Chris let out a tired breath as he handed Joey his share of tips for the day. Joey halfheartedly took the envelope from his friend’s hand as he continued to clean up tables. He hated his job but it paid the bills. He previously hoped that he would get the Host position when he applied to Brickman’s Diner. To his annoyance, his friend Chris got the position and he was stuck cleaning tables.

 

The place was closed and Chris and Joey were the only two people left. Chris didn’t have to stay but he enjoyed keeping Joey company as well as helping him clean up the place. Brickman’s was a small, dingy, run down restaurant that the locals loved going to. The restaurant was situated at the end of a long pier so it was a popular place for beachgoers. It seated a maximum capacity of 100 and most of the furniture looked like it was salvaged from junk yards and the place smelled of an odd mixture of seafood and stale bread.

 

Each table was poorly lit with singular, bare bulbs suspended above them. Some tables had candles because the restaurant’s owner was too lazy to replace the broken bulbs. “Make the most of what you have,” was Brickman’s motto and he stuck to it as if it were gospel. It was lucky that the diner had large windows so the sun’s rays provided most of the light during the day. Chris and Joey always wondered why the place hadn’t shut down yet but they were also thankful for its long life for they would be out of a job. To Brickman’s defense, the food was more than mediocre and he was a good boss; another reason why Chris and Joey stayed.

 

Joey watched as his friend lazily mopped the floors. His gaze focused on the drenched microfiber cloth that looked like it came off of the head of one of the Founding Fathers of America. Chris rarely ever mopped. The majority of the time that he stayed with Joey, he either wiped tables or re-organized the menus. Joey snapped out of his trance at the sound of Chris’ smirk.

 

“Why don’t you date it? I’m sure it’ll say yes.” Chris joked, referring to the mop.

 

“That’s okay, I think she likes you.” Joey replied, while putting the last of the used cups in a basin.

 

Chris finished up his chore and placed the mop back in the storage room. “Speaking of a date, do you think I have a shot with that girl?” He said while walking over and taking a seat at the table Joey had just finished cleaning.

 

“Who?”

 

“You know, that cute girl that comes in almost every day. She sits at the table over there.” Chris pointed at a four seater that was pressed against one of the walls.

 

“Oh, that girl you always stare at.” Joey chuckled.

“I don’t stare. You do.” Chris mumbled.

 

“Oh yeah? What were you doing then? Perusing?” Joey countered.

 

“More or less.” Chris said under a lowered voice.

 

One of the regulars at the diner always came in with a laptop. Joey figured that she was probably some sort of writer with the way she was always so focused onto her glowing screen that lit up the dungeon-like room. At times where she would forget her laptop, she would write things on napkins. There’ve been times where Chris would steal a few glances from her screen when he would pass by but he could never really make out the gibberish that was written on it.

 

“Why don’t you ask her out?” Joey asked while taking a seat across from his friend.

 

“Sure and lose my job?”

 

Joey shrugged, “Eh, you’ll find another. But going back to your first question, my answer is no.”

 

“Then why’d you tell me to ask her out?”

 

“Hey, you never know.”

 

Chris rolled his eyes at his friend’s lackadaisical attitude. “What do you think she works on every time she’s in here? As soon as I take her to her table, she opens her laptop and shuts out the rest of the world. The only time she loses focus is when she’s ordering or gets up to use the restroom.”

 

Joey was starting to get a little annoyed. Chris always talked about the girl whenever they were cleaning up the place. He wished that Chris would just grow some balls and ask her out.

 

“Hey man, can you do me a favor?” Chris propped his elbows up on the table and rested his chin onto his palms while giving Joey a pleading look.

 

“Ugh, what?”

 

“Help me figure out what she’s doing on the laptop.”

 

“How the heck am I supposed to do that? I’m just the busser. I don’t talk to customers.”

 

Chris closed his eyes while keeping the same propped position on the table. He thought about it for a while before answering, “The next time she comes, which is most likely Friday, try looking over her shoulder to see what she’s up to when you go to clean tables near her.”

 

Joey couldn’t believe how obsessed his friend was about this girl that he’s never even talked to. “That’s insane!”

 

“Please! Please, please, please, please, please, pleaaaaase!” Chris pleaded.

 

Finally, Joey raised his hands to surrender. “Fine! I’ll do it.”

 

“Thank you, sweetie.” Chris batted his eyes.

 

“Don’t do that. What are we still doing in here?” Joey cleaned up the last few tables and locked up the diner.

