Steamed

intrusive and pushy, I was somehow relieved to know that I had a group of supportive peers to check in with once a week. In fact, I left the class with a surprising feeling of being cared for. During my next class, however, I was so busy fantasizing about Josh that I barely took in the professor’s lecture on the social worker’s responsibility to collaborate with multiple agencies when assisting families in crisis.
    When I got home that afternoon, there was a voice mail from Josh saying he would pick me up at seven for dinner. My wounds from the hair-removal fiasco were healing nicely. A good omen!
    Still, at five o’clock as I was looking through my closet, I decided not to doll up too much for dinner. Except on the morning we’d gone to the deli, I’d been primped and polished every time Josh had seen me, and I thought it was time for him to get used to the real me. On the other hand, Essence wasn’t just anywhere, so I had to wear something nice. Furthermore, I couldn’t very well get all dressed up and leave my hair in a ponytail. So, cursing my mane of curls, I caved in and blew out my hair. Puffs of smoke leaped off my head as I kept the dryer on high heat and worked to beat the clock. When my hair was finally smooth, it was still too puffy for my taste. Not knowing what else to do, I leaped onto the bed, lay down, and tried to flatten out my hair against the pillow. Cosmetic remedies having failed, I willed my hair to behave itself. Please decompress. I apologize for burning you. If you stay nice and straight, I will not blow dry you for an entire week!
    Thank God, Josh was ten minutes late. He looked completely handsome in a pale blue button-down shirt. As he drove us to Essence, I could barely keep my hands off him. When we got to the restaurant, we were immediately welcomed by Joelle, the motherly hostess.
    “Josh!” she smiled happily. “What are you doing here? Don’t tell me you actually have a night off?”
    “Amazingly, yes. I wanted to come in and see how Tim’s doing—with everything that’s been going on. Have you met Chloe?”
    Joelle checked me out with a mixture of curiosity and confusion. The last time she’d seen me, I’d been here with Eric, and I now felt as if my mother had caught me doing something morally questionable.
    Joelle said, “You went out with Mr. Rafferty, right? You were here with him the night he was killed. How do you know Josh?”
    “I was on a blind date with Eric that night. I met Josh after.” I refrained from revealing that I’d picked Josh up at Eric’s funeral.
    “Chloe just had the bad luck to be here with him when he was killed,” Josh said before changing the subject. “So how’s business been?”
    “Crappy. For the most part. Tim had to fire a couple of the waitstaff. And you won’t believe the menu.” Joelle rolled her eyes. I wondered exactly what she meant. “At least we’re not totally empty. We’ve still got a few loyal customers, and some of the people here are just curious to see a crime scene. I mean, come on! There’s nothing to see. They took the body away, for Christ’s sake! The bathroom’s been cleaned. That’s it. Get over it. If one more customer asks me about that night, I’m going to chuck them out the front door.”
    When we’d been seated at a corner table, Josh practically yelped with surprise when he saw the menu, which was nothing like the lengthy one I’d seen here before. Dinner was prix fixe, with two choices of appetizer, two choices of entree, two choices of dessert... and that was it.
    “Wow,” Josh said, dumbfounded. “Tim must be hurting to do this. I don’t even know what to say.”
    “Is this saving him a ton of money?”
    “Well, think of everything they don’t have to buy. Certainly controls the food cost.”
    “Yeah, but aren’t they going to lose people who actually want a choice?”
    Josh nodded. “Yup. Usually you do a set menu for special nights, like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, when you’re going to be swamped all day and you need to have a limited number of dishes you’re making. It doesn’t make sense to do something like this now.” He shook his head and tossed the menu down. “I don’t know what’s going on. It looks like Essence might be on the verge of closing.”
    Cassie came to our table. Although she was the same waitress I’d had when I’d been here with Eric and the one who’d sat with me after he’d been killed, she showed none of Joelle’s