young lies

chapter five - spiders are scary

liz stands next to the bar, inside crescendo nervously biting her nails. the employees around her in a hustle to finish setting up.

bex is behind the bar wiping wine glasses to "keep them shiny", as liz says. nick walks up behind liz.

"don't be nervous." she says and liz turns around to face her. "they're going to love everything." she reassures her with a smile.

"and if they don't, i'll kill 'em." bexley jokes from behind the counter as she picks up a chefs knife to clean.

liz laughs nervously. "maybe i should've gone with the salmoiraghi. its a little more traditional."

bex furrows her eyebrows. "the what?" she asks putting down the knife.

"it's like a sauce, and it has like lemon and oliv- oh my god," liz puts her hand on her head. "i should've gone with that! what was i thinking? i mean, maybe-" she gets interrupted by nick putting her hand on her arm.

"don't even sweat it. you've got this."

walking toward them, bex hands liz a paper. "here is you wine pairing menu," she starts but the two other girls jump slightly as they did not see her come around the bar. bexley giggles and continues. "nick and i will hang out in the wine storage room and get the bottles ready for each course."

"thank, guys. you're lifesavers. i really appreciate all your help." the older woman smiles at them gracefully. she puts a hand on each girls shoulder, lovingly, then removes it a second later.

"hey, don't mention it. that what we're here for." nick smiles. "and look who else is here to help." she gestures to ed and landon, who just walked inside and was approaching the trio.  

"what are you guys doing here?" she asks shocked, looking between her husband and son.

"we came for moral support." the older man smiles.

"you left work early just to come and help me?" she says with a smile, but with a voice that makes it sound like she is about to cry. she them turned to her son. "and you brought landon." her hands go into a prayer motion in front of her mouth .

the teen boy smiles cockily at her for the fact he was the only kid that showed up. she laughs and ruffles his hair. the boy then walks behind his mom over to the two girls.

"hey." bex said, leaning against the counter.

he nods his head at her. "so you actually work here?"

she looks down to her outfit and scoffs. "no. i'm just wearing this for fun." bexley pushes herself off the cold marble counter and takes a step closer to him.

rolling his eyes while laughing he says. "my bad. dumb question."

"yeah, it was." she smiles.

nick gets bex's attention and her focus moves from landon to her. "and now that their here, they can help us in the wine room and you can as on cooking." she grins. "you won't have to go in the wine storage room at all."

"well, i'm glad your here." she smiles at her husband. her face suddenly falls, though. "do you think i should've gone with the salmoiraghi?"

landon frowns and leans down to bex. "the what?" he whispers and she just shrugs.

ed clicks his tongue. "always go with your first instinct, like when you married me." liz laughs and walks into the kitchen. ed then leans closer to nick and whispers a thank you before following after his wife.

later that night, right before the restaurant would open its doors to the anticipating customers, nick and bex are in the wine storage room.

"what are we going to do about landon?" bex asks. "he'll obviously try to hang out in here, so what do we do?"