 

Chris followed him into the cold night. The parking lot was a few minutes away granted that they had to walk across the pier and shuffle their way across the sand. They walked quietly to their truck. Chris and Joey met at the beach a few years back when Chris tripped over a sleeping Joey while trying to catch a Frisbee. They eventually became good friends and decided to share an apartment. It was lucky that they also shared a place of employment.

 

The wind was strong and the waves were crashing against the pier. Chris let out a whistle, “Looks like it’s gonna rain.”

 

“Mhm.”

 

“It’s cold.”

 

“I know.”

 

“Hey man, I’m feeling like a chick over here. If you’re not interested in talking to me, I might as well just sprint the rest of the way back to the parking lot and leave you be.”

 

Joey laughed, “Don’t be a baby. I’m just tired.”

 

“Yeah, whatever. How’s the music coming up?”

 

Joey shrugged. For a while now, he hasn’t been able to find the right tune for lyrics that Chris had written. Chris’ dream was to make it big in music. Joey wanted the same so they teamed up and started doing some gigs around town. They attended multiple auditions but it never turned out the way they expected.

 

“Damn,” Chris kicked the sand. “We need that demo, Joe.”

 

“Do we really? I can’t think of anything.”

 

“There’s a talent scout coming in about 4 months from now. Apparently there’s three guys who want to start a band and they’re looking for two more people. I want in.” Chris explained.

 

“So… we’re going to be in a boy band?”

 

“Who cares? If we make music we love, then why does it matter?”

 

“True. Have you met the other three?”

 

“Nope. Just know their names: JC, Justin, and Lance.”

 

Joey thought for a moment and remembered all his failed attempts at coming up with the acoustics for Chris’ song. “Dude, I’m really having a hard time.”

 

“Hum something.”

 

Joey raised an eyebrow, “What?”

 

“I read something before that some artists do random stuff like humming and then BAM, a song is created. Try it.” Chris waited patiently for Joey to start humming.

 

Hesitant at first, Joey paused before he followed Chris’ orders. “Huuummm,” he began.

 

Chris’ eyes widened, “Come on, come on!”

 

After a few seconds, Chris realized that Joey was just humming to a Bee Gees song. “Damn dude, all you do is disappoint.” He groaned.

 

“It was your idea, dude.” Joey laughed as they approached their truck.

 

***

 

Joey slumped onto his bed, exhausted from work. He kicked off his shoes as he heard Chris shut the door to his room. They both brainstormed different beats and tunes but came up with nothing that fit.

 

Joey was nearly asleep before his phone started to ring. Groggily, he turned over to look at the screen. “Hello?” He mumbled.

 

“Hey, son!”

 

“Hey, dad.”

 

“Sorry it’s late but I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

“I’m fine.” The words barely escaped Joey’s lips.

 

“Good, good. How’s the bussing?”

 

“Dad, I’m just a busser. There’s nothing exciting about that.”

 

“Okay, so how’s the music hobby coming along?”

 

Joey groaned as he shuffled to get under his covers. He knew where the conversation was going and he really wasn’t in the mood to discuss it. “Dad, you of all people should know it’s not a hobby.”

 

“As you should know that I, out of all people, should know that music doesn’t always work out for the best.” Joey’s dad retaliated.

 

Joseph Fatone Sr. was an aspiring professional musician as a young man. Unfortunately, he didn’t achieve the exact prowess the he hoped to reach. Knowing the difficult journey to fame all too well, he felt damned to watch his son fall into the same cycle. “You know you can always go to college if things don’t work out.”

 

Joey sighed, too tired to argue. “I know, dad.”

 

“Good night, son.”

 

“Good night.” Joey turned off his phone and let the sound of the rain hitting against his window lull him to sleep.

“Psst!”

 

Joey glanced over from his usual spot next to the kitchen door to see a frantic Christopher pointing at the entrance. Following the direction Chris was pointing at, he saw the girl walking toward the diner. He took Chris’ excitement as confirmation that his bizarre plan of snooping around her table was still a go. Why Joey agreed to it, he had no idea.

 

Chris grabbed a regular and special menu while making sure that the table the girl normally sat at was free before facing her. Joey laughed quietly to himself as he watched his friend take on a sudden professionalism as he guided the girl to her table. Chris was a little too serious for the occasion – he barely smiled.

 

After setting the menus down and probably verbalizing what the special was for the day, Chris bowed and made a sharp turn and walked swiftly toward Joey. “Holy bananas… Did I just bow?” Chris’ eyes were about ready to pop out of their sockets.

 

“Yeah, man. Rest in peace.” Joey laughed.

