Page 129 of Spiced!

Tyler’s lower lip pooched a little. For the first time since knowing him, Tyler looked vulnerable and cute rather than mischievous and hot.

“Like fans supporting the bar,” Skyler said. “Instead of a guest appearance.”

“I could do a guest appearance as a fan,” Tyler said. “As a fan who—”

“As a fan,” Skyler said. “Full stop.”

“Fine,” Tyler said, his head lowering in resignation.

Benji looked at Skyler with open admiration. “How do you do that?”

“Years of practice,” Skyler said.

“Can you teach me?” Benji said. “I have Jacks situations occasionally.”

“Hey,” Jacks said.

“You’re wonderful but occasionally need a redirect,” Benji said.

Jacks considered this. “That’s fair,” which was so Jacks that the whole bar softened.

Finn, who’d apparently slipped into the back at some point, appeared from the storage room with his clipboard.

He looked at Tyler, then at the bar, then at his clipboard.

“The guest set is not happening,” he said.

“We’ve resolved that,” Skyler said.

“Good.” Finn made a note. “Headcount?” He looked around. “Where’s the headcount?”

“I have it,” Brendan said, and held up the folder.

Finn turned to Brendan, seemed to remember that Brendan was here, in his bar on a Wednesday helping with logistics, and that this was simply a fact of how Barbacks now operated.

“Good man,” Finn said, took the folder, handed it directly to Mark, and kept walking.

Mark took it without looking up. He opened the folder, and his lips moved.

“Conservative,” Mark said to the booth and nobody in particular.

“He means the headcount,” I said to Brendan.

“I understood,” Brendan said.

“He’s adjusting the projection.”

“I assumed.”

“He does that.”

“I’m beginning to see the shape of him,” Brendan said, which was such a Brendan thing to say that I had to look away for a second.

By six o’clock, planning had resumed around the hockey players, who had absorbed into it with varying degrees of usefulness.

Skyler had moved every table that needed moving twice, because Finn had changed his mind about the configuration. Skyler had simply moved them again without comment.

Tyler submitted his lighting opinions to Benji in the form of a voice memo that Benji listened to once, implemented one suggestion from, and declared resolved.