The lingering desire for her was still there a couple days later when she showed up in the doorway to my office. She knocked on the wood and smiled at me.
“Hey. Do you have a minute?” she asked.
“Of course,” I said, spinning toward her in my chair. “What’s on your mind?”
Of all the things I had said since we took over The Hollow, that one made me feel the most like a manager. It was like a very special episode of a late-nineties sitcom. This would be the moment when my employee would pour her heart out to me and I would help her solve her life problems. Or it was the beginning of a letter to the Penthouse Forum.
“I just wanted to go over my idea for the next theme night,” she said. “I have some notes and pictures to show you if you have a second to go over it.”
“Sure.” I glanced around my small office. This would be very close quarters to be alone with Ava. If I was going to keep up my efforts to resist her, this wasn’t going to help. “Let’s go out and find a table.”
We went to the front of the bar and sat down. She spread her papers on the table and held a mock-up of a flyer out to me.
“It’s a country night. The last theme night was so edgy and alternative, I thought we could do something completely on the opposite end of the spectrum. It would be unexpected, appeal to a different demographic, but also show that we are versatile and welcoming to all kinds of clientele,” she said.
“That sounds like a great idea. And it goes along with the glass boot,” I said.
“If we can get it back from Matt,” she said with a laugh. “I haven’t seen it since he first found it in the basement, and I have this vision that that he brought it home and wired it for a lamp.”
“I wouldn’t put that past him,” I said. We looked at each other for a few seconds, and the desire cranked up again. Turning my attention back to the papers, I cleared my throat. “So, what do you have in mind for the special menu items?”
“I wanted to give Jesse and Tyler a lot of space when it comes to that,” she said. “They both seem to be really dedicated to the kitchen and creating menus. They did an amazing job of finding the local desserts and coming up with the specials for the black-light theme night. I think it’s important that all of you get a chance to have input in these things. Successful businesses are cooperative, and if they feel like they have just as much at stake and investment as you do, they’ll push harder and perform even better.”
“Are you saying we don’t push hard enough?” Jesse asked with a teasing tone in his voice as he came out of the kitchen.
“Nope,” Ava said, not missing a beat.
Jesse laughed and came to sit with us, turning some of the pages toward himself so he could look at them. “This looks like a lot of fun. I can see some awesome barbecue and sides. Skillets of cornbread. I can talk to some of the people who did the desserts for the other event and see if they can come up with something. Maybe s’mores or a good fruit cobbler.”
“See?” Ava asked, looking at me with a triumphant, almost smug smile. “I told you he’d be able to come up with good things.”
I went to work getting the plans into place for the country-themed night. The flyer mock-up Ava made was really good, so I only needed to make a few minor changes before printing out copies to hand out that night. I also posted them on the new social media accounts she had been working on. We got a lot of enthusiasm from the customers who came in that night and heard a couple of dozen people already making plans to come back for the event.
It seemed every one of them lived up to their plans and brought along several others when the night finally came. Just like with the black-light night, Ava slipped into the bar with a surprised look on her face.
“How’s it look out there?” I asked.
“Insane,” she said. “Lined up down the sidewalk. It’s kind of amazing.”
I laughed and ducked into the kitchen to check in on the food. Just like last time, we decided to have premade plates of many of the specials so they would be easy to dole out.
An hour later, we were open, but there was still a line stretched far out the door. We were at capacity, completely full, but there were still people waiting outside to try to get in. Even with Matt standing outside as a de facto bouncer warning people showing up that the bar was full and we didn’t know if they would get in, they still joined the line.