 

“Hopefully she didn’t notice.”

 

Joey looked back at the girl to see that she was busily chatting with her waitress, Diane. “Doesn’t look like she cared. Why don’t you just ask Diane to do all the snooping? She’s the only one that can get close enough.”

 

“This is a man’s job, Joseph.”

 

“Exactly. A man, not men. I don’t see why you need me.” Joey whined.

 

“Dude, I’m stuck in the front! You clean up tables so you have a better chance than I do. You can’t back out anyway since you already agreed to help.” Chris snapped.

 

“Fine, fine. I hope you know this is borderline stalking.”

 

“So?”

 

Joey shook his head as Chris made his way back to the front to seat a party of five. Strategically, he sat them behind the girl’s table and gave Joey a wink. As more people came in, Chris took the liberty of seating them near the girl, continuously cueing Joey.

 

Finally, a man from the party of five finished his bowl of clam chowder. Joey was at the man’s side before he could put the spoon back onto the bowl. Without acknowledging the man’s gratitude, Joey threw the bowl into the basin as he eyed the girl’s laptop. Her head was in the way and he could only make out the corner of a spreadsheet. Unable to stay in the same spot without looking suspicious, Joey tried to steal a few more glances before heading back to his place by the kitchen.

 

As the day progressed, Joey made it a priority to keep his eyes glued on nearly every single customer who looked like they were about to finish their food. On normal days, he would’ve been absentmindedly staring out in the distance until he notices a party stand up from their table and then he would head over and clean up everything all at once. Each time he passed the girl’s table, the list of things he could make out from peaking over her shoulder were: spreadsheets, an on-screen calculator, furniture, and silverware.

 

Chris made a few attempts to check out her screen as well but from the looks of his face, Joey took it as a sign of disappointment and failure to figure out what she was doing. Nearing the end of the day, Chris’ initial expression of excitement turned into a bored one. His plan didn’t turn out quite as he had hoped.

 

When the last of the patrons aside from the girl stumbled out of the diner, Chris made his way to Joey while trying one last time to take a sneak peak. He shrugged with his palms faced up “Aye, no luck brudda.”

 

“No luck, indeed.” Joey repeated.

 

“Either she loves math or she’s looking for new furniture for her place. But that doesn’t explain why she’s so preoccupied with it.” Chris crossed his arms as they both stared at her.

 

“Hey… it’s almost closing. Doesn’t she usually leave way earlier than this?” Joey questioned.

 

Chris looked at his watch and saw that they had to start cleaning up in a few minutes. “That’s weird. What do we do?”

 

“She’s not even eating anything.”

 

Chris played with his fingers, “So… do we ask her to leave?”

 

“Here’s your chance to talk to her.” Joey nudged his friend’s shoulder.

 

“No way, dude! You do it!”

 

They spent the next couple of minutes fighting over who would be the lucky one to tell the girl to leave. At one point where Joey had Chris in a headlock, they both froze as they noticed the girl watching them. Joey immediately let go of Chris as they both straightened themselves out.

 

To their disbelief, the girl raised a hand and wiggled her pointer finger, motioning the both of them to approach her. Chris and Joey looked at each other and then back at the girl. Both feeling as if they had been caught in an act of disapproval by their mothers, they took a nervous gulp as they marched in the direction of the girl.

 

“Take a seat, boys.” As if already adding to their feeling of nervousness, the way she ordered them to sit sounded like she was their mother.

 

Chris and Joey sat with their mouths slightly open, unsure of what to say. Joey rubbed his neck while Chris played with a napkin. Neither of them made eye contact with the girl as she stared at them for the next few moments with her arms crossed.

 

“Is there anything I can help you with?” She asked, finally breaking the silence.

 

Joey spoke next, “Pardon?”

 

“It seems like you two took a particular interest in my laptop. Don’t think I didn’t notice the repetitive passing by and staring. I felt like I was a victim of a drive by.” She gave them a stern look.

 

The two of them started to break a sweat. Chris took his turn to speak, “Well… um… you see…”

 

“Uh huh?” she interrupted.

 

“W-we were – I-I was curious about it. You’re here a lot and I just really wanted to know what you were up to so I got my friend to help me out with it. I’m Chris, by the way. Chris Kirkpatrick, the host. He’s Joey Fatone, busboy.” Chris spoke so fast Joey could barely make sense of his words.

 

“I know; it says so on your name tags.” The girl laughed as she pointed at their metallic pendants with their names engraved on them.

 

“Nice one.” Joey whispered softly enough so that Chris was the only one to hear.

