The music was extremely loud, so there was no talking and no getting to know each other, but she had even become somewhat friendly with her co-workers. Somewhat. Mostly she just did her job and went home.
One of her favorite spots in the restaurant was the top level back patio. If you went up to the top and sat at one of the many tables, you could take in the Ryman Auditorium. They had the best musicians there and she really wanted to go to a concert there before she left Nashville. Noah told her the Ryman was built as the union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892. He’d been to a concert there recently with friends and told her all about it once he got home.
She’d been working at Jack’s about six months when the shift manager walked up to her while she was busing one of her tables. Her manager, Jenna, had maroon hair in a pixie cut.
“So do you love me?” Jenna asked.
“Sure, Jenna.” Emery laughed as she continued putting dishes in a tub to take to the dishwasher. Her mother would die if she knew Emery was busing tables. The thought soared into her brain without warning and she stood straight up. That happened every now and then; she was getting used to being blind-sided by thoughts of her family.
“Here.” She held out an envelope to Emery.
Curious, Emery wiped her hands on her apron and ripped open the envelope. In it were two tickets to see Counting Crows at the Ryman in a few hours. She wasn’t sure she recognized the band; maybe if she heard them she’d know their music.
“What?” she managed to ask.
“Well, there were seats left at this concert and the group’s manager is a friend of my dad’s so…I said to myself, ‘who in this place looks like they could use a night off?’ That’d be you, babe.”
A grin spread across Emery’s face. “Thank you so much!”
“You’re welcome. Emily, you work hard and you don’t complain. I like you. It’s the least I could do.”
“So I get the night off too?”
“Yep,” Jenna answered and then walked back to the stage where the band was warming up for the night.
Emery took her apron off and pulled out her phone. She texted Noah.
Can you come down here and see a concert at the Ryman with me?
She didn’t know what his plans were tonight. If he couldn’t go, she’d go by herself. After a few minutes of waiting on her phone, she put it in the back pocket of her skinny jeans. She walked to the bar and waved the bartender down.
“Eric, can I get a Summer Shandy?” He knew she was underage, but he’d served her before.
Eric leaned onto the bar and yelled over the band, “I thought you were working?”
Eric’s spiky hair, earrings, and tattoos made all the servers in this place drop their panties for him on a daily basis, but his charm didn’t work on her. The only person that she had a physical interest in was Noah. His easy charm and laid back personality had let her trust him completely. It’d taken a year, but he never pressed. He understood her for reasons she couldn’t explain.
Eric had both forearms on the bar and leaned in to talk to her. “Sure, I can get you what you want.” He smiled and unconsciously, Emery leaned away from him. Eric cocked his head to the side to look at her, but then he backed away and got her beer.
Her butt vibrated with a message on her phone. She leaned forward and pulled it out of her back pocket.
Are you asking me out on a date?
Smiling, she texted back.
Nope, but if I was what would you say?
She could see his face in her mind right now and it made her feel…peaceful. It was a foreign feeling. Once she’d been old enough to know what peaceful meant, it was nowhere to be found.
I’d say take me wherever you want and do whatever you want with me
Eric slid her beer across the wood bar and mouthed, “It’s on me.”
She shook her head and tried to hand him money. He jumped back so that she couldn’t put it in his hand. The band started their next song and she was distracted by a lazy Southern twang and perfect guitar strum that she could feel in her chest. She turned so that she was facing the stage and drank in the man that she felt like she knew from somewhere, but couldn’t place.
Two songs later, she realized she’d just seen this guy on the show Nashville the night before. The city was amazing that way. They had all sorts of people show up to sing, whether they were people just starting out or artists that had awards. She loved music, so it was the perfect place for her to get lost.
At a break in the music, Noah strode into the bar and made a beeline to where she was sitting, second beer in hand.
“That was quick,” she commented.
“I wasn’t home, so it didn’t take me too long to get here.”