“Only because you know I’m right,” she said as she took the fry and popped it into her mouth.

His fingers were still tingling from the brush of her fingers when their waitress, Carlene, showed up on the other side of the counter where they were sitting. Her dangling hamburger earrings were swinging with the force she used to chomp her gum, and her order pad was at the ready, but otherwise she seemed impervious to the other diners trying to get her attention.

“You two lovebirds want dessert or the check?” she asked between snaps of her gum.

“It seems a little busy tonight,” Nash said.

“Yeah,” Carlene scoffed. “Denise called in sick, and Ruby is not long for the waitressing world.”

They glanced over at the only other waitress in the place. The woman who looked like a stiff harbor breeze would send her flying down First Avenue was carrying a tray overloaded with milkshakes. She weaved a little to the left, then a little toward the right in her efforts to keep the heavy tray right side up, until she got to a table of six tourists and set it down with a relieved sigh.

“You know,” he said, turning back to face Carlene, “one option may be if you divided up—”

Chelle reached over and gave an unmistakable stop-before-our-waitress-stabs-you-with-a-kitchen-knife squeeze to his knee. It was just enough to send his thoughts in two directions faster than Christensen with a breakaway puck at an Ice Knights game. One, Nash really wanted Chelle’s hand to keep going northward. Two, he could actually be the one to take advice every once in a while, and maybe this was one of those times.

“Let me try that again.” He gave their waitress his most charming smile. “Would you like some free help tonight?”

Carlene looked from him to Chelle and back again. “Do you have any experience?”

He shook his head. “None.”

“Too bad, we don’t train amateurs here. If you wanna help, leave a big tip,” Carlene said, putting her pen to her order pad again. “Now, do you want dessert or the check? There’s people waiting for your stools.”

It was like losing out on a bet with his cousins. First there was the shock of it even happening at all, and then there was the annoyance at himself for not doing better, for not doing what it took to make sure everyone had what they needed.

“Dessert, please,” Chelle said, filling in the empty space when he should have answered. “Apple pie, two forks, and an Oreo shake, two straws.”

“You got it.” Carlene dashed off a notation on the order pad and then she was gone, making her way down the counter to the next couple who had been waiting to place their order.