 

“I’m Hailey and if you m-.”

 

“Hailey…” Chris repeated before he could stop himself.

 

Joey elbowed Chris to snap him out of his entrancement.

 

“Yes… Hailey. As I was saying, if you must know what I’m up to, you could’ve just asked. I was trying to put together all the details for my café I want to open.” Hailey explained as she brushed some of her dark hair behind her ear.

 

Joey took note of her olive skin and soft chocolate eyes for the first time. “You’re going to open a café?” He asked.

 

“Well it’s more of a hangout style café. There’s too many coffee shops around here and I’m more of a tea person so I figured it would be nice if I can open a tea shop that sold comfort food as well. I also want to have a small stage for an open mic.” She continued to describe all the ideas she wanted for her tea shop, noting that everything was almost done.

 

“What are you calling it?” Chris leaned in closer showing his genuine interest.

 

“I don’t have a name yet. I’ve been struggling with that for quite some time.”

 

Chris put a finger to his chin as he thought of a name. After a few moments, he blurted out “Tea Party!”

 

Joey stared at him incredulously, “That sounds –“

 

“Perfect!” She exclaimed. “Why didn’t I think of that before?!” Hailey opened her laptop and rushed to take note of it.

 

Chris winked at Joey and mouthed the word ‘SCORE!’ as he did a low fist pump.

 

“What were you going to say, Joey?”

 

Her inquiry took him by surprise since he was in total disagreement with the name before she decided it was perfect. “It sounds good.” he lied.

 

She pursed her lips and looked to Chris, “Joey doesn’t seem interested and you seem to be the one with the great ideas so if it’s not too much to ask, is it alright if you could spend some time with me tomorrow to go over a few things for the place?”

 

Chris’ jaw dropped while Joey was taken aback by her not so far off assumption. He wasn’t interested at all but her stating it out loud seemed rude to him. Joey wasn’t too sure if he was too fond of her.

 

“Hell yeah!” Chris nearly jumped out of his seat.

 

He and Hailey exchanged numbers while Joey felt like a third wheel. He was sure that if he got up and started cleaning up the place, the two wouldn’t notice. As Hailey stood up to take her leave, she bid her goodbyes to the two men while Chris got up to walk her to the door.

 

Soon as the door was shut, Chris zipped back toward Joey and threw his arms around him. “Woohoo!” He screamed.

 

“Happy for you.” Joey said behind gritted teeth.

 

“I got a date!” Chris let go as he proceeded to dance around the diner. “Isn’t she great?”

 

"Uh huh." Joey couldn't say that he was too thrilled about their encounter with Hailey so he went on to clean up the tables while his friend blissfully prounced around.

“Damn it!” Joey groaned as he picked up his pen to scratch off another failed attempt at finding the right chords for Chris’ song.

 

He had been sitting in the living room for hours and he still hasn’t made any progress with the music. He would aimlessly strum his guitar, hoping that some magic would radiate through his finger tips to produce the perfect music.

 

“Music ain’t an easy career choice.” Joey’s dad said under his breath.

 

“But it’s what I love to do.”

 

Mr. Fatone Sr. adjusted his seat as he leaned forward to look at his son a little more closely. He couldn’t help but feel guilty about Joey’s decision to not go to college. At his age, he chose to do music as well. Things didn’t fare too well for him and he nearly became homeless. There was no way in hell that he was going to let his son follow his footsteps. “Joey, I’ve done that before and I have to tell you, it was-“

 

“It wasn’t great for you. Yeah, I know.” Joey interrupted. “But you have to at least give me this chance. You got one so why can’t I?”

 

Mr. Fatone Sr. stared at Joey intently. There was a burning flame in Joey’s eyes and he knew better to try and put it out. He was almost sure that it was the same flame that his father saw in him when chose to pursue music. “You really want to do this?”

 

“Yes, more than anything.”

 

“Alright.”

 

“Really?” Joey stood up unable to fathom that his father agreed to let him do music.

 

“Yes. But you have to move out. I know this goes against me not wanting you to follow in my footsteps and it seems like I’m basically setting you up for homelessness, I want to see how well you’ll do without my help. If you think music is the life you want, then you have to go about it like I did. It’s the only way I can show you that you’re wrong.”

 

Joey gritted his teeth at the memory. It was because of his father that he became homeless for a few months before meeting Chris at the beach. His dad was a hypocrite for throwing him out after explicitly explaining to him the hardships of living on the streets and how he didn’t want his own son to experience the same thing. After Chris had tripped over him, he felt so horrible for stumbling over a homeless guy that he offered to let him live with him.

