Broken Sound Read Free Page A

those people weren’t so nice or consoling.
    “I’ll be there in a few,” Anna said.
    “Okay.  Oh, Anna, wait a second...”
    “Yeah?”
    “Not that it probably matters,” Bill said, “but I like to give a heads up...”
    “District Manager visit?”
    “No.  God.  Hell no.  Don’t say things like that.  We have a celebrity guest tonight.”
    “Celebrity?”
    “Yeah.  I don’t know if you know the band or not, but the guitarist for Chasing Cross has reservations tonight.”
    Anna’s heart jumped a little.  She knew the band.  She loved the band actually.  She wanted to go see them but had to work and couldn’t afford tickets.
    “Okay,” she said.  “Is it the entire band?”
    “No.  Just the guitarist and someone else.”
    “Party for two,” Anna whispered.
    “I want you to wait on him,” Bill said.  “I don’t need any star struck nonsense going on, you know?”
    “Not a problem,” Anna said.
    She didn’t have a problem with it at all actually.  Maybe she could sneak an autograph but nothing else.  After all, he was big time rockstar, and rich.  And probably bringing some supermodel as a date.  Anna was just an art and music teacher at an elementary school, racked with debt from student loans and credit cards, working two jobs to keep afloat.  Such a turn on, right?
    Anna went back to the battle to get the brush out of her hair.

(4)
     
    “Oh, I love your hair, sweetie.”
    Anna smiled and put two drinks on the table.  “Thank you.”
    “I wish I had those curls,” a middle aged woman said.  Her face had too much makeup on it, showing a defiant but failing war to age and wrinkles.  “Don’t I always say that, Jerry?”
    The woman’s husband, Jerry, nodded.  “She always says that.  Told me I should have left her for a woman with curly hair.”
    “But then he started losing his hair so we compromised,” the woman teased.
    Anna laughed and took their orders.  As she walked away, she touched the top of her hair, feeling some of the frizzy curls working their way out.  By the end of the night there was a great potential that Anna would look like one of those cartoon characters where they had stuck their finger into an outlet. 
    She tried to not care about it, even though she knew she would.
    The afternoon rush finally died down, giving time to reset the restaurant for what promised to be a busy night.  Not to mention the celebrity coming. 
    The chatter between all the women had been going on all day.  Most of them had been to the Chasing Cross show the other night.  Not only did Anna not attend that show, but she had to endure a hellish night in the restaurant.  She had made a ton of money in tips, but her body still ached from it.
    A couple of the women joked with Anna about her being the right age and look for a rockstar.  Anna joked back, but quietly fantasized about the rockstar paying off her debts. 
    But the more she thought about debt and the more her cell phone vibrated with people calling for money, the more she thought about Eddie.  He was her asshole ex-boyfriend that put her in this position.  Between spending, gambling, and a small but what he claimed was a manageable drug problem, Anna’s credit cards were maxed out in no time.  And call it coincidence but the second Eddie tried to take a cash advance and realized there was nothing left, he decided to go back with his ex-girlfriend.
    Anna stormed around the restaurant, telling herself the faster she moved, the more she wouldn’t think and the faster the day and night would come and go.  The dinner rush started and never stopped.  It kept Anna moving and she needed it.  She finally put her cell phone in the back and left it there.  She couldn’t deal with the calls and reminders of the true reality waiting for her.  One thing about both her jobs that pained her in a way she never confided to anyone was watching people together and watching families grow.  Seeing the couples coming