went to the hospital. Paul went with her.” Alex checked her watch, frowned, and squinted at it. A very few unattended minutes. “About an hour ago. And it’s lunch rush early.” She glanced out the window. Outside seating was full, but she wasn’t sure how many were tourists and how many were loitering locals.
    Marc smirked at her like they shared a joke. “You seem to have a little more help than you need.”
    Alex tapped her nose.
    “Okay.” He drew a deep breath, surveying the scene. “Finn, are you okay on the register?”
    “I know how to run it if that’s what you mean.”
    Marc leveled a serious glare at Finn. “I mean, can you do this for the rest of the afternoon because I don’t know how, and Alex is going to be busy.”
    “Fine.” Finn shrugged like he was doing Marc a favor.
    “Alex, can you sort out the kitchen? I need somebody with some experience managing the traffic flow out of there.”
    “Okay.” Alex had gotten to the service window before she realized how he’d charmed her into doing what he wanted. By the time she turned around, Marc had his arm around the girl with the ridiculous high heels and the expensive haircut and was working her. While Alex figured out which orders were duplicates and where the rest needed to go, the noise level in the dining room dropped to a normal clatter and hum.
    Marc came up behind her, just enough in her peripheral vision that she didn’t wallop him with a plate. “How’s it going?”
    “How did you do this?”
    “Do what?”
    Alex tipped her head toward the quiet, happy dining room.
    “It wasn’t anything. I’m just doing half of Ida’s job. Finn’s doing all the checks.”
    “It was chaos when you walked in.”
    “Everybody wanted to help. It was just a matter of directing them. I have some practice at that. A little flattery goes a long way, too.”
    He was very good at getting what he wanted. Here she was falling for another line. Her old friend nausea climbed up her throat. “Yes. I suppose it does. Hey, Kady, you have an order.”
    Jeanie, who had been about to put the plates in the