So far, it had been a fairly quiet Sunday and Hans had decided to send Pieder home early. He’d also found out that Gretal had been the one running the show during the period of the former manager’s habit of hiding in the office, so had been observing her work the dining room all afternoon. She did a good job, mostly because she’d had to, but could do with a little more training to get rid of some of those rough edges. He had no idea how good she was with numbers, but if she could count a till, surely she’d be able to figure out the rest of what it entailed being a restaurant manager. He called her aside just before she ducked into the kitchen again.

‘Gretal. You’ve done closing before, right?’

‘Yes I have.’ She gave him a quick grin. ‘Did you want me to do it for you tonight?’

‘That would be good. I might run you through a few extra things as well, if you don’t mind staying back a bit. Do you have someone picking you up, or do you need to call someone?’

‘Thank you, yes I do. I appreciate that Hans. Leave it with me.’

Good response, he thought. Not a pushover, and not too demanding. This might actually work out. ‘Thanks, Gretal.’

She nodded and quickly moved off into the kitchen.

Hans glanced back into the restaurant. Oh good, Solway was here.

^^_____O_____^^

‘Does it matter which table we sit at?’

Solway smiled. Bart would think of something like that. ‘I think we’re okay. It’s pretty quiet.’ She glanced around the large room. ‘There are only a couple of groups here. Oh look, there’s Hans.’ She pointed discreetly at her brother, who currently resembled some kind of male catwalk model as he stalked across the room towards them.

Bart grimaced. ‘How the hell does he do that?’

‘Genetics? Something like that? No idea.’ Solway grinned. ‘Do you want me to show you?’

‘Not if you want to stay here and have a free dinner, no. I’d have to take you home, and I don’t want to do that. I’m hungry.’ He gave her a lopsided smile.

Hans came to a stop in front of them. ‘Good to see you sis.’ He leant over and gave her a hug then turned and glared at Bart. ‘Bart.’

‘Oh stop it.’ Solway smacked him on the arm. ‘What are you feeding us?’

‘Don’t you want a drink first?’

‘Bart can have one. I’m driving so I’ll stick to water.’

Hans rolled his eyes. ‘Okay.’

He didn’t seem himself. Solway looked at her brother carefully. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. ‘Are you okay?’

He rolled his shoulders and looked at her carefully. He wouldn’t usually be rolling his shoulders while he was standing out here in the middle of the restaurant doing the meet and greet he was supposed to do, especially if there were other patrons around and staff behind him.

‘I’m fine,’ he said.

‘Have you got time to talk?’ He seemed on edge, almost jumpy. ‘What’s going on?’ She glanced at Bart. Even he seemed to have noticed the difference and had almost curled himself up into a protective ball. ‘You see it, right?’

Bart nodded, eyes wide as Hans glanced around the room almost, but not quite, furtively, which really set her heart to racing. He leaned over again.

‘I’m not gonna lie Solway. I’m feeling really off. I am trying really hard not to react to people, and it feels like I’m turning into the dog.’

‘What? Here? What do you mean?’ She went to rise from her chair.

‘Not now,’ he growled. ‘But it got worse when you guys came in, and it’s making me feel more stupid than usual, if that’s possible.’ He looked at Bart again, his eyes almost disappearing under a furious frown. ‘Don’t say a word if you value your life, mate.’

Bart held up his hands. ‘Wasn’t planning on it,’ he said quickly.

‘Good.’ Hans stood back up. ‘So, let me work and get that out of the way first. What do you want to drink? Shit. Here’s the drinks menu. Oh, and the others. Fuck. What am I doing? I look like a fool.’

‘Calm down,’ Solway hissed. ‘Water for me, whatever you have on tap for Bart? Do you have beer on tap? Never mind, never mind. Get Bart a beer. Send someone else out to get the rest of the order from us.’

‘There’s only one other person on the floor.’ Hans took a deep breath, straightened his shoulders and smoothed his hair. ‘It’s okay, Sol, I got this.’

‘If you say so.’ She watched him leave then turned back to Bart. ‘We’ve got a real problem.’

‘We certainly have,’ he replied. ‘I can’t see a tree.’

Solway pursed her lips and tried not to burst into a fit of giggles. ‘For you to crawl up?’

‘Or him to piss on. One of the two.’

She snorted. ‘Okay look. Will you be alright if I go and see what’s happening?’

‘Can you do that?’ Bart rubbed at his beard worriedly. His eyes seemed to be getting awfully round and possum-like.

‘Of course I can. I’m his sister.’

‘These people might not know that?’ He looked pointedly at the waiter, who seemed to be eyeing them curiously.

Solway smiled at her. ‘I am not going to talk out of the side of my mouth, Bart, because that would look weird.’

‘I wasn’t suggesting that.’ He began to grin.

‘But you thought that, and I heard you because …’ She glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. ‘That seems to be where we’re at tonight.’

Bart stared back at her. ‘Are we?’ He froze. ‘We aaaaare. This is fun.’

‘Probably not for Hans if he’s getting the same thing. Stop it,’ she growled.

‘I’m not doing anything.’

‘You’re thinking about it.’ She smacked his hand. ‘Now, behave yourself. Think of it as being on a mission.’

‘I’m excited.’

‘You’re always excited. Okay.’ Solway stood up from the table. ‘I’m going to follow up on these drinks.’ She smoothed down her skirt. ‘Stop it for God’s sake.’

‘I can’t help it.’ He grinned. ‘I’m hungry. Bad things happen when I’m hungry.’

Solway shook her head. ‘You are the biggest twit I know, and that’s saying something. Do some people-watching or something.’

‘There’s hardly anyone here.’ He looked around the room. ‘Okay, scratch that. I’m good.’

Solway chuckled softly and went off to find her brother. Not once did she stick her finger up at her partner behind her back, but she certainly thought about it.

to be continued…