 

“You’d actually let a complete stranger live with you? How do you know if I’ll be able to pay you rent?” Joey stared at the shorter guy, bewildered.

 

“Uh… well all I know is that you’re homeless, therefore you need a home. Do you really want me to ask if you have a job?”

 

Joey brushed the remaining sand off him. “… No.”

 

“That’s alright, you can apply at Brickman’s with me. It’s that crap building over at the end of the pier. They’re remodeling it, apparently and the old coot who bought it is naming it after himself.” Chris pointed at the shoddy shack in the distance.

 

Joey blinked. He couldn’t believe this guy. “Are you for real? How do you know I’m not a murderer?”

 

Chris pinched himself, causing him to squint a little. “Yeah, that hurt so I’m pretty sure I’m a real person. You don’t look crazy enough to be a murderer so I’m not worried about that. Also, I can seriously kick your ass.”

 

Joey laughed as Chris playfully punched him. “Alright, if you say so. I’m Joey, by the way.”

 

“Hi Joey By The Way. That’s a weird surname if you ask me. But I’m Chris.” Chris held out his hand as Joey reached out to shake it.

 

“Uh, Joey Fatone. That’s my full name.”

 

“Cool.” Chris looked at Joey’s thin stature and suddenly felt even more horrible for not asking him the most obvious thing he should’ve asked when he first met him, “Wanna grab a bite to eat? I know a place that sells THE best hotdogs.”

 

Joey owed a lot to Chris. He probably would’ve been dead if it wasn’t for him so writing music for his songs was the least Joey could do. As Joey began to strum his guitar once more, the door flew open as Chris ran inside the apartment and jumped on the couch.

 

“Duuuuuuude, she’s awesome!” He yelled.

 

“I take it that the date went great?”

 

Suddenly Chris stopped jumping and stood as he scowled at Joey. “It wasn’t a date. Her stupid boyfriend was there.”

 

“Ah, pity.”

 

“But she’s still pretty cool. Her boyfriend’s kind of a douche though. He’s really full of himself and he doesn’t let her do anything. No wonder she asked me for help, he’s a total dud.” Chris plopped his butt on the seat as he picked up Joey’s notebook.

 

Joey started to explain his failed attempts but before he could open his mouth, Chris ran into his room and came back with his own guitar. “No worries, bro. Let’s jam.”

 

The two played chord after chord but none of them seemed right. Eventually, they gave up and ended up playing some of their favorite songs. Chris opted to play Edwin McCain’s I’ll Be while Joey sang along to it. They were great together and on normal days, the music would just flow out of them.

 

“Didn’t you have any music in mind while you were writing this?” Joey picked up Chris’ lyrics and scanned them.

 

I lose my step

I lose my ground

I lose myself

When you’re around

I’m holding on for my life

To keep from drowning in your eyes

Girl what have you done to me

To make me fall so desperately

To think that I don’t even know your name

No, no

How am I supposed to live?

If I can’t get over this

 

“It’s definitely a love song.” Chris only stated the obvious. “Guess who I wrote it for?”

 

“Don’t tell me you wrote it for Hailey.” Joey rolled his eyes.

 

“You betcha! She’s so cute and pretty and smart and awesome and I could go on and on.” Chris couldn’t stop swooning.

 

 “So is this thing serious? You’re in love with her now?” Joey laughed.

 

“In love? No way, José! Didn’t you read my lyrics, man? I didn’t even know her name at the time.”

 

“Good, because she sucks.” Joey didn’t mean to let that slip.

 

“Dude, she was only being weird like that because we stalked her.”

 

“That wasn’t my idea, was it?”

 

Chris shrugged and patted Joey’s shoulder. “Don’t be like this tomorrow.”

 

“What’s tomorrow?” Joey’s brow narrowed.

 

Chris smiled sheepishly and set down his guitar before answering Joey. “I volunteered you to help her out tomorrow.”

 

“With WHAT?”

 

“I don’t know. I told her that you’d be willing to help with whatever she needed help with tomorrow and she took up the offer. She’ll pick you up tomorrow at ten.” Chris spoke so fast, hoping that it sounded better that way.

 

“TEN? But it’s my day off tomorrow! I was hoping to sleep in.” Joey crossed his arms and leaned back into the couch.

 

“Be nice. I’m pretty sure you’ll like her but remember...” Chris held up a finger, “I saw her first.”

 

"Technically, her boyfriend saw her first." Joey retorted.