Nathan unfolded the paper slowly, flattening the crease with one thumb.
I didn’t need to see the words.
I had stared at them long enough the day before.
Unauthorized discounts.
First and only warning.
My signature at the bottom, written with a hand that had been shaking from anger I couldn’t afford to show.
Rick stood three feet away from Nathan Fraser, and for the first time since I’d worked at Waverly Diner, my boss looked like a man who wanted to disappear.
Nathan read the page without speaking.
Nobody in the diner moved.
Even the grill seemed quieter behind me.
Finally, Nathan lifted his eyes.
“Miss Sullivan,” he said, “did you give my daughter unauthorized discounts?”
Rick answered before I could.
“There was a misunderstanding—”
Nathan didn’t even turn toward him.
“I asked her.”
Rick stopped.
I set the coffee pitcher down because my fingers had begun trembling.
“No,” I said.
“She was short on cash.
I paid the difference myself.”
Nathan’s expression didn’t change.
“Every time?”
“Every time.”
“From the diner’s money?”
“No.
Mine.”
A chair scraped somewhere near the windows.
Rick gave a nervous laugh.
“Technically, employees aren’t supposed to create special arrangements with customers.
I was simply enforcing policy.”
I looked at the paper in Nathan’s hand.
“Then why does the warning say I gave unauthorized discounts?”
Rick’s jaw tightened.
For months, that expression had been enough to make employees look away.
This time, nobody did.
Nathan turned toward Dany.
She was still holding her phone beside the coffee pot.
“You recorded what happened yesterday?”
Dany’s face changed instantly.
The smugness I’d seen the day before was gone.
“I…
yes.”
Rick spun toward her.
“Dany.”
She flinched.
Nathan remained calm.
“Do you still have it?”
Her eyes flicked toward Rick, then toward me.
For a second I thought she would lie.
Instead, she nodded.
“Yes.”
Rick stepped toward her.
One of Nathan’s security men moved half a step forward.
That was all it took.
Rick stopped.
